NBA Archives Debunked: The Jordan Saga

Chapter 45 Sweet Dreams (9)

Twenty-five minutes later, Jordan reappeared, showered, his hair glowing, and wearing a colorful striped short-sleeve suit, looking like an exchange student from Zambia.For the next few hours, NBA Entertainment's filming team followed Jordan through the streets of Barcelona and visited the Olympic Stadium. "What you have to understand is that it's 25 degrees Fahrenheit (over 96 degrees Celsius), 35 percent humidity, and he hasn't slept yet. And when you watch that video, he's very refreshed, like he's had 100 hours of sleep. It’s like just waking up.” Spelling felt that Jordan was so energetic that it was incredible.

It was already afternoon after the filming, and it is said that Jordan should go back to the hotel to sleep and prepare for the final at night.But at this time, Jordan made a request. "Can you take me to the golf course?" he said. "The guys from my club are there. I want to play a lap." In the end, he was at the golf club on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​as he had done almost every day before. After playing 18 holes, I took the car back to the hotel, went to the room to change clothes, and then boarded the team bus to participate in the second Olympic men's basketball final in my life.

The magician later said with emotion: "Michael tried to make me follow his schedule, and I couldn't do it. I could play cards all night, and so could some other guys, but then I had to go out and play 18 holes, 36 holes." Golf? Then come back and score 20 points in the game like nothing happened? Hey, no one can do that. Michael Jordan is the strongest and most mentally determined athlete ever. I don't care about anyone Say what."

On the way to the arena, the Croatian team, like the previous Puerto Rico team, was forced to stop on the side of the road to make way for the Dream Team bus.Bird has already warmed up on the court, and the Croatian players have just arrived.Center Stojko Vrankovic, a Boston teammate of Bird's, walked up to Bird and asked, "What's this? Can't we go the same way as you guys?" Bird fought back. She smiled and replied, "It's none of my business."

On the morning of the finals, Daly woke up and saw a note by the door of his room, written by NBC sports president Dick Ebersol.Ebersol asked Daly to send someone to him to get a tape of the men's basketball final at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.Daly asked someone to get it. He and Carlesimo watched it first, and both agreed that showing the game to the players at this time might give everyone some motivation.

About four hours before the game, the whole team gathered in the hotel, but the video tape could not be played. Daly felt bad, but he insisted on taking the video tape to the arena again. When he arrived in the locker room, it was finally ready to play.The whole team watched the final in 1972 attentively. They watched the last minute and the referee gave the Soviet team three consecutive chances to comeback. Everyone was very devoted.But everyone has a consensus: they will never put themselves in that situation, and will not leave their fate in the hands of the referee.They believe that what happened in 1 happened because the U.S. team failed to build a double-digit lead at the time, allowing opponents and referees to take advantage of it.With such a mentality, this tape is not in vain.

Two days ago, Croatia's head coach Petar Skansi said, "Today is our final." He understood. , To beat the dream team in the final is simply wishful thinking.

By this time, the Dream Team players were tired of Barcelona, ​​and even Barkley didn't bother to hang out on La Rambla anymore. Their minds were full of how to nourish their tired bodies before the start of the new NBA season training camp. .They stormed out of the locker room and, after a mediocre start, destroyed Croatia with customary ruthlessness.Although Croatia once led by 25 to 23, it still lost 85 to 117 in the end, with a gap of 32 points.

Petrovic scored 2+4 points for Croatia, which is a normal performance.Kukoc also scored 16 points and 9 assists this time, far better than the group stage against the United States.Jordan said: "The second time we played against them, I had the highest respect for Toni Kukoc." But this was said nearly 20 years later, and at the time, the "highest respect" did not seem to show. .

Jordan made 16 of 10 shots and scored 22 points.In the semi-finals and finals, the two most important games, he was the one with the most points in the Dream Team.

The dream team won the men's basketball gold medal in the Barcelona Olympic Games as they wished.In the eight official games, they averaged 43.75 points better than their opponents, reaching the top podium without bloodshed.

The process of the finals is hardly worth mentioning. The Dream Team broke down the opponent without much trouble.Therefore, on the night of winning the championship, the most attractive story is not the game itself, but the award ceremony after the game.

It's hard to imagine that the USOC has always hated the Dream Team, which started in Portland.They didn't like the special attention the Dream Team received, and they resented the perks the Dream Team had everywhere—separate housing, extra security, demands for game tickets, all of which deeply angered the USOC.

At the same time, in the eyes of the USOC, this is a significant political struggle.Harvey Schiller, then president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, later admitted: "There is a real concern that the NBA will take over. The NBA has put people into the decision-making level of USA Basketball. How do you stop them from infiltrating? What about the decision-making level of the USOC? Some people see this as the beginning of professional sports destroying the Olympic movement."

It is conceivable that bureaucrats will always do some bureaucratic things.In the end, what the dream team wore when they won the gold medal became the focus of the struggle between the two sides.

