May 18, 2020 • 19 mins
Throughout most of the 20th century, that our Olympic basketball teams were represented by college players was mandated not only by FIBA—which specifically forbade NBA players from participating—but also by our own hidebound tradition. Almost everyone in this country thought: The Olympics were for the college kids. But someone in another country, a Serbian named Boris Stankovic, thought differently. This is the story of how he changed minds and rules, and from that cataclysmic decision emerged the 1992 Dream Team.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is The Dream Team Tapes, a Diversion Podcasts original
series in association with I Heart Radio. This is a
story of the United States Olympic basketball team that won
gold in Barcelona, known worldwide as the Dream Team. One
(00:25):
of the signposts we could use to begin the complete
Dream Team story is Believe it or Not nineteen thirty six. Well,
I guess we could go back to one when good
old James and a Smith hung up a peach basket
in the Springfield y m c A. But we all
know about that. In six, basketball became an Olympic sport
for the first time, right, no, I will, And it
(00:53):
happened at the much remembered Olympic Games, during which Adolf
Hitler advanced the idea of aryan superiority and American track
athlete Jesse Owens, with four gold medals, promptly unadvanced it.
Welcome to episode two of the Dream Team Tapes, in
which we traced the history of Olympic basketball, including its
(01:13):
humble beginnings, and figure out how over the course of
a half century it advanced to the orgiastic celebration it
became in Yes, if you want both basketball and use
of the word orgiastic. You've come to the right place,
so let's travel back in time. Basketball was an afterthought
(01:35):
in those ninety six games, which were played on an
outdoor clay court that had become muddy and almost unplayable
by the finals, which the United States won by a
football like score of nine eight over Canada. M I
wonder if Steve Nash knew that the US Canada rivalry
goes all the way back to ninety six. One of
(01:55):
the stars of the United States team was a fellow
named Bill Wheatley, who was working for Globe Oil and
Refining at the time. He was an example of the
well eclectic method of selecting players. Back then, college basketball
was just a blip in the national radar, and the
stars of American hoops were just as likely to be
a AU players, generally tough but sure men who were
(02:19):
already in the workforce. Of course, the selection committee could
have sent a more formidable team had they chosen players
from either the original Celtics, a great touring team made
up of white players, or the New York Renaissance a
k a. The Renaissance Big Five or a k a.
The Harlem Wrens, comprised of African Americans, but the Celtics
(02:41):
were considered professionals and the Olympics were for amateurs, a
notion that was not quite as ridiculous back then as
it came to be, and the Wrens were black. Though
the Celtics and the Wrens frequently played against each other,
for the most part, basketball, like a lot of things
back then, was strictly segregated. War canceled the four into Olympics,
but the games came back in and by that time
(03:05):
college basketball had started to become big in our sporting culture.
So the American stars of the team that won gold
in London they beat France in the final one, we're
players like Ralph Beard and Alex Groza, who were all
Americans in Kentucky, and oh yes, they were also two
of the players who a few years later were barred
from basketball for point shaving. Ah. Yes, that true Olympic spirit,
(03:28):
but precedent was set. Gradually, the a AU representation went
away and college players dominated the Olympic rosters as we
continued to win and win big. By mid century, we
reached the best version of the college led team, the
nineteen sixty gold medal team in Rome Co captained by
Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, the Magic Johnson and Larry
(03:52):
Bird of their time. Believe It victories in sixty and
sixty eight were followed by the strange goings on in
Munich nineteen seventy two, games that were marred by the
murders of eleven Israeli athletes as well as the West
German policeman. Now the card shows three seconds there is
time for the Russians to go to their big man,
(04:14):
Alexander bell Out. They're going to try Alexander Bellar between
two American defenders. Back there with you yet parts and
the Russian team is Bob Alexander Bella. At this time
(04:35):
it is over the infamous due over game. In fact,
that twice due over game that gave the Soviets the
gold medal and gave the United States its first loss
ever an Olympic competition. If you don't know the whole story,
google it. It's fascinating. Anyway, that final was considered an anomaly,
and our supremacy went on Golden Montreal in seventy six
(04:55):
and gold in Los Angeles and four spliced around the
nineteen eighty Boy cut that four team, which included Dream
teamers Michael Jordan's, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullen, and was
so good that it cut Charles Barkley, John Stockton and
Karl Malone, none of whom should have been cut. By
the way, was a particular source of pride and joy.
