When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [134]
Daly was unmoved by the complaints. He was aware of death threats that had already been made against some of his players and worried about his multimillionaire "amateurs" clubbing in Barcelona at night. The players joked about the unmarked cars that always flanked their team bus, but there were reasons the extra security was in place.
The night before their first game, the Dream Team held a private dinner in a downtown restaurant, with Barkley as their toastmaster. His job: to keep the guys loose and happy.
"Hey, Larry," Barkley said. "You used to be a great player, but now you're sitting on the bench waving a towel like M. L. Carr!"
"Laettner! You are forbidden to talk!" Barkley roared. "Finish college, then maybe we'll listen to you."
"And Drexler," Barkley said. "Your college team [Houston] was the dumbest in the history of basketball. How can a team that had you and [Hakeem] Olajuwon on the same team lose to N.C. State in the championship?!"
The night before the opening ceremonies, Magic Johnson lay awake, too excited to sleep. His crested blue blazer, white straw hat, and star-spangled red, white, and blue tie, the designated outfit for all the male American athletes who would be marching, was laid out carefully in anticipation.
Down the hall, Larry Bird also lay awake, unable to sleep because of a flurry of back spasms. He wanted desperately to march with his team, but as the night wore on and his discomfort increased, he knew his chances were diminishing with each hour.
The following morning, when told he would be standing around a minimum of two hours before the procession began, Bird put his straw hat and blue blazer back in the hotel closet and watched the ceremonies from his customary prone position on the floor.
Hardly anyone expected the Dream Team to lose, including their competition. It was not uncommon for opposing players to ask Bird, Magic, and Jordan to pose for pregame photographs, and often, after being shellacked by 30 points or more, the other team would politely request postgame autographs. Before each game, teams exchanged flags or pins from their native country. There was often a mild scrum among the opposition as they tried to line up opposite Jordan, Bird, or Magic.
"You could tell they got a little disappointed if they got stuck with one of the rest of us," Stockton said.
The Dream Team beat Angola 116–48 in its opening game and put the game away with a resounding 46–1 spurt. Magic had 10 assists, and Bird chipped in with 9 points and 3 rebounds in 16 minutes of playing time. When he stepped onto the court for that first game, Bird's goal in Barcelona had been accomplished.
"I really don't care what happens after this," he told Magic.
The margin of victory for the Dream Team in Barcelona was an average of 45.8 points. Jordan occasionally toyed with opponents before applying suffocating full-court pressure that usually generated a turnover, fast-break lay-up, or both. Bird felt that Jordan's defensive pressure was the single biggest reason the United States dominated, and he wasn't surprised to see in 2008 that Olympic coach Mike Krzyzewski (an assistant on the Dream Team) employed the same tactics using Kobe Bryant.
Although Bird's friendship with Ewing generated the most attention in Barcelona, he also enjoyed the chance to connect with Michael Jordan. They had met for the first time in 1984, when Jordan was playing for the Olympic team and Bird was part of a group of NBA players scrimmaging them at the Hoosier Dome. Both clubs were warming up before the game when Jordan's ball rolled over half-court