not a dream, just losing sleep

I was younger and probably slightly more impressionable back in 1992 when the Dream Team ran rampant at the Barcelona games. We are happening upon this entry because through my Spurs enjoyment I’m also subjected to commercials touting a lame, 20-year anniversary/celebration documentary of the Dream Team. I need to get a few things out the way before I rant: the serendipity of having Jordan, Bird, and Magic playing in the same NBA era was fortuitous. Without those three, who are undoubtedly three of the most strong willed and talent players ever to grace the NBA, the whole experiment wouldn’t have been quite so ‘amazing’. Since 1992, we’ve seen U.S. team after U.S team struggle as the world has gotten better and the vast NBA talent pool of the mid-1980s to mid-1990s has disappeared. There certainly were some greats around those three, but honestly, we could have thrown in Shaq (a rookie), Larry Johnson, Dennis Rodman, and/or Reggie Miller and been just fine. Aside from the big three the only NBA title(s) on the roster came from Pippen (playing with Jordon, whether you like it or not); one from Drexler later in his career, post Olympics – courtesy of Hakeem; and David Robinson with two, also post-Olympics. I count that as three: MJ, Magic, and Bird finished with 14. That’s my introduction.

Here’s the hammer : the Dream Team wasn’t that impressive. If we took the best NFL players right now, a 2012 all-pro team, and trotted them out there for a new Olympic football competition they’d destroy everyone else. We could throw the Lions out there and destroy anyone else. In fact, in 1992 the Chicago Bulls would have annihilated the Olympic field. When the most dominant professional league is hosted in the U.S. – and in 1992 it was a hundred times more talented than the next – putting an all-star team on the court vs. Venezuela isn’t really impressive. Wow! They won by 47! None of it was really impressive back then, and it’s less impressive now. We used to hate the Soviet team that won the hockey gold every Olympics because they were simply a professional team rolled out every four years to destroy everyone else. What happened in the 1980 Olympics, within an athletic competition framework, was far, far more impressive than the Dream Team. If you aren’t old enough to remember the entirety of the situation, bear in the mind the gnashing of teeth between those players, their “professional” sponsors, and the uniform. All of the Nike-owned players covered the Reebok logo on their uniforms during the medal presentation ceremony – left shoulder with a flag. They couldn’t even be bothered to simply let that go. Maybe it’s an unfair critique, but it simply added fuel to my fire because the 60- and 79-point wins over Panama and Cuba weren’t distasteful enough. I certainly don’t need to sit around and watch a documentary full of these players talking about how “there’ll never be anything like this again.” Yes, Larry there will be – when the US fields a rugby team against the All Blacks Dream Team in some Olympic games.  Also remember that all of this came about after the U.S. only won the bronze medal in 1988 – a team that was 5-0 in pool play (with a winning margin that averaged  35 per game) but lost by six point in the semi-finals. We might call this dream thing a bit of an overreaction.

The last thing I want to sit through are a bunch of Dream Teamers and journalists harkening back to the day when the USA was number 1 – in a field of amateurs.

That’s all. At least I can watch the Spurs again tonight.