(05:17):
Our college kids, though younger and unpaid, played for the
love of the game, and damn it, we were still
better than anyone else. But then we come to the
Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, our critical trip down court,
Smith tan Head at the Sabonis has the rebound for
the Sauviettes, Tate Sock, they'll break the pressure, and here
(05:40):
it comes Martial Nas, Sabonis and Kurt Nitas is fouled
as Paul's had to cut in to say these He've
asked at four files on him. You heard the announcer
Dick Nburgh say three names in that brief clip, Sa Bonus,
Marciaonis and Kirk Nitas. All three played for the Soviet Union.
All three were better prepared at that moment to win
(06:01):
a gold medal than anyone from the United States. For
these eight games, which are best remembered for Ben Johnson's
amazing one final win over Carl Lewis followed by Johnson's
drug suspension that also changed forever the perception of college
players representing the United States in the Olympic Games. Here's
(06:23):
David Robinson, who was supposed to be the star of
that team, talking about his first surprising and disappointing meeting
with that Olympic coach. Why not you have another go?
It's pretty good? I was thinking, why wouldn't he said,
(06:46):
you're not gonna make the he David is referring to
as John Thompson, who coached that team in Seoul. You
can't pass, you know your your basketball skills are a home.
I mean, maybe that was just John Thompson's head game.
Let's hope so, because one would hope that John wasn't
(07:06):
that bad at judging basketball talent. Now, over the years,
Thompson has gotten much criticism for the team's embarrassing bronze
medal finish. But Thompson was simply in the wrong headspace. Damn,
I hate that expression, but there it is, and a
dozen other college coaches would have been there too. He
was slow to realize how good international basketball had become.
(07:27):
He was slow to realize how subtly different Olympic rules
were from what was played in NCAA basketball. He was
slow to realize that other countries, especially the Soviet Union
which won the gold and Yugoslavia, which won the silver,
were sending polished professionals who had learned the game for Americans. Meanwhile,
we were sending younger college players who were still learning
(07:49):
the game. Thompson was slow to realize that perhaps someone
else should have been coaching the team, but Big John
was part of an ingrained system. Our Olympic teams were
manned by colle uch players and coached by college coaches,
all of whom had paid their dues. The next college coach, Ah,
(08:09):
it would almost certainly be that dues paying genius at
Duke Mike Sassky, but that never happened. The Eight Eight
Games was a watership. The last time we sent our
college kids, the basketball world was about to change. The
next boy she'll hear will be that of the late
great Boris Nankovic, who, at the time the Dream Team
was formed, was Secretary General of PHOEBA, which is the
(08:31):
Federation International Day Basketball. Boris, and Boris alone saw the future.
He was the one that thought you know what if
we play people better than us and they beat us
by a hundred points, so what that will make us
better in the end. Here's Boris. It's a little hard
to understand, but Boris is English is infinitely better than
my Serbian, which is non existent. The future then only
(08:58):
with the vetter that Stankovic was an interesting cat. He
was sort of the Yugoslavian version of the late great
David Stern, Intelligent, far sighted, and suddenly, very subtly, more
suddenly than Stern, in love with power. Stankovic was a
utility player on the Yugoslavian team that competed in the
(09:19):
first Feeble organized World Championships in nineteen fifty in Argentina.
We finished nights, Stankovic told me. And there were nine
teams anyway. Boris had long been a fan of American basketball,
and after he joined FIBA, he was sent to America
to better learn the game. He traveled all around and
saw mostly college games, and Bill Walton was his favorite player.
(09:44):
Boor Stankovic amazing, man, amazing, that's my Bill Walton. I
had met Boris a couple of times back in the
eighties when he was in the height of his FABA power.
(10:04):
But by the time I interviewed him for the Dream
Team book in two thousand and ten, he was pretty
much retired. I caught up to him in his Stanbul,
who was during the World Basketball Championships. But the main
reason I went was to talk to Boris. Well, that
and to eat Turkish food with my wife, which is
absurdly good. So Boris, by that time was the eminence
Grease of international basketball. While we were talking, people came
(10:27):
by and just stared at him, much like they would
stare at David Stern. You could tell Boris loved it,
But I mean, who wouldn't write. When I sat down
to start the book, I decided to make the Stankivic
story chapter one, and something about his bio really struck me.