In the field of basketball, according to the established rules, the US Olympic Committee cannot interfere with what shoes players wear, but has the right to specify clothing.The Dream Team jerseys are made by Champion.Perhaps because the Champion brand logo is relatively small, or maybe Nike was not involved in the manufacture of football jerseys at the time, so there was never any complaints or boycotts about the game jerseys.But the nature of the Dream Team award uniform is different. The award uniform is sponsored and manufactured by Reebok, and its right shoulder has an obvious Reebok brand logo. This is unacceptable to many players—to be exact, Jordan cannot accepted.

As early as when accepting the invitation to join the Dream Team, Jordan and his agent Falk clearly told the US Olympic Committee, the American Basketball Association and other relevant personnel: Jordan will never wear Reeboks.Many people think that Nike is behind it, but in fact, Nike has no involvement in this matter at all.It was Jordan and Falk, especially Jordan himself, who were extremely firm.

In order to become the sponsor of the US Olympic team's award uniform, Reebok paid 200 million US dollars to the US Olympic Committee, but Barkley declared: "I have 200 million reasons not to wear this shit." Barkley at the time He is also the spokesperson of Nike.Of course, the important thing is not Barkley, but Jordan.Jordan is the trump card of the Dream Team, and the entire Dream Team will eventually listen to Jordan.

After so many years, it is difficult to accurately restore some details of the award suit incident—who knew what and when.What is clear is that there are two ways to resolve the dispute later, one is the pin and the other is the national flag.Pins secure the collar and the flag hides the branding.

Two days before the final, some members of the dream team had decided that they would wear award uniforms on stage, but they would use something to cover the Reebok logo.And Jordan still firmly stated that he believed that there was no need to wear any award uniforms at all.

According to USA Basketball's Tom McGrath, it was over dinner before the finals that the award was settled: Pinning the collar of the Reebok uniform so the Reebok logo wouldn't show .This plan was finalized by US Olympic Committee President Schiller, and the pins were ready, but it still didn't meet the players' wishes.Either there was not enough communication, or the players didn't buy it at all, and they still refused to cooperate anyway.

Jordan later recalled: "There was no resolution, there was no resolution, and finally we got to the gold medal match. So I thought, we'll just go on stage in the game jerseys, and I think that's fine. But then we were told,' If you don't wear Reeboks, you can't go up there'. I feel like I'm insulting America that we're talking about more business than 'America' on our jerseys."

So, did Jordan ever think about not attending the awards ceremony?He replied emphatically: "Of course not. I wouldn't do that to my teammates."

At that time, Jordan had an idea and asked McGrath: "Can you find some American flags?"

So, when the Olympic men's basketball award ceremony began, this picture appeared: the Americans played behind the bronze medalist Lithuania, and the magician grinned and walked in front of the dream team as usual. With an American flag draped over his shoulders, his left hand still holding on to it; Barkley followed, with a flag draped over both shoulders; followed by Mullin, Stockton, Malone, Drexler, who The flag is not worn on the body, but the collar is fastened with a pin, and the Reebok logo is hidden. Next is Jordan. Pippen, Bird, Ewing, David Robinson and Laettner followed Jordan in turn.There were only three players with American flags, as only three flags were conscripted from spectators.

"Everyone agrees that we're not going to vilify the Reebok on the uniform, and the American flag can't uglify anything," Jordan said. "The American dream is about standing up for what you believe in—I believe in it, and I will defend it." ...if I offend anyone, that's too bad."

As soon as the awards ceremony was over, Jordan took off his Reebok jacket and threw it to NBA communications head Brian McIntyre. "Of course I don't want it," Jordan said.

American journalists in the media seats all noticed the national flags on the players and the collars fixed by pins, and they all thought that this had something to do with the brand and business.But the audience in the stands probably didn't care at all. They only saw the smiles on the players' faces, saw these superstars turn around and wave to the cheering audience in every corner, and saw a harmonious and beautiful scene.

After receiving the gold medal and hoisting the national flag, several players of the Dream Team waved to Daly and his assistants, hoping that they would also come to the podium.The Olympic Games does not have a practice of awarding gold medals to coaches, but in the past few weeks, the players and coaches of the Dream Team have gotten along very well. The players all respect Daly and like Daley's philosophy of keeping things calm.

Daly and his assistants did not appear on stage, but offstage, Daly was very happy.Wilkens later recalled: "Chuck was grabbing my arm, gripping tight, and I looked, and there was a tear coming out of Chuck's eye. That, to me, said everything."

Conquering the world with an overwhelming advantage and winning back the lost gold medal and dignity for American basketball, the dream team boarded a special plane and flew back to the American continent.In the air, Jordan and the others played a game of cards, but as soon as the plane landed, the "basketball paradise" that Stockton called was gone.Everyone woke up from the dream and returned to the cruel reality.Bird, who was plagued by back injuries, soon announced his retirement, the magician also stayed away from the basketball stage, and others became life-and-death opponents again.

In front of Jordan is another road to defending the title, another year of hardship and pressure.

(End of this chapter)