title: Andy Williams

text: On September 17, 1968, Columbia released a single of two songs Williams sang at the funeral of his close friend Robert F. Kennedy: "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria". These were never released on a long-playing record, but have appeared in several compilations of Williams's output.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams also competed in the teen-oriented singles market and had several charting hits, including "Can't Get Used to Losing You", "Happy Heart", and "Where Do I Begin", the theme song from the 1970 blockbuster film "Love Story". In addition, Williams hit the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart with "Almost There" (1964), "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1970), "Home Lovin' Man" (1970), and "Solitaire" (1973).


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams and Petula Clark recorded "Happy Heart" around the same time, just before his guest appearance on her second NBC-TV special. Unaware that she was releasing the song as a single, he asked to perform it on the show. The exposure ultimately led to his having the bigger hit with the song. The song "Happy Heart" was used for the final scene and end credits of Danny Boyle's award-winning directorial debut film "Shallow Grave" (1994).


title: Andy Williams

text: Building on his experience with Allen and some short-term variety shows in the 1950s, he became the star of his own weekly television variety show in the fall of 1962. Though cancelled after 1963 owing to low ratings, the show was then sponsored to make 12 weekly specials in the 1963–64 season. This series, "The Andy Williams Show", won three Emmy Awards for outstanding variety program. Among his series regulars were the Osmond Brothers. He gave up the variety show in 1971 while it was still popular, continuing with three specials per year. His Christmas specials, which appeared regularly until 1974 and intermittently from 1982 into the 1990s, were among the most popular of the genre. Williams recorded eight Christmas albums over the years, and was known as "Mr. Christmas", due to his perennial Christmas specials and the success of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year".


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams hosted the most Grammy telecasts—seven consecutive shows—from the 13th Annual Grammy Awards in 1971 through to the 19th Awards in 1977. He returned to television with a syndicated half-hour series in 1976–77.


title: Andy Williams

text: In the early 1970s, when the Nixon administration attempted to deport John Lennon, Williams was an outspoken defender of the former Beatle's right to stay in the United States. Williams is included in the montage of caricatures on the cover of Ringo Starr's 1973 album, "Ringo".


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams performed during the halftime show of Super Bowl VII in January 1973, held at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.


title: Andy Williams

text: In June 1991, Williams' brother Don invited him to the small Ozarks town of Branson, Missouri. Don Williams at the time was the manager for entertainer Ray Stevens, who had just opened a theater in Branson. While attending Stevens' show, Williams was encouraged by numerous Branson guests to open a venue in the town. This led Williams to build his own theater in Branson in time for the 1992 season, eventually opening on May 1, 1992, as the Moon River Theatre. The name came from his signature song. It went on to become the first theater ever to be featured in "Architectural Digest", and also won the 1992 Conservation Award from the State of Missouri.


title: Andy Williams

text: The theater was designed to blend with the rough terrain of the Ozark Mountains. He had originally planned a marble style theater reminiscent of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, but soon had a change of mind. The Larson Company of Tucson, Arizona, fabricated a section of rock on Missouri's Highway 76 and the theater was soon engulfed with waterfalls, koi-filled ponds, ferns and trees native to the Ozarks. The inside of the theater incorporates the outside. Trees and plants are seen throughout the theater's three lobbies. Oak floors are accompanied by African ribbon-striped mahogany walls that are filled with pictures of the "Andy Williams Show". Williams' passion for art can be seen throughout as well. From the start of his career, Williams had accumulated several paintings and sculptures and decided to fill his theater with his collection. Frankenthaler, Diebenkorn, Oldenburg, Pollock, Klee, and Moore are a small list of artists whose work is on display at the Moon River Theatre.


title: Andy Williams

text: The theater's auditorium can accommodate 2,054 people. The seats and carpets match Williams' Navajo rug collection and are forest green, magenta, gold, and blue. On display inside the auditorium are 19 Japanese kimonos. The stage has accommodated numerous shows and guest celebrities. On stage, Williams was joined by Glen Campbell, Ann-Margret, Petula Clark, and Charo.


title: Andy Williams

text: When it first opened, it was unique because his was the first noncountry act to open in the then mostly country-music town. Other noncountry entertainers, such as Bobby Vinton, Tony Orlando, Wayne Newton, and the Osmond Brothers soon followed.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams and his theater were featured on three episodes of the soap opera "As the World Turns" in July 2007, when several characters went to Branson for a concert of "Gwen Munson" held in the Moon River Theatre. "The Simpsons" featured Williams at his Moon River Theatre in an episode titled "Bart on the Road". Nelson Muntz is an Andy Williams fan, and in the episode, he forces the gang to make a detour to Branson so he could see his idol. He is reduced to tears as Williams performs "Moon River" during the second encore.


title: Andy Williams

text: In 2007, Williams opened the Moon River Grill adjacent to his theater in Branson. The restaurant is decorated in photos from the "Andy Williams Show" with stars including Diana Ross, Elton John, and Sammy Davis Jr. Art is center stage in the restaurant, with works by several artists including Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana.


title: Andy Williams

text: His 1967 recording of "Music to Watch Girls By" became a big UK hit to a new young television audience in 1999, when it reached number 9 after being featured in new television advertisements for the Fiat Punto—and later for Diet Pepsi—beating the original peak of number 33 in 1967. A new generation was reminded of Williams' recordings and a sell-out UK tour followed the success of the single, prompting a British revival for Williams. In 2002, he re-recorded "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" as a duet with British actress and singer Denise van Outen; it reached number 23 in the UK singles charts. He completed a sold-out tour of the United Kingdom and Asia in the winter and summer of 2007, in which he performed at several major concert halls including Royal Albert Hall, singing, among other classics, Van Morrison's "Have I Told You Lately".


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams returned to the UK singles charts with his 1963 recording of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" in December 2007, thanks to an advertisement for Marks & Spencer, reaching number 21 in its first appearance in the British charts, also reaching number 108 on the EU top 200. In 2008, he lip-synched the 45-year-old recording to welcome Santa at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.


title: Andy Williams

text: On October 3, 2009, Williams appeared live on the BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing" in London, singing "Moon River" to promote the UK edition of "The Very Best of Andy Williams" LP, which peaked at number 10 in the main pop chart.


title: Andy Williams

text: In 1964, Williams ultimately became the owner of the Cadence master tapes, which he occasionally licensed to Columbia, including not only his own recordings but also those of his fellow Cadence-era labelmates: the Everly Brothers, Lenny Welch, the Chordettes, and Johnny Tillotson. In 1968, although he was still under contract with Columbia for his own recordings, Williams formed a separate company called Barnaby Records to handle reissuing of the Cadence material, especially that of the Everly Brothers (one of the first Barnaby LPs was a double LP set of the Brothers' long out-of-print Cadence hits) and new artists. Barnaby also had several top-40 hits in the 1970s with novelty artist Ray Stevens (who had done a summer replacement show for Williams in 1970), including number-one hits such as "Everything Is Beautiful" in 1970 and "The Streak" in 1974. Also in 1970, Barnaby signed and released the first album by an unknown singer-songwriter named Jimmy Buffett ("Down to Earth") produced by Travis Turk.


title: Andy Williams

text: Columbia was initially the distributor for Barnaby, but later distribution was handled first by MGM Records and then General Recorded Tape. Once Barnaby ceased operating as a working record company at the end of the 1970s, Williams licensed the old Cadence material to various other labels (such as Varèse Sarabande and Rhino in the U.S.) after 1980.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams was close friends with Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel Kennedy, and campaigned for Kennedy in the 1968 Democratic presidential primary races. Williams was among the celebrities who were in Kennedy's entourage in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded by Sirhan Sirhan in June 1968. Williams sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" at RFK's funeral, at Ethel's request. In August 1969, Williams and Claudine Longet named their newborn son, Bobby, after Kennedy. The Williams' friendship with Ethel Kennedy endured, with Williams serving as escort to Ethel at events in the 1970s. He also raised funds for George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign, performing at benefit concerts.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams later said that despite his friendship with the Democratic Kennedys, he was a lifelong Republican. In 2009, he was quoted by "The Daily Telegraph" as accusing President Barack Obama of "following Marxist theory" and "wanting the country to fail". Williams gave Rush Limbaugh permission to use his recording of the song "Born Free" as the theme to the "Animal Rights Update" on Limbaugh's radio show—in which a portion of the song was then followed by gunfire—saying "Hey, it's fine with me. I love what you're doing with it." The record company later blocked Limbaugh's use of the recording. Williams was a guest on the "Glenn Beck Radio Program" in December 2009, introduced by his own 1960s recording of "Little Altar Boy".