For much of his early life, Boris had been a
meat inspector in Belgrade in his native Yugoslavia. My job
(10:48):
was to look over the meat and cheese and as
you do here, put a stamp on it. Boris told
me that really struck me. David Stern, more or less
his counterpart, was the child of New York City Delhi operators. Still,
Stern went to Columbia law and started in New York
City with a high powered law firm. Boris was slapping
meat and smelling cheese. Hit me for another reason too.
(11:11):
I grew up working in my father's meat market. So
I titled the first chapter The Inspector of Meat, and
it gave me kind of a format for the rest
of the book. Every subsequent chapter began with a V.
David Robinson was the Christian soldier, Jordan was the chosen one,
and so on. It was a little thing, but it
helped anyway. The Inspector of Meat was convinced that international
(11:34):
basketball would not grow if the greatest players in the world,
those in the NBA, did not interact with the rest
of the world. There was a proviso in effect back
then that specifically forbade international players from playing against NBA players.
It was the worst case of pearl clutching. Oh my god,
our lads will be sullied by playing against the dastardly prose.
(11:57):
But it was a sham, of course, since every other
nation routinely sent its professionals into international competition. Now did
they make the millions earned by American professionals. No, they
were still pros sports was their living. Oscar Schmidt, who
played for Brazil, an excellent shooter who never met a
shot he didn't like, by the way, was making a
(12:18):
half million dollars playing hoops. So to get NBA players
into the Olympics, Stankovic had to change FEBA rules and
began lobbying to do so as early as nineteen eighties.
Three in the resolution for allowing professionals to play almost passed.
The vote was thirty one twenty seven, the two most
notable negative votes cast by the United States and the
(12:41):
Soviet Union. But by the late nineteen eighties the winds
of change were strong, despite the fact that USA and
the Soviet Union still voted against it. The resolution that
open basketball should be the rule of fiber was passed
in April of nine, and there was overwhelming joyous triumphant
(13:01):
cheers throughout our land. Not really, almost nobody in the
United States noticed. Almost nobody gave a damn, including David Stern.
I don't think we were through the act. We had
no idea what we might be getting into. You know,
the Olympics is that it didn't it didn't you know,
it didn't pick up steam until after it passed. It
was okay, now what do we do? So let's unpack
(13:24):
that a little bit. Why did the United States vote
against open competition which would open the door for pros
and the Olympics. Very simply, the Olympics were not on
David Stern's radar. In truth, they weren't on anyone's radar
beside bar of Snakovics. True, Stern had drawn up TV
deals with several European countries, and the league had even
stepped its toe into international play. But Stern was not
(13:48):
thinking about the Olympics with those TV contracts and those games.
He was thinking about the bottom line. TV meant revenue,
game exposure meant marketing opportunities, And even to this visionary commissioner,
the idea of the NBA participating in the Olympics was,
for the first six or seven years of the decade
(14:08):
of the eighties, a non starter. How could the Olympics
be monetized? How could that help anyway? Our college lads
represented the Olympic team, right, But things started to change.
Stankovic had support around the world. The world was getting smaller,
the game was getting bigger. Then it was that beating
and sold in that demonstrated the world was catching up
(14:31):
to us. And there was also this man who Larry
Bird speaks about. I love Dave. Dave gas one of
the smartest human thingy loss. I wanted to hang out
with That's what it was, if he wanted me to
hang out with him. A man named Dave Gavitt has
a central part in the Stream Team saga, and, along
with Boris Stankovic, is one of the forgotten men of
(14:54):
the Stream Team story. An amateur basketball circles, Gavitt had
done it all, seen it all, had been a successful,
respected coach and athletic director. He had been one of
the masterminds behind the creation of the Big East Conference,
(15:15):
and most impressive, he was the moving force behind the
expansion of the n c A basketball tournament into a
billion dollar bonanza. So it was natural that when an
organization called USA Basketball was formed, Gavitt would be the
one to let it. Most men who had been around
the college game for as long as Gavitt had were
hide bound traditionalists NBA players in the Olympics, why do
(15:38):
you kid me, this is a college game? But Gavitt
wasn't like that. Gavitt saw the future, Embrace the future.
He had bargained with the slickst of the slick network
TV executives to get serious jack for college hoops. So
he was the one that could step into David Stern's
office without being intimidated and tell him what's what, Which
(15:59):
is what he did. When Stern suggested, look, we'll just
buy the Olympics, Gavitt was the one that said to him, David,
We're not going to buy the Olympics. The Olympics belongs
to the country. What I remember most about Gavitt was
that he was both businessman and visionary romantic about basketball.
