Just watched the USA-France gold medal game in the Olympics. Here are some thoughts:
I related this in one of the other blogs, but after today this is worth repeating. I played basketball in France professionally in the 70's after a failed tryout with the Portland Trailblazers. When my agent called and said he had a job opportunity with a team in France, two things popped into my head immediately- the Eiffel Tower and the French language. The former was really the only image of that country that I could conjure up at that moment, and the latter was a language that I didn't speak a word of. I told the guy that I didn't speak French and he said not to worry, that there would be some people who spoke English. I told him that I needed a few days to think about it. The general reaction of my family and friends afterwards was mostly that I would be crazy not to go and that they couldn't believe there were people who would pay me to play basketball.
I called the agent back and asked him what the deal was, and he said I would get a round trip plane ticket and if I made the team, he had an associate there who negotiate a contract. I literally flew to Paris with not much more information than that. This was the 70's and I didn't know anyone in Phoenix who had played basketball in Europe that I could talk to about it. So off I went. My intent was to play a season over there- if I made the team- and then come back and try to get a free agent tryout in the NBA. I ended up staying for six years, meeting my wife, and having experiences that were off the chart. I knew immediately during the first practice that I was the best player on the team. Teams were only allowed two foreigners and the other one on this team was from Senegal. Back then, the French players were very mechanical and the bigs were stiffs- physical and rough, but unskilled. The American players brought a style and skill level to France that they loved. Most of the Americans were big- 6'6" and above- I was 6'8", and the things we could do with a ball just blew them away. In the game-within-a-game, the contests were really about how much your American could score versus their American.
What I didn't realize in the years I spent in France, was that part of the reason they brought Americans over was to learn from them. I remember being at a summer camp in Poitiers, and every day after lunch I would go to the gym and do an hour workout by myself to stay in good shape. Inevitably, French kids and coaches would come in and sit down and just watch. They didn't pick up balls and start shooting or playing or messing around. They just watched. That was happening all over the country, I'm sure. And boy did they learn.
Another side thought is that the Europeans only play their national anthems when they are competing against other countries. In all the sports I watched in France where it was one French team versus another French team, there was no anthem. But in those moments where they were playing another country, the Euros will really belt it out with gusto. Over here in America, we play the anthem so much- all the way down to pee wee sports, that it loses its effect. So when you watch the anthem being played in the Olympics, many American athletes don't really sing it like the Euros do, because they have heard it so many times. The French even belted theirs out impromptu before getting their silver medals today- and all the players sang it right along with them. You just don't see that here.
But, major props to the USA team. Great win. I watched the USA women's soccer match earlier and noticed that in their gold medal game, Rose Lavelle, a great player with a championship resume, had been removed from the starting lineup and, in fact, did not play. She was shown on the sideline, in uniform, ready if called upon, cheering on her teammates. She looked so happy when they won the gold, which was an astounding achievement for a program that many people had written off. She was a great teammate at a time when it counted most. So, naturally, I thought of Jayson Tatum and all the controversy surrounding his playing time. The Olympics is not club ball. You don't pay to play. It is an honor to be selected and you subjugate yourself to the bigger picture. I have coached a ton, and in a 40-minute game, your 11th and 12th players have a role to play, just like your 1st and 2nds. Granted, if this was club ball, Jayson and his mother would just quit that team and go somewhere to get playing time. All the chatter about playing everyone in every game was ridiculous. You are representing your country. It looks like Jayson was handling it OK, but many of the rest of us weren't. A sign of the times, I suppose.
