Fond Memories from Olympic Games Past
By TERRY LYONS
BOSTON – It was one of those pictures that damn near jumped off the wall of the Main Press Center in Sydney, Australia on the second day of the Games of the XXVII Olympiad. I had to have a copy. In fact, I needed two – one for Australian basketballer, Andrew Gaze, and one to be a keeper.
There is no higher honor in all of sport. To carry your country’s flag into the Olympic Stadium during Opening Ceremonies is the most significant treasure any sportsman (or woman) can ever imagine. When asked to do so on your home soil when your native land is hosting the Olympic Games takes it up another notch.
Every year there are MVPs named, Cy Young Awards awarded, and Hall of Famers enshrined. Once every four years, a player is asked by his fellow Olympic teammates to represent their country and be their flag-bearer. It doesn’t get any better or heavier.
Wizards forward Rui Hachimura of Japan had the honor this year as he led Team Japan into the Olympic Stadium, albeit a year later than planned.
Sue Bird of USA Basketball, along with baseball’s Eddy Alvarez had the honor for the USA just a week ago. The Tokyo Olympic organizers asked that both a male and female athlete be so designated by each country, when possible. Bird is in pursuit of her fifth gold medal for the Team USA women, and she, along with fellow-WNBAer star Diana Taurasi have walked the walk for women’s basketball and sports all over the world everyday of their careers.
Australia’s Patty Mills (aka FIBA Patty) had the honor for the Boomers this year, as did Tomas Satoransky of the Czech Republic.
Back in 2004, in Athens, Greece, Dawn Staley of USA Basketball had the honor of leading in Team USA at a memorable Olympics. Quite a few other NBA/Basketball connections have shared the honor over the years of this reporter’s attendance at the Summer Games. In 2008, when the Olympic Games were in Beijing, there was Yao Ming, all 7-foot-6 of him, carrying the Chinese flag into the Olympic Stadium only 758 miles from his hometown of Shanghai.
Pau Gasol of Spain (2012 in London), Dirk Nowitzki of Germany (2008 Beijing), Yi Jianlian of China (2012 in London) and Manu Ginobili of Argentina (2008 in Beijing) each had the honor, as did Utah Jazz standout Andrei Kirilenko of Russia (2008 in Beijing), Luis Scola of Argentina (2016 in Rio) and Puerto Rico’s Carlos Arroyo (2004 in Athens). Arroyo proceeded to light-up Team USA the next day.
The sport of basketball has been well-represented over the years. But, it was a moment frozen in time at the Sydney 2000 Olympics that tops this column of Olympic memories.
Upon seeing the Agence France Presse photo pinned-up on the outside wall of their office cubicles in downtown Sydney, this American flak wanted to get the photo into the hands of Andrew Gaze, who was staying at The Olympic Village just outside of the city. I asked AFP photographers – Jeff Haynes and Robert Sullivan – if they could bang out a couple prints overnight and I promised to hand-deliver them to Gaze with their regards.
Next stop was the Australia and USA (then USOC) media offices to get a special day pass and “interview” request arranged to see Gaze in the Olympic Village. It took a few hours, but the system worked like a Swiss timepiece and the next morning I was on a bus, package in hand, riding out to the village on a (very) hot Athens morning.
Upon meeting Gaze at our designated spot – he was just finishing an interview with Mike Wise of the New York Times – we sat down at a table (in the shade) and the Australian all-time leader in points scored – second in the Olympic scoring, only to Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt – asked me what I needed.
“This is the easiest interview you’ll do all Olympics, because we don’t need anything. In fact, I just have a present for you!”
Gaze looked on in curiosity and amazement. The AFP crew had packed the 11×16 photos very carefully and reinforced the edges so they would not bend in transit. we also grabbed a couple strong cardboard tubes to secure them for travel home. Inside the packages were the prints of Gaze waving the flag. Even though they were still photos, you could see a little motion to the flag and a look of pure pride and joy on Gaze’s face. They were spectacular.
Upon carefully pulling them out of their package, he saw the photo and his jaw dropped. No words were spoken and tears welled in two sets of eyes. The silence was, indeed, golden.
When the San Antonio Spurs won the NBA title in 1999, Gaze was on their roster as a reserve. When the Spurs won the title, he grabbed me on the court in sheer celebration and damn near broke my back with a hug as he lifted me into the air above the court at Madison Square Garden.
This time, I knew what was coming, and it was still a back-breaker of a hug. With it? A look of sincere appreciation from an Olympian who had the highest honor in sports the night before and now had the perfect keepsake to show his grand-kids, all made possible by the great photographers at AFP and a simple bus ride from the Paramatta, in the outskirts of Sydney to the Main Press Center to the Olympic Village in Sydney.
Time well spent.
HERE NOW, SOME MORE OLYMPIC MEMORIES: Last week, “While We’re Young (Ideas)” touched upon Olympic memories dating back to 1968 or 1972, among others. One of the fondest memories of Olympic Games Past was the very start, an April 1989 vote undertaken by FIBA’s World Congress. For that vote, we were fully aware the United States and Russia were both voting against the proposition of NBA players being made eligible for the Worlds (1990) and the next Olympic Games (1992). FIBA’s executive director and head honcho, the late Boris Stankovic, assured NBA Commissioner, the late David Stern and his deputy, Russ Granik, that the vote would be overwhelmingly supportive of NBA inclusion. But, truth be told, the 1986 FIBA vote went 31-27 against the inclusion of NBA players and you just didn’t know what to expect. … While the great Oscar Schmidt of Brazil could play and make millions in Italy then return to his beloved national team for international competition or the late Drazen Petrovic of Croatia could earn a cool $800-to-900 thousand a year playing for Real Madrid of Spain’s pro league- the ACB, then compete for Yugoslavia (1990) or Croatia (1992) in international play, it was only the 425+ NBA players who were singled out and ineligible to play. … The NBA was not invited to the 1989 vote, but we had a man on the inside in Turner senior executive, David Raith, who headed-up the Goodwill Games unit for Turner Sports. A small handful of us gathered in the NBA Commissioner’s office and Raith relayed the vote totals to me and we kept tally on a white board in Stern’s office. The final count? Yays outnumbered Nays, 56-13, with only Greece refusing to vote. Stankovic was right again, as he righted the wrong and paved the way for the sport of basketball to take a giant leap by 1992.
Stern quickly placed Granik in charge of the negotiations and the NBA, FIBA, and ABA/USA (the United States’ basketball federation) quickly decided to keep the plans for the “college kids” to rep the USA at the 1990 Worlds. By the way, Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s USA world team (6-2) took the bronze after losses to both Puerto Rico and Yugoslavia. It was the last basketball tournament when the Provences of the former Yugoslavia competed as one and they won the gold.
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics “got” next!