I interviewed him for the book not long before he
(16:21):
died at the age of seventy three and two thousand eleven,
and over lunch he told me this story. He was
coaching a touring college all star team at a game
in Assens. We were playing a night game and there
must have been thirty thousand people there and the Acropolis
was in the background with a full moon. Gathertt remembered,
I had chills. I love that story and often think
(16:42):
about when I think of Gavitt. After Gavitt had cast
a no vote on behalf of the United States, even
though he knew the resolution was going to pass, which
it did, he asked for the floor. Now that we've
done this, Gavitt told the feb reps, you need to
realize a few things and help us. We're dealing with
a powerful organization in the NBA, and we're gonna have
(17:05):
to get your cooperation with dates and things like that.
So the NBA was ready. It had a good man
and Dave Gabett ready to take charge. What it didn't
have was the NBA stars. Here's Charles Barkley and Larry
Bird who were coming at this Dream Team thing from
two distinctly different directions, and everyone in the first five
(17:27):
it was a big, beautiful Nobody put all five us
on the cover illustrated and but one thing I didn't
want to do is go over there and not built
to play at all and take away a chance for
somebody else to have officer. So Charles was gung ho
and Larry was worried about his back. Twenty eight years
after the Dream Team won Golden Barcelona, there is still
(17:50):
mystery surrounding how exactly the team was selected. There weren't tryouts. Hey,
Michael Jordan listened, would like you to take a couple
of days off from golf and come out to Indianapolis.
Or some o their godforsaken place. You wouldn't set foot
in and run through some drills that was not going
to happen. There was a selection committee, but really some
of the players selected themselves. Magic wants in. He's in.
(18:12):
Carl Malone wants in. He's in. Jordan once in, of
course he's in. Charles Barkley wants in. Charles not so fast.
So in the next episode of The Dream Team Tapes,
I'll discuss how this team came together, some of the
inner intrigue and lasting antagonism that came out of the
Dream Team selection process. I'm calling it hrding cats. Thanks
(18:36):
for listening. If you enjoyed The Dream Team Tapes, please follow, rate,
and review wherever you get your podcasts. The Dream Team
Tapes is written and hosted by Jack McCallum. Executive producers
Mark Francis and Scott Waxman. Executive producer for I Heart
(19:00):
Media is Shorn to Tone. The Dream Team Tapes is
a Diversion podcast's original series in association with I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
This is The Dream Team Tapes, a Diversion Podcasts original
series in association with I Heart Radio. This is a
story of the United States Olympic basketball team that won
gold in Barcelona, known worldwide as the Dream Team. One
(00:25):
of the signposts we could use to begin the complete
Dream Team story is Believe it or Not nineteen thirty six. Well,
I guess we could go back to one when good
old James and a Smith hung up a peach basket
in the Springfield y m c A. But we all
know about that. In six, basketball became an Olympic sport
for the first time, right, no, I will, And it
(00:53):
happened at the much remembered Olympic Games, during which Adolf
Hitler advanced the idea of aryan superiority and American track
athlete Jesse Owens, with four gold medals, promptly unadvanced it.
Welcome to episode two of the Dream Team Tapes, in
which we traced the history of Olympic basketball, including its
(01:13):
humble beginnings, and figure out how over the course of
a half century it advanced to the orgiastic celebration it
became in Yes, if you want both basketball and use
of the word orgiastic. You've come to the right place,
so let's travel back in time. Basketball was an afterthought
(01:35):
in those ninety six games, which were played on an
outdoor clay court that had become muddy and almost unplayable
by the finals, which the United States won by a
football like score of nine eight over Canada. M I
wonder if Steve Nash knew that the US Canada rivalry
goes all the way back to ninety six. One of
(01:55):
the stars of the United States team was a fellow
named Bill Wheatley, who was working for Globe Oil and
Refining at the time. He was an example of the
well eclectic method of selecting players. Back then, college basketball
was just a blip in the national radar, and the
stars of American hoops were just as likely to be
a AU players, generally tough but sure men who were
(02:19):
already in the workforce. Of course, the selection committee could
have sent a more formidable team had they chosen players
from either the original Celtics, a great touring team made
up of white players, or the New York Renaissance a
k a. The Renaissance Big Five or a k a.
