Sideline Cut: More by accident than design, the USA men's Olympic basketball team is set to do the impossible: win gold for America while simultaneously winning hearts.
The superstars were fated to be in Istanbul for a warm-up game against the Turks this week when the bombs planted by political dissidents exploded, killing two people.
Most of the NBA's cartoonish ubercelebrities - Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant being the most prominent - shied away from the honour of representing the Stars and Stripes at this Olympiad. They were none too enamoured at the prospect of shooting hoops in an area of the world portrayed on CNN telecasts as a place where only bad things happen. They cloaked their excuses with various reasons - Bryant's being the least savoury but also the least flimsy: he is preparing to defend himself against charges of rape - and quietly opted out of the original panel assembled by Larry Brown, the oldest and most respected coach in the NBA. But the defections opened the way for the league's younger players to gain a place in the USA Olympic squad.
Nineteen-year-old LeBron James, whose leap from high school to first-round-draft pick in the NBA last season created waves of hype not generated since Michael Jordan's heyday, is the chief attraction. The team also includes the tearaway, tattooed New York legend Stephon Marbury and Carmello Anthony, another exciting and deeply talented young player.
But given that the predominant age bracket is under 23, the group is a throwback to the old US Olympic basketball teams that comprised the nation's best college players.
That tradition wobbled during the infamous basketball final at the Munich games of 1972, when the Americans lost to Russia - their first defeat in the event since the inception of the modern Olympics. Russia won when Sasha Belov, loitering under the American basket, raised his long arms to take a last-second, length-of-court pass from a team-mate and lobbed in a plain old lay-up to create the biggest upset in the history of the sport. The seconds preceding that moment were a confusion of messed-up time-outs and a bizarre decision by an obscure British official, R William Jones, to order the game clock reset to three seconds remaining after full time had elapsed and the Americans had started to celebrate.
Coming smack in the middle of the Fischer-Spassky international chess intrigue, this courtside version of East versus West registered lastingly in the consciousness of both countries and might have been regarded as a significant passage in the struggle for global supremacy. But the Americans recovered and it was not until 1988, when a fairly mediocre group of students, distinguished only by the presence of Navy cadet and future NBA hall-of-famer David Robinson, finished in the unseemly bronze position, that professionals were introduced.
In a sense, that timing was perfect because in Barcelona four years later, the NBA was able to showcase probably the most frightening array of talent ever assembled. It was as if a fantasy world cup soccer team combining talents like Best, Pele and Maradona had come together.
The Dream Team, headed by the iconic triumvirate of Bird, Magic and Jordan, naturally enough slashed through all comers and were the media sensation of those games. But the only serious basketball they played was among themselves, with Jordan mercilessly hammering home his superiority over his ageing rivals in a series of closed-door pick-up games notorious for the edgy mood they created.
But the two subsequent NBA teams have been pale imitations of that Barcelona group. In fact, the team that went to Sydney was little short of a parody and was truly lucky not to lose to Lithuania in the semi-finals. The team reflected the shortcomings NBA critics had begun to complain about: heavy on size and raw athleticism but iffy on the more ephemeral skills that were the trademark of the earlier generations.
The team was full of the stars of the MTV generation. Players like Vince Carter and Kevin Garnett were undeniably flashy and explosive. But as NBA poster boys they were handed unfathomable wealth, to such an extent that the issue of winning championships appeared to be relegated to a status beneath the macho business of winning the most lucrative contract.
The present US basketball team is made up of the wealthiest athletes in Athens. They are also, in many respects, probably the most naïve. To most of this team, Europe is a place where American hoops players go if they cannot cut it at home. Beyond that, it is a blank canvas. James, for instance, went from a modest, one-parent family to a contract and endorsements that leave his personal value at around $200 million. He was an exception to the rule in that while at high school he balanced an absurdly high media profile with evenings at home studying. But by and large, this is a group that got by playing basketball all day, every day; it was through the game they formed their value system, found their self-esteem and discovered their instant ticket to the big dream.
So demanding is the NBA season, with teams criss-crossing through the time-zones for punishing 90-game seasons, that its players are more wrapped up in their own universe than most. Many are also creatures of habit, preferring to return to their home cities during the summers to play in outdoor leagues on the playgrounds where they were first discovered.
So leaving that environment to represent America in uncertain times in the exotica of Istanbul, with its strange sights and sounds and a full-on armed security escort has already encouraged these athletes to think about the ordinary world in a way their own mollycoddling league never could. That they are being coached by Brown, the last of the old school - sage and patrician and a believer in sport as a metaphor for life - gives these young men the opportunity of an experience of team building and togetherness money simply cannot buy.
Before last night's Olympic pageant even got underway, Athens was stunned by one of the most spectacular athlete/drugs busts ever. The zeal with which the USADA tackled US track stars in the months preceding these games appears to be matched by ongoing international testing. The American track team travels here under a cloud, no matter how many golds they snap up. The feel-good factor depends on a miraculous opening week by Michael Phelps in the pool.
But basketball is a hot and popular sport in this corner of Europe and is - for now - one of the few sports in the games not compromised by insinuations of medical advancement. And although the Americans will be favourites, as always, they could well struggle against the improving and more experienced European teams.
A genuine tussle for gold medals in the hoops hall by an American team whose hairy experiences in Europe have created a feeling of kinship more associated with the amateur era could do much do endear the US visitors to the international crowds. There is just the faintest sense that this bunch are young enough to not yet feel jaded by public adoration and impressionable enough to be guided by their coach. If they respond to the Greek overtures, they could do more for American relations in Europe than they could ever have envisaged.