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams met French-born Claudine Longet in Las Vegas when her car broke down and he offered help. She was a dancer at the time at the Folies Bergère. They married on December 15, 1961, and over the next eight years, they had three children—Noelle, Christian (died 2019), and Robert.


title: Andy Williams

text: In March 1976, Longet was charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, alpine ski racer Spider Sabich, in Aspen. Williams played a public role in the subsequent events, escorting her to and from the courtroom, testifying to her character at the trial, and providing legal assistance. Longet claimed the shooting was accidental, and eventually served 30 days in jail.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams also had partial ownership of the NBA team the Phoenix Suns from the team's inception in 1968 until 1987.


title: Andy Williams

text: On May 3, 1991, Williams married Debbie Haas, "née" Meyer, whom he met through a mutual friend. They made their homes at Branson, Missouri, and La Quinta, California, where he was known as the "honorary mayor". Williams was a noted collector of modern art and his homes have been featured in "Architectural Digest".


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams was an avid golfer and hosted a PGA Tour golf tournament in San Diego from 1968 to 1988 at Torrey Pines. Then known as the "Andy Williams San Diego Open", the tournament continues as the Farmers Insurance Open, usually played in February. He was also a competent ice skater, and occasionally skated as part of his television Christmas shows.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams was a noted art collector whose collection had hung in his homes, his offices, and in the Moon River Theatre, and was exhibited at the Saint Louis Art Museum in 1997 and 1998. After his death, his collection was split among several auction houses. His paintings went to Christie's New York, where they fetched over $50 million. His folk art collection was sold at Skinner for $2,471,725. His collection of Navajo blankets was sold by Sotheby's on May 21, 2013, yielding $978,506 (£642,064).


title: Andy Williams

text: In a surprise appearance at his theater in November 2011, Williams announced that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer. After chemotherapy treatment in Houston, he and his wife moved to a rented home in Malibu, California, to be closer to cancer specialists in the Los Angeles area.


title: Andy Williams

text: On September 25, 2012, Williams died of bladder cancer at the age of 84 at his home in Branson, Missouri. Williams was cremated and his ashes were sprinkled into the artificial waterway named Moon River at his theater in Branson. The memorial service for Williams was held a month later.


title: Andy Williams

text: "The Andy Williams Show" won three Emmy Awards in 1963, 1966, and 1967 for Outstanding Variety Series.


title: Andy Williams

text: Andy Williams' extensive discography began with the release of the 1948 single "Jubilee" as a member of the Williams Brothers alongside Kay Thompson. He recorded his first solo album, "Andy Williams Sings Steve Allen", eight years later, and remained active in the music industry for the next 56 years, completing 43 studio albums, alongside compilation albums and more.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"—which can be spelled a number of ways—is a children's counting-out rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag, or for selecting various other things. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is chosen. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820 and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables. Some versions use a racial epithet, which has made the rhyme controversial at times.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words such as "... O. U. T. spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea" or "My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are [not] it"; while another source cites "Out goes Y-O-U." "Tigger" is also used instead of "tiger" in some versions of the rhyme.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: The first record of a similar rhyme, called the "Hana, man," is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme:


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: Henry Carrington Bolton discovered this version to be in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century. Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: Variations of this rhyme with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s. This one, which includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version, is one of many variants of "counting out rhymes" collected by Bolton in 1888:


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: Some versions of this rhyme used the racial slur "nigger" instead of "tiger". Iona and Peter Opie (1951) quote the following version:


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: This version was similar to that reported by Henry Carrington Bolton as the most common version among American schoolchildren in 1888. It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo":


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: It was also used by Rudyard Kipling in his "A Counting-Out Song", from "Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides", published in 1935. This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in "The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes" (1951) that the word "nigger" was common in American folklore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: There are considerable variations in the lyrics of the rhyme, including from the early twentieth century in the United States of America:


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: During the Second World War, an AP dispatch from Atlanta, Georgia reported: "Atlanta children were heard reciting this wartime rhyme:


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: There are many scenes in books, films, plays, cartoons and video games in which a variant of "Eeny meeny ..." is used by a character who is making a choice, either for serious or comic effect. Notably, the rhyme has been used by killers to choose victims in the 1994 films "Pulp Fiction" and "Natural Born Killers", the 2003 film "Elephant", and the sixth-season finale of the AMC television series "The Walking Dead".


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: The vinyl release of Radiohead's album "OK Computer" (1997) uses the words "eeny meeny miny moe" (rather than letter or numbers) on the labels of Sides A, B, C and D respectively.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: In Salman Rushdie's "The Moor's Last Sigh" (1995), the leading character and his three sisters are nicknamed Ina, Minnie, Mynah and Moor.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). First appearing in Oswald Rabbit cartoons, then in their own series.


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: The 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon "Bosko's Picture Show" parodies MGM as "TNT pictures", whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto "Eenie Meanie Minie Moe" in the place of MGM's "Ars Gratia Artis".


title: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

text: The rhyme appears towards the end of 1949 British black comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets". The use of the word "nigger" was censored for the American market, being replaced by "sailor".


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: Baldur's Gate III is an upcoming role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios. It is the third main game in the "Baldur's Gate" series, which is itself based on the "Dungeons & Dragons" tabletop role-playing system. A partial version of the game was released in early access format for Windows, macOS, and the Stadia streaming service, on 6 October 2020. The game is expected to remain in early access until its full release in August 2023. The full version of the game will not be released on Stadia due to the service's closure in January 2023.


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: "Baldur's Gate III" is a role-playing video game that offers both a single-player and cooperative multiplayer element. Players can create one or more characters and form a party along with computer-generated characters to explore the game's story. Optionally, players will be able to take one of their characters and team up online with other players to form a party. Unlike previous games in the "Baldur's Gate" series, "Baldur's Gate III" has turn-based combat based on the D&D 5th Edition rules, similar to Larian's earlier games "" and "".


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: In the year 1492 DR, over 120 years after the events of "" and months after the events of "", the forces of darkness are on the rise. The player character (named by the player) has been taken captive by the mind flayers, who have launched an invasion of Faerûn. They have implanted the protagonist, as well as a host of other creatures, with illithid tadpoles, parasites capable of enthralling and transforming them into another mind flayer. Before the mind flayers can transform their victims, the nautiloid flying ship they are all aboard comes under attack from githyanki warriors and their red dragons and flees through multiple realms, including Avernus, the first of the Nine Hells. The protagonist is freed during the fighting and steers the damaged ship back to Faerûn, where it crashes. As the protagonist searches for a way to remove their parasite, they encounter other survivors of the wreck: the human wizard Gale, the half-elf cleric Shadowheart, the high elf vampire rogue Astarion, the human warlock Wyll, and the githyanki fighter Lae'zel.


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: The original "Baldur's Gate" game was developed by BioWare and Black Isle Studios, and published by Interplay Entertainment in 1998. The game used a licensed version of the "Dungeons & Dragons" ("D&D") rule set, specifically in the "Forgotten Realms" setting. The game's success led to a sequel, "", and its expansion pack, as well as "Icewind Dale" and its sequel, and finally, "". Black Isle Studios began work on a further sequel, "", in 2003, but Interplay faced significant financial crisis that year and shut down Black Isle, cancelling the game. Interplay lost the license to make "D&D" video games to Atari in 2008. Atari later released "Neverwinter Nights" and its sequel, "Neverwinter Nights 2". Wizards of the Coast had long since acquired the rights to "D&D" as part of their purchase of TSR, and had been making updates to the core rule sets over the previous years. The new sequel from Larian Studios has no connection to the cancelled "Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound".


