IRONIC how yesterday was Flag Day and here we are, draped in drool over the 20th anniversary of the narcissistic 1992 Dream Team.
Like long time reader Lawrence Bentley of Plano, Texas, I am proud to say I have never seen that supercilious squadron play a single minute. That goes for the four following deified delegations as well.
Twice, I declined plum assignments to cover Dream Teams; the first while working for USA Today — though shamelessly tempted by a week or more in Monaco where Chuck Daly’s team trained rigorously for the likes of Angola; the second for NBC in Sydney (2000), which cost me a 25G bonus plus a round-trip first-class ticket for my wife.
Once Olympic basketball switched from amateur to pro, I tuned out completely. What’s more, I have no intention to watch NBA TV’s currently airing 90-minute documentary that glorifies the grandeur of the Dream Team.
Now that I’ve read some of what was said by a deputized inmate Michael Jordan and authorities responsible for the selection of USA Basketball’s representative, I wish I had smacked around The Farcelona 12 an eternity ago.
The hypocrisy of so many people involved in its assembly and, more to the cutthroat point, the ostracizing of Isiah Thomas, is both wretched and retching.
This may be the dirtiest a sports figure has ever been treated.
Let us count the outrages:
The most egregious is committee members with sway giving Jordan the right to banish Thomas from the team. The two had a long-standing beef that covered a multitude of real and imagined transgressions. So, when Jordan let it be known through agent David Falk he refused to be teammates with Thomas, the powers that be folded along the dotted lines.
It was inconsequential that Thomas and Jordan both owned two championship rings.
The NBA was in the early stages of a $3 million (money, marketing … and money) global initiative. Hence, Russ Granik, at the time deputy commissioner and liaison to USA Basketball, and Rod Thorn, who drafted His Airness as Bulls general manager and a league fixture in one capacity or another now for 50 years, weren’t about to tell Jordan to stay home.
And management wonders where players got the idea they should be consulted about player personnel decisions and why they have no compunction about undermining coaches.
(Not surprisingly, Jason Kidd submarined coach Byron Scott when Thorn was president of the Nets.)
From what I’ve read, Granik and Thorn were quoted in the documentary saying Thomas’ bad sportsmanship — walking off the court to the dressing room seconds before the Bulls’ defeat of the Pistons was official influenced their (leveraged) decision. Scottie Pippen also had complained about Thomas’ inciting the Bad Boys to rough up Michael & The Jordanaires.
Yeah, I think that was called ‘The Jordan Rules’, which might have been written by Sam Smith, but were authored by Chuck Daly, coach of the Pistons and the Dream Team. How come Jordan and Pippen didn’t mind playing for the architect and later with Bad Boy Dennis Rodman?
More important, how come Daly didn’t intercede on Thomas’ behalf? He pulled a Pontius Pilate and washed his hands of liability.
What’s almost amusing is that by keeping someone so ruthless and detestable as Thomas off the team implies that the rest of the regimen was composed of solid citizens.
Let’s look at some of the past performances (to that point) of choir boys who did represent Uncle Sam:
CHARLES BARKLEY: Spit on a young lady who had the misfortune of getting in the way of his intended target during a game in New Jersey in 1991; forced Billy Cunningham and Julius Erving into early retirement before being donated to the Suns for Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry and Andrew Lang.
We can leave the plate-glass window, the out-of-control gambling, the drunk driving while searching for sex until later.
PATRICK EWING: Two words, Gold Club. In testimony in July ’91, he told about favors at an Atlanta strip joint.
KARL MALONE: I guess the selection committee felt it was OK for The Mailman to bow Thomas intentionally and send him to the hospital for 40 stitches in retaliation for Isiah torching John Stockton for 40-something in their previous meeting.
Malone, if you recall, had no problem practicing and playing with Magic in ’92, until Johnson temporarily came back to the Lakers. Adding injury to injury, Stockton undeservedly was given Thomas’ slot.
MAGIC JOHNSON: He was the certified coach-killer (Paul Westhead) by that time. He claims he “forced” Thomas off the Olympic team because Isiah supposedly spread a rumor he got infected with the HIV virus from gay activity.
Oh, really? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I recall The Farcelona 12 being presented in tuxedoes during the summer of ’92, before the HIV press conference and retirement!
Matter of fact, I got Magic and Larry Bird to sign two basketballs before a Lakers-Celtics exhibition in Worcester, Mass. I asked Magic also to write “1992 Olympic champions” on them. He hesitated a couple seconds before seeking help.
“Hey, Larry, how you do spell ‘champions?’ ” Magic asked.
As Jack Paar used to say, “I kid you not.’’
peter.vecsey@nypost.com