The Harlem Wrens, comprised of African Americans, but the Celtics
(02:41):
were considered professionals and the Olympics were for amateurs, a
notion that was not quite as ridiculous back then as
it came to be, and the Wrens were black. Though
the Celtics and the Wrens frequently played against each other,
for the most part, basketball, like a lot of things
back then, was strictly segregated. War canceled the four into Olympics,
but the games came back in and by that time
(03:05):
college basketball had started to become big in our sporting culture.
So the American stars of the team that won gold
in London they beat France in the final one, we're
players like Ralph Beard and Alex Groza, who were all
Americans in Kentucky, and oh yes, they were also two
of the players who a few years later were barred
from basketball for point shaving. Ah. Yes, that true Olympic spirit,
(03:28):
but precedent was set. Gradually, the a AU representation went
away and college players dominated the Olympic rosters as we
continued to win and win big. By mid century, we
reached the best version of the college led team, the
nineteen sixty gold medal team in Rome Co captained by
Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, the Magic Johnson and Larry
(03:52):
Bird of their time. Believe It victories in sixty and
sixty eight were followed by the strange goings on in
Munich nineteen seventy two, games that were marred by the
murders of eleven Israeli athletes as well as the West
German policeman. Now the card shows three seconds there is
time for the Russians to go to their big man,
(04:14):
Alexander bell Out. They're going to try Alexander Bellar between
two American defenders. Back there with you yet parts and
the Russian team is Bob Alexander Bella. At this time
(04:35):
it is over the infamous due over game. In fact,
that twice due over game that gave the Soviets the
gold medal and gave the United States its first loss
ever an Olympic competition. If you don't know the whole story,
google it. It's fascinating. Anyway, that final was considered an anomaly,
and our supremacy went on Golden Montreal in seventy six
(04:55):
and gold in Los Angeles and four spliced around the
nineteen eighty Boy cut that four team, which included Dream
teamers Michael Jordan's, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullen, and was
so good that it cut Charles Barkley, John Stockton and
Karl Malone, none of whom should have been cut. By
the way, was a particular source of pride and joy.
(05:17):
Our college kids, though younger and unpaid, played for the
love of the game, and damn it, we were still
better than anyone else. But then we come to the
Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, our critical trip down court,
Smith tan Head at the Sabonis has the rebound for
the Sauviettes, Tate Sock, they'll break the pressure, and here
(05:40):
it comes Martial Nas, Sabonis and Kurt Nitas is fouled
as Paul's had to cut in to say these He've
asked at four files on him. You heard the announcer
Dick Nburgh say three names in that brief clip, Sa Bonus,
Marciaonis and Kirk Nitas. All three played for the Soviet Union.
All three were better prepared at that moment to win
(06:01):
a gold medal than anyone from the United States. For
these eight games, which are best remembered for Ben Johnson's
amazing one final win over Carl Lewis followed by Johnson's
drug suspension that also changed forever the perception of college
players representing the United States in the Olympic Games. Here's
(06:23):
David Robinson, who was supposed to be the star of
that team, talking about his first surprising and disappointing meeting
with that Olympic coach. Why not you have another go?
It's pretty good? I was thinking, why wouldn't he said,
(06:46):
you're not gonna make the he David is referring to
as John Thompson, who coached that team in Seoul. You
can't pass, you know your your basketball skills are a home.
I mean, maybe that was just John Thompson's head game.
Let's hope so, because one would hope that John wasn't
(07:06):
that bad at judging basketball talent. Now, over the years,
Thompson has gotten much criticism for the team's embarrassing bronze
medal finish. But Thompson was simply in the wrong headspace. Damn,
I hate that expression, but there it is, and a
dozen other college coaches would have been there too. He
was slow to realize how good international basketball had become.
(07:27):
He was slow to realize how subtly different Olympic rules
were from what was played in NCAA basketball. He was
slow to realize that other countries, especially the Soviet Union
which won the gold and Yugoslavia, which won the silver,
were sending polished professionals who had learned the game for Americans. Meanwhile,
we were sending younger college players who were still learning
(07:49):
the game. Thompson was slow to realize that perhaps someone
else should have been coaching the team, but Big John
was part of an ingrained system. Our Olympic teams were
manned by colle uch players and coached by college coaches,
all of whom had paid their dues. The next college coach, Ah,
(08:09):
it would almost certainly be that dues paying genius at
Duke Mike Sassky, but that never happened. The Eight Eight
Games was a watership. The last time we sent our
college kids, the basketball world was about to change. The
next boy she'll hear will be that of the late
great Boris Nankovic, who, at the time the Dream Team
was formed, was Secretary General of PHOEBA, which is the
(08:31):
Federation International Day Basketball. Boris, and Boris alone saw the future.