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: The series' intellectual property (IP) had been sought after by multiple developers. This includes Brian Fargo, the founder of both Interplay and inXile Entertainment, as well as Feargus Urquhart of Obsidian Entertainment, who were seeking the IP rights for at least a decade. Larian Studios was interested in making a sequel in the "Baldur's Gate" series for some time, having first approached Wizards of the Coast after their release of "" around 2014. At this time, Wizards of the Coast felt the studio was still too new to the industry to be trusted with the "Baldur's Gate" license. Larian then developed "", which was released in September 2017. Pre-release materials related to the game impressed Wizards of the Coast, so they contacted Larian to ask if they still had interest in "Baldur's Gate III". Larian accepted, and while working to wrap up the release stage of development for "Divinity: Original Sin II", a small group gathered to develop the design document to present to Wizards of the Coast with their ideas for the new "Baldur's Gate".


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: The game will be based on the 5th-edition "Dungeons & Dragons" rule set, though it will include tweaks and modifications that Larian found necessary in translating it to a video game. For example, the combat system is expected to be weighed more in favor of the player than in the tabletop version, to make the game more enjoyable.


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: Larian Studios teased "Baldur's Gate III" in the week prior to E3 2019. They formally revealed it during Google's presentation on the Stadia platform just ahead of E3, confirming its release for both Windows and Stadia. The tabletop adventure "" was published by Wizards of the Coast in September 2019, and has been described as a "prequel" to "Baldur's Gate III". The "Descent into Avernus" adventure takes place roughly 100 years after the events of "Baldur's Gate II", and the story of "Baldur's Gate III" takes place immediately following the events of the "Descent into Avernus" tabletop module. On 5 October 2020, Larian Studios announced the game would be released for macOS in addition to Windows and Stadia.


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: "Baldur's Gate III" was originally set to be released in early access on 30 September 2020. This date was later delayed to 6 October 2020. The early access version contained only the first act of the game, amounting to approximately 25 hours of content and one-fifth of the game world's map. The character creator also initially included a selection of 16 races and six classes to choose from, with more planned for the finalized release. Additional features and content, including multiplayer functionality and more classes, were gradually added to the early access version through patches as development progressed towards the final release. Save files created during early access will not be transferable to the completed game.


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: The game is expected to remain in early access until August 2023. The full version of the game will not be released on Stadia due to the service's closure in January 2023.


title: Baldur's Gate III

text: On the day of its early access launch, "Baldur's Gate III" became the best-selling game on both Steam and GOG.com. On Steam, the game peaked at over 70,000 concurrent players, indicating strong initial sales. Larian Studios stated that heavy demand for the game appeared to cause technical issues for Steam in the minutes after the launch.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Dreadlocks, also known as locs or dreads, are rope-like strands of hair formed by locking or braiding hair.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Some of the earliest depictions of dreadlocks date back as far as 1600–1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, one of Europe's earliest civilizations, centred in Crete (now part of Greece). Frescoes discovered on the Aegean island of Thera (modern Santorini, Greece) depict individuals with long braided hair or long dreadlocks.


title: Dreadlocks

text: In ancient Egypt, examples of Egyptians wearing locked hairstyles and wigs have appeared on bas-reliefs, statuary and other artifacts. Mummified remains of Egyptians with locked wigs have also been recovered from archaeological sites.


title: Dreadlocks

text: During the Bronze and Iron Ages, many peoples in the Near East, Anatolia, Caucasus, East Mediterranean and North Africa such as the Sumerians, Elamites and Ancient Egyptians were depicted in art with braided or plaited hair and beards. However, braids are not dreadlocks, and it is not always possible to tell from these images which are being depicted.


title: Dreadlocks

text: The history of the name "dreadlocks" is unclear. Some authors have speculated that the "dread" component could refer to the reaction of British soldiers upon encountering Mau Mau fighters who had this hairstyle.


title: Dreadlocks

text: The style was worn by Ancient Christian Ascetics in the Middle East and Mediterranean, and the Dervishes of Islam, among others. Some of the very earliest adherents of Christianity in the Middle East may have worn this hairstyle; there are descriptions of James the Just, first Bishop of Jerusalem, who is said to have worn them to his ankles.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Pre-Columbian Aztec priests were described in Aztec codices (including the Durán Codex, the Codex Tudela and the Codex Mendoza) as wearing their hair untouched, allowing it to grow long and curl around itself. Bernal Diaz del Castillo records:here were priests with long robes of black cloth ... The hair of these priests was very long and so knotted that it could not be separated or disentangled, and most of them had their ears scarified, and their hair was clotted with blood.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Larry Wolff in his book "Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of Enlightenment" mentions that in Poland, for about a thousand years, some people wore a knotted hairstyle similar to that of some Scythians. Zygmunt Gloger in his "Encyklopedia staropolska" mentions that the Polish plait ("plica polonica") hairstyle was worn by some people in the Pinsk region and the Masovia region at the beginning of the 19th century. The Polish plait can vary between one large plait and multiple plaits that resemble dreadlocks.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Dreadlocks are also worn by some Rastafarians, who believe they represent a biblical hair style worn as a symbol of devotion by the Nazirites, as described in .


title: Dreadlocks

text: Locks have been worn for various reasons in each culture. Their use has also been raised in debates about cultural appropriation. Evidently, dreadlocks are seen in multiple cultures across the world.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Maasai warriors are known for their long, thin, red dreadlocks, dyed with red root extracts or red ochre.


title: Dreadlocks

text: In Nigeria, dreadlocks are viewed in a negative light due to their stereotypical association with gangs and criminal activity; men with dreadlocks face profiling from Nigerian police.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Some Indigenous Australians of North West and North Central Australia, as well as the Gold Coast region of North East Australia, have historically worn their hair in a locked style, sometimes also having long beards that are fully or partially locked. Traditionally, some wear the dreadlocks loose, while others wrap the dreadlocks around their heads, or bind them at the back of the head. In North Central Australia, the tradition is for the dreadlocks to be greased with fat and coated with red ochre, which assists in their formation.


title: Dreadlocks

text: Within Tibetan Buddhism and other more esoteric forms of Buddhism, locks have occasionally been substituted for the more traditional shaved head. The most recognizable of these groups are known as the Ngagpas of Tibet. For Buddhists of these particular sects and degrees of initiation, their locked hair is not only a symbol of their vows but an embodiment of the particular powers they are sworn to carry. 1.4.15 of the Hevajra Tantra states that the practitioner of particular ceremonies "should arrange his piled up hair" as part of the ceremonial protocol.


title: Dreadlocks

text: The practice of "Jaṭā" (dreadlocks) is practiced in modern day Hinduism, most notably by Sadhus who follow Śiva. The Kapalikas, first commonly referenced in the 6th century CE, were known to wear "Jaṭā" as a form of deity imitation of the deva Bhairava-Śiva. Shiva is often depicted with dreadlocks"."


title: Dreadlocks

text: Rastafari movement dreadlocks are symbolic of the Lion of Judah which is sometimes centered on the Ethiopian flag. Rastafari hold that Haile Selassie is a direct descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, through their son Menelik I. Their dreadlocks were inspired by the Nazarites of the Bible. Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Many Jamaican Rastafarians claimed that Selassie's coronation was evidence that he was the black messiah that they believed was prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Some street preachers such as Leonard Howell, Archibald Dunkley, Robert Hinds, and Joseph Hibbert began to claim that "Haile Selassie was the returned Jesus". During the Great Depression in the 1930s, the Rastafari message spread from Kingston to the rest of Jamaica, especially among poor communities.


title: Dreadlocks

text: The cultivation of dreadlocks in the later Rastafari movement established a closer connection between like-minded people.


title: Dreadlocks

text: When reggae music, which espoused Rastafarian ideals, gained popularity and mainstream acceptance in the 1970s, thanks to Bob Marley's music and cultural influence, dreadlocks (often called "dreads") became a notable fashion statement worldwide, and have been worn by prominent authors, actors, athletes and rappers.


title: Dreadlocks

text: In professional American football, the number of players with dreadlocks has increased ever since Al Harris and Ricky Williams first wore the style during the 1990s. In 2012, about 180 National Football League players wore dreadlocks. A significant number of these players are defensive backs, who are less likely to be tackled than offensive players.


