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Sunday, October 1
Things to ponder on the way out of town
By Mark Kreidler
Special to ESPN.com
SYDNEY, Australia -- Here, let's get these last few things of the backpack before we re-load it for the trip home.
|  | | Flags from various nations add color to the closing ceremonies. |
Gary Payton could be on to something. Reflecting after that two-point semifinal victory over Lithuania in an atmosphere in which you could absolutely sense that the whole world was rooting for the upset, Payton predicted that if the Americans continue seeing all the calls go against them, the NBA players might just skip the Olympics next time.
"We feel like we shouldn't even have come over here, because it's ridiculous," Payton said. "It's very rude for them to treat us like that. Everybody: the referees, the whole thing."
Now this is an idea worth examining, and not only because, generally speaking, the presence of the American pros has contributed to making men's basketball one of the least interesting sports ever conducted at the Games. But it also may be that the NBA guys just can't figure out the international game, which is, to put it midly, a tad different from what they're used to.
For all the abuse NBA referees take, there is a basic uniformity to their calls that isn't even close to being replicated on the international level. In Sydney, for example, you've got officials from several different countries working the same game -- how uniform can it get?
Payton and several of his teammates -- and, notably, assistant coach Larry Brown, who should know better -- were frustrated because they thought they were getting called on fouls for which their opponents would not get whistled in the same situation. Is that possible? It's entirely possible. In fact, history suggests so at every turn. It's also possible that some of the U.S. men's team didn't adjust their American pro-league styles even 1 percent to account for that possibility.
In three Olympic appearances, the Dream Team has racked up a slew of gigantic victories, three gold medals and a reputation -- sometimes fairly earned, sometimes not -- as the very manifestation of ugly-American syndrome. Their absence would be felt on the court, but nowhere else.
And even with some kids added into the mix, we've got a hunch the U.S. men would survive in this sport no matter what set of pros any other country might attempt to coalesce. The kids might even enjoy the experience. How about a mix of top college and willing pro? As retro-moves go, we could do worse.
Did you think you'd see the day in track when Michael Johnson would arrive as afterthought? Yet that was what he was almost for the duration of these Games, where the track venue was dominated by the captivating twin stories of Cathy Freeman and Marion Jones.
So just for the record: Johnson absolutely blew away the 400-meter field, cruised through every round of his race, anchored the gold-medal 4x400 team and cemented his status as one of the best sprinters in our recorded history -- the man never took a medal at any major international competition that was not gold.
And if you looked very carefully, you might have seen a story or two about the feat -- back there by the tire ads, since Johnson ran his individual 400 on the same evening that Cathy Freeman ran hers. Said Michael, "Well, I had my time in Atlanta." He's right, of course. But it's still a strange thing to see such blinding excellence so casually received.
Time for a perspective check on Marion Jones -- and quick, before this thing gets out of hand. It isn't that you can't label Jones' failure to win the long jump as a disappointment, because that's exactly the word Jones used. The only way to have even attempted five golds (never mind the relay worries) was to first take gold in the long jump, and Marion herself was the one who publicly stated she wanted to go for it. On that basis strictly, she came up short.
And in every other way, of course, she was a smashing success. When was the last time a female American track athlete won five medals in a single Games, never? Never sounds exactly right, and you can remove the part about "American" -- no female track athlete ever has achieved what Jones just did.
It's only when viewed through the prism of Jones' golden quest that her achievements in Sydney can be seen as wanting. It is to Jones' credit that, afterward, she said she never regretted saying she'd go for five gold medals -- but if you listened closely, you could also hear her saying that, next time around, she'll figure out a way to have that goal without setting it up as a failure if it doesn't go through.
Update: Race-walking, still ridiculous. Not because they look funny doing it, but because it's not funny when they don't get to do it. In the women's 20k final alone, three of the top racers in the world were among the five people disqualified during the race for a variety of offenses up to and apparently including having their shoes leave the pavement entirely and catch a tiny whiff of air.
When that happens in real life, we call it lightly jogging. In race-walking, it earns you one of those red dots. Get three red dots and you're out of the race, but here's the problem: It's a totally subjective system in which only three of the eight judges out on the course have to be in agreement -- not even a plurality.
Silly, right? But not so silly in that women's final, where the leader, Jane Saville of Australia, was pulled off the course with her third red dot just as she was entering the tunnel to Olympic Stadium -- got DQ'd about 150 meters away from the end of a grueling 20-kilometer walk. Saville's wounded howl said it all: Nutty rules and all, it's still a human endeavor. It's worth trying to get it right.
After being part of the winning 4x100 relay team that managed to turn the crowd against it by acting ridiculous during the victory lap and medal ceremony -- the guys did everything but a table dance -- the veteran Jon Drummond, who was winning his first gold, explained, "I've been known as the clown prince of track and field for a long time."
And thank goodness: We were beginning to worry that the kids in the viewing audience wouldn't have anything to aim for when they grow up.
What the hell happened to the Yankees? (Just asking -- it's been a while.)
Mark Kreidler is a columnist for the Sacramento Bee, which has a Web site at http://www.sacbee.com/.
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