He was the one that thought you know what if
we play people better than us and they beat us
by a hundred points, so what that will make us
better in the end. Here's Boris. It's a little hard
to understand, but Boris is English is infinitely better than
my Serbian, which is non existent. The future then only
(08:58):
with the vetter that Stankovic was an interesting cat. He
was sort of the Yugoslavian version of the late great
David Stern, Intelligent, far sighted, and suddenly, very subtly, more
suddenly than Stern, in love with power. Stankovic was a
utility player on the Yugoslavian team that competed in the
(09:19):
first Feeble organized World Championships in nineteen fifty in Argentina.
We finished nights, Stankovic told me. And there were nine
teams anyway. Boris had long been a fan of American basketball,
and after he joined FIBA, he was sent to America
to better learn the game. He traveled all around and
saw mostly college games, and Bill Walton was his favorite player.
(09:44):
Boor Stankovic amazing, man, amazing, that's my Bill Walton. I
had met Boris a couple of times back in the
eighties when he was in the height of his FABA power.
(10:04):
But by the time I interviewed him for the Dream
Team book in two thousand and ten, he was pretty
much retired. I caught up to him in his Stanbul,
who was during the World Basketball Championships. But the main
reason I went was to talk to Boris. Well, that
and to eat Turkish food with my wife, which is
absurdly good. So Boris, by that time was the eminence
Grease of international basketball. While we were talking, people came
(10:27):
by and just stared at him, much like they would
stare at David Stern. You could tell Boris loved it,
But I mean, who wouldn't write. When I sat down
to start the book, I decided to make the Stankivic
story chapter one, and something about his bio really struck me.
For much of his early life, Boris had been a
meat inspector in Belgrade in his native Yugoslavia. My job
(10:48):
was to look over the meat and cheese and as
you do here, put a stamp on it. Boris told
me that really struck me. David Stern, more or less
his counterpart, was the child of New York City Delhi operators. Still,
Stern went to Columbia law and started in New York
City with a high powered law firm. Boris was slapping
meat and smelling cheese. Hit me for another reason too.
(11:11):
I grew up working in my father's meat market. So
I titled the first chapter The Inspector of Meat, and
it gave me kind of a format for the rest
of the book. Every subsequent chapter began with a V.
David Robinson was the Christian soldier, Jordan was the chosen one,
and so on. It was a little thing, but it
helped anyway. The Inspector of Meat was convinced that international
(11:34):
basketball would not grow if the greatest players in the world,
those in the NBA, did not interact with the rest
of the world. There was a proviso in effect back
then that specifically forbade international players from playing against NBA players.
It was the worst case of pearl clutching. Oh my god,
our lads will be sullied by playing against the dastardly prose.
(11:57):
But it was a sham, of course, since every other
nation routinely sent its professionals into international competition. Now did
they make the millions earned by American professionals. No, they
were still pros sports was their living. Oscar Schmidt, who
played for Brazil, an excellent shooter who never met a
shot he didn't like, by the way, was making a
(12:18):
half million dollars playing hoops. So to get NBA players
into the Olympics, Stankovic had to change FEBA rules and
began lobbying to do so as early as nineteen eighties.
Three in the resolution for allowing professionals to play almost passed.
The vote was thirty one twenty seven, the two most
notable negative votes cast by the United States and the
(12:41):
Soviet Union. But by the late nineteen eighties the winds
of change were strong, despite the fact that USA and
the Soviet Union still voted against it. The resolution that
open basketball should be the rule of fiber was passed
in April of nine, and there was overwhelming joyous triumphant
(13:01):
cheers throughout our land. Not really, almost nobody in the
United States noticed. Almost nobody gave a damn, including David Stern.
I don't think we were through the act. We had
no idea what we might be getting into. You know,
the Olympics is that it didn't it didn't you know,
it didn't pick up steam until after it passed. It
was okay, now what do we do? So let's unpack
(13:24):
that a little bit. Why did the United States vote
against open competition which would open the door for pros
and the Olympics. Very simply, the Olympics were not on
David Stern's radar. In truth, they weren't on anyone's radar
beside bar of Snakovics. True, Stern had drawn up TV
deals with several European countries, and the league had even
stepped its toe into international play. But Stern was not
(13:48):
thinking about the Olympics with those TV contracts and those games.