title: Dreadlocks

text: In the NBA there has been controversy over the Brooklyn Nets guard Jeremy Lin, an Asian-American who garnered mild controversy over his choice of dreadlocks. Former NBA player Kenyon Martin accused Lin of appropriating African-American culture in a since-deleted social media post, after which Lin pointed out that Martin has multiple Chinese characters tattooed on his body.


title: Dreadlocks

text: On 3 July 2019, California became the first US state to prohibit discrimination over natural hair. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the CROWN Act into law, banning employers and schools from discriminating against hairstyles such as dreadlocks, braids, afros, and twists. Likewise, later in 2019, Assembly Bill 07797 became law in New York state; it "prohibits race discrimination based on natural hair or hairstyles".


title: Dreadlocks

text: On 10 December 2010, the "Guinness Book of World Records" rested its "longest dreadlocks" category after investigation of its first and only female title holder, Asha Mandela, with this official statement:


title: Dreadlocks

text: Following a review of our guidelines for the longest dreadlock, we have taken expert advice and made the decision to rest this category. The reason for this is that it is difficult, and in many cases impossible, to measure the authenticity of the locks due to expert methods employed in the attachment of hair extensions/re-attachment of broken off dreadlocks. Effectively the dreadlock can become an extension and therefore impossible to adjudicate accurately. It is for this reason Guinness World Records has decided to rest the category and will no longer be monitoring the category for longest dreadlock.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organisation founded by Nelson Mandela.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan studied economics at Macalester College, international relations at the Graduate Institute Geneva, and management at MIT. Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organization's Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996. He was appointed secretary-general on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council, and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001 and was succeeded as secretary-general by Ban Ki-moon in 2007.


title: Kofi Annan

text: As secretary-general, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy, worked to combat HIV/AIDS (especially in Africa) and launched the UN Global Compact. He was criticised for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for his resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Programme, but was largely exonerated of personal corruption. After the end of his term as secretary-general, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to work on international development. In 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to help find a resolution to the ongoing conflict there. Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UN's lack of progress with regards to conflict resolution. In September 2016, Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis. He died in 2018 and was given a state funeral.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) on 8 April 1938. His twin sister Efua Atta, who died in 1991, shared the middle name "Atta", which in the Akan language means "twin". Annan and his sister were born into one of the country's Fante aristocratic families; both of their grandfathers and their uncle were Fante paramount chiefs.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In the Akan names tradition, some children are named according to the day of the week they were born, sometimes in relation to how many children precede them. "Kofi" in Akan is the name that corresponds with Friday, the day on which Annan was born. The last name Annan in Fante means fourth-born child. Annan said that his surname rhymes with "cannon" in English.


title: Kofi Annan

text: From 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim, an all-boys Methodist boarding school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan said that the school taught him that "suffering anywhere, concerns people everywhere". In 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, the Gold Coast gained independence from the UK and began using the name "Ghana".


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies in economics at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, US, in 1961. Annan then completed a DEA degree in International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961 to 1962. After some years of work experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management (1971–72) in the Sloan Fellows program and earned a master's degree in management.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan was fluent in English, French, Akan, and some Kru languages as well as other African languages.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 1962, Annan started working as a budget officer for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations (UN). From 1974 to 1976, he worked as a manager of the state-owned Ghana Tourist Development Company in Accra. In 1980 he became the head of personnel for the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. Between 1981 and 1983 he was a member of the Governing Board of the International School of Geneva. In 1983 he became the director of administrative management services of the UN Secretariat in New York. In 1987, Annan was appointed as an assistant secretary-general for Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator for the UN system. In 1990, he became Assistant Secretary-General for Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Control.


title: Kofi Annan

text: When Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali established the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in 1992, Annan was appointed to the new department as Deputy to then Under-Secretary-General Marrack Goulding. Annan replaced Goulding in March 1993 as Under-Secretary-General of that department after American officials persuaded Boutros-Ghali that Annan was more flexible and more aligned with the role that the Pentagon expected of UN peacekeepers in Somalia. On 29 August 1995, while Boutros-Ghali was unreachable on an aeroplane, Annan instructed United Nations officials to "relinquish for a limited period of time their authority to veto air strikes in Bosnia". This move allowed NATO forces to conduct Operation Deliberate Force and made him a favourite of the United States. According to Richard Holbrooke, Annan's "gutsy performance" convinced the United States that he would be a good replacement for Boutros-Ghali.


title: Kofi Annan

text: He was appointed a special representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia, serving from November 1995 to March 1996.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 2003, retired Canadian general Roméo Dallaire, who was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), claimed that Annan was overly passive in his response to the imminent genocide. In his book "" (2003), Dallaire asserted that Annan held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict, and from providing more logistical and material support. Dallaire claimed that Annan failed to respond to his repeated faxes asking for access to a weapons depository; such weapons could have helped Dallaire defend the endangered Tutsis. In 2004, ten years after the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed, Annan said: "I could and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support."


title: Kofi Annan

text: In his book "", Annan again argued that the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations could have made better use of the media to raise awareness of the violence in Rwanda and put pressure on governments to provide the troops necessary for an intervention. Annan explained that the events in Somalia and the collapse of the UNOSOM II mission fostered a hesitation among UN member states to approve robust peacekeeping operations. As a result, when the UNAMIR mission was approved just days after the battle, the resulting force lacked the troop levels, resources and mandate to operate effectively.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 1996, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ran unopposed for a second term. Although he won 14 of the 15 votes on the Security Council, he was vetoed by the United States. After four deadlocked meetings of the Security Council, Boutros-Ghali suspended his candidacy, becoming the only secretary-general ever to be denied a second term. Annan was the leading candidate to replace him, beating Amara Essy by one vote in the first round. However, France vetoed Annan four times before finally abstaining. The UN Security Council recommended Annan on 13 December 1996. Confirmed four days later by the vote of the General Assembly, he started his first term as secretary-general on 1 January 1997.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Due to Boutros-Ghali's overthrow, a second Annan term would give Africa the office of Secretary-General for three consecutive terms. In 2001, the Asia-Pacific Group agreed to support Annan for a second term in return for the African Group's support for an Asian secretary-general in the 2006 selection. The Security Council recommended Annan for a second term on 27 June 2001, and the General Assembly approved his reappointment on 29 June 2001.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Soon after taking office in 1997, Annan released two reports on management reform. On 17 March 1997, the report "Management and Organisational Measures" (A/51/829) introduced new management mechanisms through the establishment of a cabinet-style body to assist him and the UN's activities in accordance with four core missions. A comprehensive reform agenda was issued on 14 July 1997 titled "Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform" (A/51/950). Key proposals included the introduction of strategic management to strengthen unity of purpose, the establishment of the position of deputy secretary-general, a 10-percent reduction in posts, a reduction in administrative costs, the consolidation of the UN at the country level, and reaching out to civil society and the private sector as partners. Annan also proposed to hold a Millennium Summit in 2000.


title: Kofi Annan

text: After years of research, Annan presented a progress report, "In Larger Freedom", to the UN General Assembly on 21 March 2005. Annan recommended Security Council expansion and a host of other UN reforms.


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 31 January 2006, Annan outlined his vision for a comprehensive and extensive reform of the UN in a policy speech to the United Nations Association UK. The speech, delivered at Central Hall, Westminster, also marked the 60th anniversary of the first meetings of the General Assembly and Security Council.


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 7 March 2006, he presented to the General Assembly his proposals for a fundamental overhaul of the United Nations Secretariat. The reform report is titled "Investing in the United Nations, For a Stronger Organization Worldwide".