a boot in the behind

We all know that we don’t have actual TV running on the Hilltop; we’ve got a big 36” Sony and the DVD player for entertainment. I’ve got nothing much to say about TV in general but I do have something for NBC: you suck. NBC has kommissar rights to the Olympics and allegedly have a Web presence where one could, if NBC’s online site was worth a shit, watch a few select events from Beijing: some swimming, cycling, track events, etc. I’ll get to scheduling in a sec, but first - to the NBC Webmaster: I think you must be part-time myspace or facebook high school sophomore. The layout and navigating is horrid, the system requirements don’t seem to matter, and content is for junk. I’ve checked all of my system components and they meet ‘requirements’ yet I endlessly get nothing but a ‘system requirements for operation’ message that gives me no actual input. I’ve ended up watching what I can on X’s old Vaio which plays the videos just fine. Back to NBC in general: they are kidding, right? I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on time zones, and whatnot, but this video broadcast selection is miserable. They’ve got a miserly plan that appears to ensure no video of available on-line videos until the event has been broadcast on terrestrial TV – including the junior high commentary and studio management presented by Jim Lampley and Bob Costas. My sports writing in the Valley View Junior High School paper in 1979 was purely Roger Angell-like compared to this hack production. I think I used to like the up close and personal pieces and sap-o-meter crammed down my throat when I was eight; I hate it now. A good example of immature commentary was Lampley summarizing the British team’s stunning success at the velodrome where they’ve won 4 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze so far: “Now if the Olympics only had snooker, cricket, and darts!” Ha ha ha…that IS hilarious. The British program has really put a ton of effort into cycling and his comment was completely bush league. (I’m watching TV today while working the USO so I can finally cringe while watching. Hey Jim Lampley, wouldn’t it be great if you actually had any other sports job during the normal calendar and weren’t merely the overnight janitor on NBC’s broadcast?) What is NBC thinking? If I watch online, where they can format my screen and make me watch ads, why would they make me wait 12-18 hours, sometimes longer, to see anything that happens at midnight stateside? Why can’t I watch Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps either live or on video immediately after the event? If I had TV, I’d boycott NBC for the next year – total incompetence. Their Web skills are a sorry reminder of just how far afield the music industry was when trying to deal with technology – they must have signed some old Arista music executives.

I’ll lighten up a bit and turn to my very little fashionista leanings. Here’s another great Johnston & Murphy ad featuring a shoe I need. The last time they got me this fired up about a shoe was a Johnston & Murphy ad that featured Lyle Lovett a few years ago.


The Cubs hung 8 runs on the Marlins in the seventh inning today – looks like the streak is up to seven series without a loss and six straight won. Fingers are crossed for the rest of the season.

kick and kick and kick

I heard the expected scientific / oceanography story about Michael Phelps on NPR last night. I get it – he’s like a dolphin. Whenever there’s someone who dominates an event, and I’m considering the swimming competition as a single even, there’s normally some or many genetic contributors that clarify a good bit of the puzzle. Phelps has shorter legs (less drag), big feet (propulsion), a longer torso and arms (better reach), and very little body fat. The dolphin kick that’s used on starts and turns has been very good to him; the undulating body and whip of the feet that he can manage for all 15 meters of allowable distance. According to Rowdy Gaines, most world-class swimmers can manage the kick but not for as long as Phelps. Just to pop a cherry on his sundae, Phelps also has fantastic lung capacity. He also probably trains as hard as anyone else in the pool. What he’s done – 6 golds, 2 bronze at the 2004 Olympics; 5 golds and a silver at the 2005 World Championships; 7 golds at the 2007 World Championships; and 5 golds so far in Beijing, is mind-boggling. Based on what I can manage, he’s won 22 of the 24 events he’s entered since the 2005 World Championships including the last 17 in a row. The four-year run from Athens to Beijing is unlike anything swimming has ever seen and Phelps is clearly the greatest swimmer of all time. We can hold off on the “Greatest Olympian” debate that NBC seems so intent on bestowing upon him. I’ll reconsider when he wins eight gold medals at this Olympiad. Also, he says he’ll swim in London in 2012 but not on this scale (eight events) anymore. Maybe he’ll do a couple of relays and two individual events – we could write in maybe three more golds to get his total to 17 over three Olympics (the all-time record was nine before this onslaught). Then I’d definitely say he was the Olympics’ greatest American athlete. I don’t think he’ll ever overcome Jesse Owens in 1936 simply because the man and times were so much greater than what we experience today.

The Brewers are on another 8-game winning streak, their second in two months, but have made up little on the rolling Cubs. Since the All-Star break the Brewers are 18-8 and the Cubs are 16-9 – they’re holding there own so far with five consecutive series wins and six straight series without losing one. I think there are nine games coming up that they need to dominate against weaker opponents before the schedule closes with a tough 20 or so game run. I’d love to see a six-game lead.

The weather here has been stunning since my return: high 70s to low 80s, down into the 60s at night, blue and partly cloudy skies. Ah….D.C. in the early autumn.

Base on my phone call with X this morning, I think we’re both planning on scrubbing houses and working on gardens and yards today. Funny thing how that happens.

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