He was thinking about the bottom line. TV meant revenue,
game exposure meant marketing opportunities, And even to this visionary commissioner,
the idea of the NBA participating in the Olympics was,
for the first six or seven years of the decade
(14:08):
of the eighties, a non starter. How could the Olympics
be monetized? How could that help anyway? Our college lads
represented the Olympic team, right, But things started to change.
Stankovic had support around the world. The world was getting smaller,
the game was getting bigger. Then it was that beating
and sold in that demonstrated the world was catching up
(14:31):
to us. And there was also this man who Larry
Bird speaks about. I love Dave. Dave gas one of
the smartest human thingy loss. I wanted to hang out
with That's what it was, if he wanted me to
hang out with him. A man named Dave Gavitt has
a central part in the Stream Team saga, and, along
with Boris Stankovic, is one of the forgotten men of
(14:54):
the Stream Team story. An amateur basketball circles, Gavitt had
done it all, seen it all, had been a successful,
respected coach and athletic director. He had been one of
the masterminds behind the creation of the Big East Conference,
(15:15):
and most impressive, he was the moving force behind the
expansion of the n c A basketball tournament into a
billion dollar bonanza. So it was natural that when an
organization called USA Basketball was formed, Gavitt would be the
one to let it. Most men who had been around
the college game for as long as Gavitt had were
hide bound traditionalists NBA players in the Olympics, why do
(15:38):
you kid me, this is a college game? But Gavitt
wasn't like that. Gavitt saw the future, Embrace the future.
He had bargained with the slickst of the slick network
TV executives to get serious jack for college hoops. So
he was the one that could step into David Stern's
office without being intimidated and tell him what's what, Which
(15:59):
is what he did. When Stern suggested, look, we'll just
buy the Olympics, Gavitt was the one that said to him, David,
We're not going to buy the Olympics. The Olympics belongs
to the country. What I remember most about Gavitt was
that he was both businessman and visionary romantic about basketball.
I interviewed him for the book not long before he
(16:21):
died at the age of seventy three and two thousand eleven,
and over lunch he told me this story. He was
coaching a touring college all star team at a game
in Assens. We were playing a night game and there
must have been thirty thousand people there and the Acropolis
was in the background with a full moon. Gathertt remembered,
I had chills. I love that story and often think
(16:42):
about when I think of Gavitt. After Gavitt had cast
a no vote on behalf of the United States, even
though he knew the resolution was going to pass, which
it did, he asked for the floor. Now that we've
done this, Gavitt told the feb reps, you need to
realize a few things and help us. We're dealing with
a powerful organization in the NBA, and we're gonna have
(17:05):
to get your cooperation with dates and things like that.
So the NBA was ready. It had a good man
and Dave Gabett ready to take charge. What it didn't
have was the NBA stars. Here's Charles Barkley and Larry
Bird who were coming at this Dream Team thing from
two distinctly different directions, and everyone in the first five
(17:27):
it was a big, beautiful Nobody put all five us
on the cover illustrated and but one thing I didn't
want to do is go over there and not built
to play at all and take away a chance for
somebody else to have officer. So Charles was gung ho
and Larry was worried about his back. Twenty eight years
after the Dream Team won Golden Barcelona, there is still
(17:50):
mystery surrounding how exactly the team was selected. There weren't tryouts. Hey,
Michael Jordan listened, would like you to take a couple
of days off from golf and come out to Indianapolis.
Or some o their godforsaken place. You wouldn't set foot
in and run through some drills that was not going
to happen. There was a selection committee, but really some
of the players selected themselves. Magic wants in. He's in.
(18:12):
Carl Malone wants in. He's in. Jordan once in, of
course he's in. Charles Barkley wants in. Charles not so fast.
So in the next episode of The Dream Team Tapes,
I'll discuss how this team came together, some of the
inner intrigue and lasting antagonism that came out of the
Dream Team selection process. I'm calling it hrding cats. Thanks
(18:36):
for listening. If you enjoyed The Dream Team Tapes, please follow, rate,
and review wherever you get your podcasts. The Dream Team
Tapes is written and hosted by Jack McCallum. Executive producers
Mark Francis and Scott Waxman. Executive producer for I Heart
(19:00):
Media is Shorn to Tone. The Dream Team Tapes is
a Diversion podcast's original series in association with I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
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