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 30 March 2006, he presented to the General Assembly his analysis and recommendations for updating the entire work programme of the United Nations Secretariat. The reform report is titled "Mandating and Delivering: Analysis and Recommendations to Facilitate the Review of Mandates".


title: Kofi Annan

text: Regarding the UN Human Rights Council, Annan said "declining credibility" had "cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system. Unless we re-make our human rights machinery, we may be unable to renew public confidence in the United Nations itself." However, he did believe that, despite its flaws, the council could do good.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In March 2000, Annan appointed the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations to assess the shortcomings of the then existing system and to make specific and realistic recommendations for change. The panel was composed of individuals experienced in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building. The report it produced, which became known as the Brahimi Report, after chair of the Panel Lakhdar Brahimi, called for:


title: Kofi Annan

text: The Panel further noted that in order to be effective, UN peacekeeping operations must be properly resourced and equipped, and operate under clear, credible and achievable mandates. In a letter transmitting the report to the General Assembly and Security Council, Annan stated that the Panel's recommendations were essential to make the United Nations truly credible as a force for peace. Later that same year, the Security Council adopted several provisions relating to peacekeeping following the report, in Resolution 1327.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 2000, Annan issued a report titled "We the Peoples: the Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century". The report called for member states to "put people at the centre of everything we do": "No calling is more noble, and no responsibility greater, than that of enabling men, women and children, in cities and villages around the world, to make their lives better."


title: Kofi Annan

text: In the final chapter of the report, Annan called to "free our fellow men and women from the abject and dehumanizing poverty in which more than 1 billion of them are currently confined".


title: Kofi Annan

text: At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, national leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, which was subsequently implemented by the United Nations Secretariat as the Millennium Development Goals in 2001.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Within the "We the Peoples" document, Annan suggested the establishment of a United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a consortium of high-tech volunteer corps, including NetCorps Canada and Net Corps America, which United Nations Volunteers (UNV) would coordinate. In the "Report of the high-level panel of experts on information and communication technology", suggesting a UN ICT Task Force, the panel welcomed the establishment of UNITeS and made suggestions on its configuration and implementation strategy, including that ICT4D volunteering opportunities make mobilising "national human resources" (local ICT experts) within developing countries a priority, for both men and women. The initiative was launched at the UNV and was active from February 2001 to February 2005. Initiative staff and volunteers participated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In an address to the World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, Annan argued that the "goals of the United Nations and those of business can, indeed, be mutually supportive" and proposed that the private sector and the United Nations initiate "a global compact of shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market".


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 26 July 2000, the United Nations Global Compact was officially launched at UN headquarters in New York. It is a principle-based framework for businesses which aims to "[c]atalyse actions in support of broader UN goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)". The Compact established ten core principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption, and under the Compact, companies commit to the ten principles and are brought together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society to effectively implement them.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Towards the end of the 1990s, increased awareness of the destructive potential of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS pushed public health issues to the top of the global development agenda. In April 2001, Annan issued a five-point "Call to Action" to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Stating it was a "personal priority", Annan proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund, "dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases", to stimulate the increased international spending needed to help developing countries confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. In June of that year, the General Assembly of the United Nations committed to the creation of such a fund during a special session on AIDS, and the permanent secretariat of the Global Fund was subsequently established in January 2002.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Following the failure of Annan and the international community to intervene in the genocide in Rwanda and in Srebrenica, Annan asked whether the international community had an obligation in such situations to intervene to protect civilian populations. In a speech to the General Assembly on 20 September 1999, "to address the prospects for human security and intervention in the next century", Annan argued that individual sovereignty—the protections afforded by the Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the UN—was being strengthened, while the notion of state sovereignty was being redefined by globalisation and international co-operation. As a result, the UN and its member states had to consider a willingness to act to prevent conflict and civilian suffering, a dilemma between "two concepts of sovereignty" that Annan also presented in a preceding article in "The Economist" on 16 September 1999.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In September 2001 the Canadian government established an ad hoc committee to address this balance between state sovereignty and humanitarian intervention. The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty published its final report in 2001, which focused not on the right of states to intervene but on a responsibility to protect populations at risk. The report moved beyond the question of military intervention, arguing that a range of diplomatic and humanitarian actions could also be utilised to protect civilian populations.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 2005, Annan included the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect" (RtoP) in his report "In Larger Freedom". When that report was endorsed by the UN General Assembly, it amounted to the first formal endorsement by UN member states of the doctrine of RtoP.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In the years after 1998 when UNSCOM was expelled by the government of Saddam Hussein and during the Iraq disarmament crisis, in which the United States blamed UNSCOM and former IAEA director Hans Blix for failing to properly disarm Iraq, former UNSCOM chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter blamed Annan for being slow and ineffective in enforcing Security Council resolutions on Iraq and was overtly submissive to the demands of the Clinton administration for regime removal and inspection of sites, often presidential palaces, that were not mandated in any resolution and were of questionable intelligence value, severely hampering UNSCOM's ability to co-operate with the Iraqi government and contributed to their expulsion from the country. Ritter also claimed that Annan regularly interfered with the work of the inspectors and diluted the chain of command by trying to micromanage all of the activities of UNSCOM, which caused intelligence processing (and the resulting inspections) to be backed up and caused confusion with the Iraqis as to who was in charge and as a result, they generally refused to take orders from Ritter or Rolf Ekéus without explicit approval from Annan, which could have taken days, if not weeks. He later believed that Annan was oblivious to the fact the Iraqis took advantage of this to delay inspections. He claimed that on one occasion, Annan refused to implement a no-notice inspection of the Iraqi Special Security Organization (SSO) headquarters and instead tried to negotiate access, but the negotiation ended up taking nearly six weeks, giving the Iraqis more than enough time to clean out the site.


title: Kofi Annan

text: During the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Annan called on the United States and the United Kingdom not to invade without the support of the United Nations. In a September 2004 interview on the BBC, when questioned about the legal authority for the invasion, Annan said he believed it was not in conformity with the UN charter and was illegal.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 1998, Annan was deeply involved in supporting the transition from military to civilian rule in Nigeria. The following year, he supported the efforts of East Timor to secure independence from Indonesia. In 2000, he was responsible for certifying Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, and in 2006, he led talks in New York between the presidents of Cameroon and Nigeria which led to a settlement of the dispute between the two countries over the Bakassi peninsula.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disagreed sharply on Iran's nuclear program, on an Iranian exhibition of cartoons mocking the Holocaust, and on the then-upcoming International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, an Iranian Holocaust denial conference in 2006. During a visit to Iran instigated by continued Iranian uranium enrichment, Annan said: "I think the tragedy of the Holocaust is an undeniable historical fact and we should really accept that fact and teach people what happened in World War II and ensure it is never repeated."


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan supported sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Sudan. He worked with the government of Sudan to accept a transfer of power from the African Union peacekeeping mission to a UN one. Annan also worked with several Arab and Muslim countries on women's rights and other topics.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Beginning in 1998, Annan convened an annual UN "Security Council Retreat" with the 15 states' representatives of the council. It was held at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) Conference Center at the Rockefeller family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York, and was sponsored by both the RBF and the UN.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In June 2004, Annan was given a copy of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report on the complaint brought by four female workers against Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, for sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and retaliation. The report also reviewed a long-serving staff member's allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against Werner Blatter, director of UNHCR personnel. The investigation found Lubbers guilty of sexual harassment; no mention was made publicly of the other charge against a senior official, or two subsequent complaints filed later that year. In the course of the official investigation, Lubbers wrote a letter which some considered a threat to the female worker who had brought the charges. On 15 July 2004, Annan cleared Lubbers of the accusations, saying they were not substantial enough legally. The internal UN–OIOS report on Lubbers was leaked, and sections accompanied by an article by Kate Holt were published in a British newspaper. In February 2005, Lubbers resigned as head of the UN refugee agency, saying that he wanted to relieve political pressure on Annan.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In December 2004, reports surfaced that the Secretary-General's son Kojo Annan received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Programme. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations. On 11 November 2005, "The Sunday Times" agreed to apologise and pay a substantial sum in damages to Kojo Annan, accepting that the allegations were untrue.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan appointed the Independent Inquiry Committee, which was led by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, then the director of the United Nations Association of the US. In his first interview with the Inquiry Committee, Annan denied having had a meeting with Cotecna. Later in the inquiry, he recalled that he had met with Cotecna's chief executive Elie-Georges Massey twice. In a final report issued on 27 October, the committee found insufficient evidence to indict Annan on any illegal actions but did find fault with Benon Sevan, an Armenian-Cypriot national who had worked for the UN for about 40 years. Appointed by Annan to the Oil-For-Food role, Sevan repeatedly asked Iraqis for allocations of oil to the African Middle East Petroleum Company. Sevan's behaviour was "ethically improper", Volcker said to reporters. Sevan repeatedly denied the charges and argued that he was being made a "scapegoat". The Volcker report was highly critical of the UN management structure and the Security Council oversight. It strongly recommended a new position be established of chief operating officer (COO), to handle the fiscal and administrative responsibilities then under the Secretary-General's office. The report listed the companies, both Western and Middle Eastern, which had benefited illegally from the program.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 2001, its centennial year, the Nobel Committee decided that the Peace Prize was to be divided between the UN and Annan. They were awarded the Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world", having revitalised the UN and for having given priority to human rights. The Nobel Committee also recognised his commitment to the struggle to contain the spread of HIV in Africa and his declared opposition to international terrorism.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Soon after Annan was awarded the Peace Prize, he was given the title of Busumuru by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II. The honour was conferred upon him for his "[selfless] contributions to humanity and promotion of peace throughout the world".


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan defended his deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown, who openly criticised the United States in a speech on 6 June 2006: "[T]he prevailing practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable. You will lose the UN one way or another. [...] [That] the US is constructively engaged with the UN [...] is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News." Malloch later said his talk was a "sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. by a friend and admirer".


title: Kofi Annan

text: The talk was unusual because it violated the unofficial policy of not having top officials publicly criticise member nations. The interim US ambassador John Bolton, appointed by President George W. Bush, was reported to have told Annan on the phone: "I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time." Observers from other nations supported Malloch's view that conservative politicians in the US prevented many citizens from understanding the benefits of US involvement in the UN.


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 19 September 2006, Annan gave a farewell address to world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York, in anticipation of his retirement on 31 December. In the speech, he outlined three major problems of "an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law", which he believed "have not resolved, but sharpened" during his time as secretary-general. He also pointed to violence in Africa and the Arab–Israeli conflict as two major issues warranting attention.


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 11 December 2006, in , delivered at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, Annan recalled President Truman's leadership in the founding of the United Nations. He called for the United States to return to Truman's multilateralist foreign policies, and to follow Truman's credo that "the responsibility of the great states is to serve and not dominate the peoples of the world". He also said that the United States must maintain its commitment to human rights, "including in the struggle against terrorism".


title: Kofi Annan

text: After his service as UN secretary-general, Annan took up residence in Geneva and worked in a leading capacity on various international humanitarian endeavours.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 2007, Annan established the Kofi Annan Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit organisation that "works to promote better global governance and strengthen the capacities of people and countries to achieve a fairer, more secure world".


title: Kofi Annan

text: The organisation was founded on the principles that fair and peaceful societies rest on three pillars: peace and security, sustainable development, and human rights and the rule of law, and they have made it their mission to mobilise the leadership and the political resolve needed to tackle threats to these three pillars ranging from violent conflict to flawed elections and climate change, to achieve "a fairer, more peaceful world".


title: Kofi Annan

text: The Foundation provides the analytical, communication and co-ordination capacities needed to ensure that these objectives are achieved. Annan's contribution to peace worldwide is delivered through mediation, political mentoring, advocacy and advice. Through his engagement, Annan aimed to strengthen local and international conflict resolution capabilities. The Foundation provides the analytical and logistical support to facilitate this in cooperation with relevant local, regional and international actors. The Foundation works mainly through private diplomacy, where Annan provided informal counsel and participated in discreet diplomatic initiatives to avert or resolve crises by applying his experience and inspirational leadership. He was often asked to intercede in crises, sometimes as an impartial independent mediator, sometimes as a special envoy of the international community. In recent years he had provided such counsel to Burkina Faso, Kenya, Myanmar, Senegal, Iraq and Colombia.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Following the outbreak of violence after the 2007 presidential elections in Kenya, the African Union (AU) established the Panel of Eminent African Personalities to assist in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis. Annan was appointed as chair of the panel, to lead it with Benjamin Mkapa, former president of Tanzania; and humanitarian Graça Machel, former first lady of Mozambique and South Africa.


title: Kofi Annan

text: The panel managed to convince the two principal parties to the conflict, President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), to participate in the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Process (KNDR). Over the course of 41 days of negotiations, several agreements regarding taking actions to stop the violence and remedying its consequences were signed. On 28 February, President Kibaki and Odinga signed a coalition government agreement.


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 23 February 2012, Annan was appointed as the UN and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, in an attempt to end the civil war taking place. He developed a six-point plan for peace:


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 2 August, he resigned as envoy to Syria, citing the intransigence of both the Assad government and the rebels, as well as the stalemate on the Security Council as preventing any peaceful resolution of the situation. Annan also stated that the lack of international unity and ineffective diplomacy among world leaders had made the peaceful resolution in Syria an impossible task.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan served as the chair of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security. The commission was launched in May 2011 as a joint initiative of the Kofi Annan Foundation and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. It comprised 12 eminent individuals from around the world, including Ernesto Zedillo, Martti Ahtisaari, Madeleine Albright and Amartya Sen, and aimed to highlight the importance of the integrity of elections to achieving a more secure, prosperous and stable world. The Commission released its final report, "Deepening Democracy, a Strategy to Improve the Integrity of Elections Worldwide", in September 2012.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In September 2016, Annan was asked to lead the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Myanmar, an impoverished region beset by ethnic conflict and extreme sectarian violence, particularly by Myanmar's Buddhist majority against the Rohingya Muslim minority, further targeted by government forces. The commission, widely known simply as the "Annan Commission", was opposed by many Myanmar Buddhists as unwelcome interference in their relations with the Rohingya.


title: Kofi Annan

text: When the Annan commission released its final report, the week of 24 August 2017, with recommendations unpopular with all sides, violence exploded in the Rohingya conflict – the largest and bloodiest humanitarian disaster in the region in decades – driving most of the Rohingya from Myanmar. Annan attempted to engage the United Nations to resolve the matter, but failed.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan died a week before the first anniversary of the report, shortly after an announcement by a replacement commission that it would not "point fingers" at the guilty parties – leading to widespread concern that the new commission was just a sham to protect culpable Myanmar government officials and citizens from accountability.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 2018, before Annan's death, Myanmar's civilian government, under the direction of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, made a gesture of acceptance of the Annan commission's recommendations by convening another board – the Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State – ostensibly to implement the Annan commission's proposed reforms, but never actually implemented them. Some of the international representatives resigned – notably the panel's secretary, Thailand's former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai, and former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson – decrying the "implementation" committee as ineffective, or a "whitewash".


title: Kofi Annan

text: In March 2011, Annan became a member of the advisory board for Investcorp Bank B. S. C. Europe, an international private equity firm and sovereign wealth fund owned by the United Arab Emirates. He held the position until 2018.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan became a member of the Global Advisory Board of Macro Advisory Partners LLP, a risk and strategic consulting firm based in London and New York City for business, finance and government decision-makers, with some operations related to Investcorp.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In addition to the above, Annan also became involved with several organisations with both global and African focuses, including the following:


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan served as chair of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders who work together on peace and human rights issues. In November 2008, Annan and fellow elders Jimmy Carter and Graça Machel attempted to travel to Zimbabwe to make a first-hand assessment of the humanitarian situation in the country. Refused entry, the Elders instead carried out their assessment from Johannesburg, where they met Zimbabwe- and South Africa-based leaders from politics, business, international organisations, and civil society. In May 2011, following months of political violence in Côte d'Ivoire, Annan travelled to the country with elders Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson to encourage national reconciliation. On 16 October 2014, Annan attended the One Young World Summit in Dublin. During a session with fellow elder Mary Robinson, Annan encouraged 1,300 young leaders from 191 countries to lead on intergenerational issues such as climate change and the need for action to take place now, not tomorrow:


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan chaired the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa. As chair, he facilitated coalition building to leverage and broker knowledge, in addition to convening decision-makers to influence policy and create lasting change in Africa. Every year, the Panel releases a report, the Africa Progress Report, which outlines an issue of immediate importance to the continent and suggests a set of associated policies. In 2014, the Report highlighted the potential of African fisheries, agriculture, and forests to drive economic development. The 2015 report explores the role of climate change and the potential of renewable energy investments in determining Africa's economic future.


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 4 September 2012, Annan with Nader Mousavizadeh wrote a memoir, "Interventions: A Life in War and Peace". Published by Penguin Press, the book has been described as a "personal biography of global statecraft".


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 1965, Annan married Titi Alakija, a Nigerian woman from an aristocratic family. Several years later they had a daughter, Ama, and later a son, Kojo. The couple separated in the late 1970s, and divorced in 1983.


title: Kofi Annan

text: In 1984, Annan married Nane Lagergren, a Swedish lawyer at the UN and a maternal half-niece of diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. She has a daughter, Nina, from a previous marriage.


title: Kofi Annan

text: Annan died on the morning of 18 August 2018 in Bern, Switzerland, at the age of 80, after a short illness. António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said that Annan was "a global champion for peace" and "a guiding force for good". His body was returned to his native Ghana from Geneva in a brief and solemn ceremony at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, on 10 September. His coffin, draped in the blue UN flag, was accompanied by his widow Nane, his children and senior diplomats from the international organisation.


title: Kofi Annan

text: On 13 September, a state funeral was held for Annan in Ghana at the Accra International Conference Centre. The ceremony was attended by several political leaders from across Africa as well as Ghanaian traditional rulers, European royalty and dignitaries from the international community, including the UN secretary-general António Guterres. Prior to the funeral service, his body lay in state in the foyer of the same venue, from 11 to 12 September. A private burial followed the funeral service at the new Military Cemetery at Burma Camp, with full military honours and the sounding of the Last Post by army buglers and a .


title: Kofi Annan

text: The United Nations Postal Administration released a new stamp in memory of Annan on 31 May 2019. His portrait on the stamp was designed by artist Martin Mörck. The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre and the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, both in Accra, are named in his honour. The Kofi Annan University of Guinea is also named after him.


The USA Basketball Men's National Team, commonly known as the United States men's national basketball team, is the basketball team representing the United States. They are the most successful team in international competition, winning medals in all nineteen Olympic tournaments it has entered, including sixteen golds. In the professional era, the team won the Olympic gold medal in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. Two of its gold medal-winning teams were inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August 2010: the 1960 team, which featured six Hall of Famers (4 players, 2 coaches), and the 1992 "Dream Team", featuring 14 Hall of Famers (11 players, 3 coaches). The team is currently ranked second in the FIBA World Rankings, only behind Spain.


title: United States men's national basketball team

text: Traditionally composed of amateur players, the U.S. dominated the first decades of international basketball, winning a record seven consecutive Olympic gold medals. However, by the end of the 1980s, American amateurs were no longer competitive against seasoned professionals from the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.


text: In 1989, FIBA modified its rules and allowed USA Basketball to field teams with National Basketball Association players. The first such team, known as the "Dream Team", won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, being superior in all matches. With the introduction of NBA players, the team was able to spark a second run of dominance in the 1990s.


text: Facing increased competition, the U.S. failed to win a medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship, finishing sixth. The 2004 Olympic team, being depleted by a number of withdrawals, lost three games on its way to a bronze medal, a record that represented more losses in a single year than the country's Olympic teams had suffered in all previous Olympiads combined.


text: Determined to put an end to these failures, USA Basketball initiated a long-term project aimed at creating better, more cohesive teams. The U.S. won its first seven games at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan before losing against Greece in the semi-finals; ending the competition with the bronze medal. The team won gold two years later—at the 2008 Summer Olympics—in a dominant fashion. This success was followed up at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, where despite fielding a roster featuring no players from the 2008 Olympic team, the U.S. did not lose a single game en route to defeating host Turkey for the gold medal.


text: The Americans continued this streak of dominance in the 2010s by going undefeated and capturing gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2014 FIBA World Cup. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, the team, led by Mike Krzyzewski for a record third time, won its 15th gold medal, making him the most decorated coach in USA Basketball history. After Krzyzewski stepped down in 2016, team USA lost to France in the quarter-finals of the 2019 FIBA World Cup, finishing seventh overall. However, team USA would avenge this loss in the 2020 Summer Olympics, defeating France 87–82 in the final to capture the team's fourth straight gold medal and 16th overall.


text: The US men were dominant from the first Olympic tournament to hold basketball, held in Berlin in 1936, going 5–0 to win the gold, and joined by continental neighbors Canada and Mexico on the medal platform. Through the next six tournaments, the United States went undefeated, collecting gold while not losing a single contest in the games held in London, Helsinki, Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo, and Mexico City. Participation in these tournaments were limited to amateurs, but the US teams during this period featured players who would later go on to become superstars in professional basketball, including all-time greats Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Jerry Lucas; the latter three competed on the 1960 Rome team often credited as the best U.S. roster until the formation of the 1992 Dream Team.


text: Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, both briefly NBA stars, made the 1948 squad as Kentucky Wildcats, with 3-time Oklahoma State All-American and 6-time AAU All-American, and Hall of Famer Bob Kurland leading the way. The 1952 team included big man Clyde Lovellette of the University of Kansas, a future Hall of Famer and NBA star. Kurland once again led the team to victory.


text: The 1956 team was led by San Francisco Dons teammates Bill Russell and K. C. Jones, and defeated its opponents by an unsurpassed average margin of 53.5 points per game.


text: The 1960 team included nine future NBA players, including four consecutive NBA Rookie(s) of the Year; Robertson (1961 NBA Rookie of the Year), Lucas (1964 NBA Rookie of the Year), Terry Dischinger (1963 NBA Rookie of the Year), and Walt Bellamy (1962 NBA Rookie of the Year) but also Hall of Famer Jerry West and NBA All-Star(s), Darrall Imhoff (1967 NBA All Star), Bob Boozer (1968 NBA All Star), Adrian Smith (1966 NBA All Star game MVP) and Jay Arnette. They defeated their opponents by an average margin of 42.4 points per game.


text: The 1972 Olympic men's basketball gold medal game, marking the first ever loss for the US in Olympic play, is arguably the most controversial in Olympic history. The United States rode their seven consecutive gold medals and 63–0 Olympic record to Munich for the 1972 Summer Olympics. The team won its first eight games in convincing fashion, setting up a final against the Soviet Union, holding a 6–0 advantage over the Soviets in Olympic play.


text: With three seconds left in the gold medal game, American forward Doug Collins sank two free throws after being hit hard by a Soviet player to put the Americans up 50–49. Immediately following Collins' free throws, the Soviets inbounded the ball and failed to score. Soviet coaches claimed that they had requested a timeout before Collins' foul shots. The referees ordered the clock reset to three seconds and the game's final seconds replayed. The horn sounded as a length-of-the-court Soviet pass was being released from the inbounding player, the pass missed its mark, and the American players began celebrating.


text: Nevertheless, the final three seconds were replayed for a third time. This time, the Soviets' Alexander Belov and the USA's Kevin Joyce and Jim Forbes went up for the pass, and Belov caught the long pass from Ivan Edeshko near the American basket. Belov then laid the ball in for the winning points as the buzzer sounded. The US players voted unanimously to refuse their silver medals, and at least one team member, Kenny Davis, has directed in his will that his heirs are never to accept the medals, even posthumously. It was later revealed that game officials might have been bribed by the Communist party.


text: After the controversial loss in Munich, 1976 saw Dean Smith coach the US to a 7–0 record and its eighth Olympic gold medal in Montreal. The success at this tournament pushed the USA's all-time Olympic record to an impressive 78–1.


text: The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan prompted the United States and 66 other countries to boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.


text: The 1980 U.S. team, which featured a number of future NBA players, was the youngest American national team ever assembled. This team featured: Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Sam Bowie, Michael Brooks, Bill Hanzlik, Alton Lister, Rodney McCray, Isiah Thomas, Darnell Valentine, Danny Vranes, Buck Williams and Al Wood. Unable to compete in the Olympics due to the boycott, it instead participated in the "Gold Medal Series", a series of games against NBA all-star teams in various U.S. cities, recording a 5–1 record. It was coached by Dave Gavitt.


text: Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Chris Mullin, future members of the 1992 Dream Team, made their Olympic debuts in 1984. Jordan led the team with 17.1 points per game, and Bob Knight coached the team to an 8–0 record and another Olympic gold.


text: The 1988 U.S. team had a roster of collegians aged 20–23 that included future NBA all-stars David Robinson, Danny Manning, and Mitch Richmond. The team came up short, winning the bronze medal. The American team lost to the gold medal winner Soviet Union in the semifinals, but then regrouped and went on to beat Australia 78–49 in the bronze medal game. Dan Majerle led the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game. This was the last time the American Olympic Team consisted of amateur college players.


text: The decade started with a semifinal loss to Yugoslavia in the 1990 FIBA World Championship, followed by another semifinal defeat to Puerto Rico in the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana. The 1990 championship marked the last time that the U.S. was represented by college players at a major international tournament (World Championship & Olympics).


text: The decades-long use of "shamateurs" by the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and other international teams prompted FIBA to modify its rules and allow NBA players in the 1992 Olympics and beyond. The team assembled by USA Basketball for the tournament in Barcelona in 1992 was one of the most illustrious collections of talent assembled in the history of international sport. Of the twelve players on the team, ten were named in 1996 among the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, the NBA's official list of the 50 greatest players of the league's first 50 years. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird served as co-captains.


text: Because of this star line-up, the team's games usually featured opposing teams asking for pregame photos and autographs with their U.S. opponents. The USA team was so much better than the competition that head coach Chuck Daly did not call a single timeout during the tournament. The 1992 Dream Team won by an average of 43.8 points (second most, behind the 1956 US team) and the closest a team came to challenging the U.S. was Croatia, which was beaten by 32. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen became the first players to win both NBA championship and Olympic gold medal in the same year, having played for the Chicago Bulls.


text: Regarding drug-testing the athletes, according to USA Basketball spokesman Craig Miller, "Since 1990, all of our teams have been tested in competition. I believe since around 1988 we have also been subject to out-of-competition testing. We have been 100 percent fully compliant with USADA and WADA."


text: The United States fielded another team composed of NBA players in the 1994 World Championship, held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This was an entirely new roster, as USA Basketball elected to showcase stars who were not present at the 1992 Olympics. Composed primarily of younger NBA players, the team lacked the widespread appeal of its predecessor but nevertheless continued its dominance. Those players were Derrick Coleman, Joe Dumars, Kevin Johnson, Larry Johnson, Shawn Kemp, Dan Majerle, Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O'Neal, Mark Price, Steve Smith and Dominique Wilkins. Coached by Don Nelson of the Golden State Warriors, this team easily captured the gold medal in tournament play. The team was referred to as the "Dream Team II".


text: The third team composed of NBA players participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta. The star quality of the team was impressive as it featured five members of the original Dream Team (Barkley, Malone, Pippen, Robinson, and Stockton), plus two other members of the NBA 50 Greatest Players list, Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O'Neal. Lenny Wilkens coached the team.


text: The Americans won another gold medal with an average margin of victory of 31.8 points per game. They captured the gold medal after defeating Yugoslavia 95–69. With Atlanta being home to the Hawks, these games were the first Olympics to take place in a city with an NBA team since the league started allowing its players to compete in the Olympics. The team was commonly referred to as the "Dream Team III".


text: The 1998 World Championship in Athens, Greece was different from the previous teams, as none of its players were current members of NBA teams. Because of a labor dispute that led to a lockout, no active NBA players were permitted to compete in the tournament. The 12 NBA players picked before the lockout were Tim Duncan, Tim Hardaway, Vin Baker, Gary Payton, Terrell Brandon, Kevin Garnett, Tom Gugliotta, Grant Hill, Allan Houston, Christian Laettner, Glen Rice, and Chris Webber.


text: The replacement team was composed largely of players from American colleges, the minor-league Continental Basketball Association, or European pro leagues. The unheralded roster captured a bronze medal, considered a solid achievement given its lack of top-notch talent. The team was nicknamed the "Dirty Dozen" for its work ethic and teamwork. Undrafted free agent Brad Miller became a two-time NBA All-Star. Some of the other team members—including Trajan Langdon, Kiwane Garris, David Wood and Michael Hawkins—had brief spells in the NBA. All went on to have careers in Europe, with Langdon being named to the Euroleague's All-Decade Team for the 2000s.


text: During the late 1990s, international basketball began to gather attention as more and more foreign players became stars in the NBA. Therefore, the 2000 U.S. team had the enormous task of proving that American basketball could remain the best in the world. The new team that was assembled again featured NBA players, but this time few of them were considered to be true superstars, as several elite players elected not to participate.


text: The U.S. team participated in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia and was coached by Rudy Tomjanovich. It won its first two games by lopsided margins, but faced more difficult competition thereafter. In a preliminary game against Lithuania, the U.S. team won 85–76, marking the first time a team of professional American players failed to win by double digits. Two games later, in a 106–94 victory over France, Vince Carter pulled off one of the most famous dunks in basketball history, jumping over the French center Frédéric Weis on his way to the basket. (The French media would dub Carter's feat ""—"the dunk of death".)


text: A shock came in the semifinals when the United States defeated Lithuania by the close score of 85–83. Lithuanian star (and future NBA player, first with the Indiana Pacers and later with the Golden State Warriors) Šarūnas Jasikevičius failed to get a potential game-winning 3-point shot off in time.


text: The closeness of the semifinal game was so shocking that NBC took the unusual step of showing the gold medal game live rather than on tape delay. (The game started around 2 p.m. Sydney time on Sunday, October 1, which is late Saturday evening in the USA. NBC originally planned to show the game almost 24 hours later during its Sunday prime time broadcast.) The USA won the gold medal against France in a close game, 85–75. Though the US went undefeated on its way to the gold medal, the team began to lose its aura of invincibility for the first time.


text: The 2002 team competed in the World Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Coached by George Karl, the team finished a surprisingly disappointing sixth in the competition. During the tournament, Argentina defeated the US in the second preliminary round group stage, thus becoming the first team ever to defeat a USA team composed of NBA players. Yugoslavia knocked out the US in the quarterfinals, becoming the first team ever to defeat USA team of NBA players in knockout stage. Then Spain repeated the outcome in the 5th place playoff. To a greater degree than in 2000, a number of top NBA players declined to participate, forcing USA Basketball to resort to picking mostly second-tier players.


text: George Karl had a dispute with Paul Pierce, one of the few superstars on the team, which led to Karl benching Pierce, the team's leading scorer, in Team USA's final game. The group has been considered one of sport's greatest flops, as they failed to produce as previous teams had. The United States lost 3 games in the tournament to countries with current or future NBA stars, like Argentina (led by Manu Ginóbili), Yugoslavia (led by Peja Stojaković and Vlade Divac) and Spain (led by Pau Gasol).


text: Two NBA superstars, Ray Allen and Jason Kidd, accepted roles to play on the World Championship team, but were unable to play on that team due to injuries. Many other superstars, including Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kevin Garnett, turned down invitations to play in that tournament.


text: The close outcome of 2000 and the humiliating results of 2002 prompted a number of NBA superstars to agree to join the team for the FIBA Americas Championship 2003, dubbed as the Dream Team IV, which the squad was required to participate in to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics. The team easily cruised to a first-place finish, earning it a spot in Athens, Greece, the following summer.


text: However, the dominant team that competed in 2003 could not be kept together. Nine of its 12 players elected not to participate in Athens. The new team consisted of some young NBA stars early in their careers, such as Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Only Richard Jefferson, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson were part of the 2003 FIBA Americas San Juan gold medal team. The team was coached by Larry Brown.


text: After struggles in several exhibition matches, the vulnerability of the 2004 team was confirmed when Puerto Rico defeated them 92–73, from which they earned the nickname "Nightmare team" (as mock opposed to the Dream Team concept), in the first game of the Olympic tournament in Athens. The 19 point defeat was the most lopsided loss for the US in the history of international competition. After the game, Larry Brown had strong comments about his coaching performance: "I'm humiliated, not for the loss – I can always deal with wins and losses – but I'm disappointed because I had a job to do as a coach, to get us to understand how we're supposed to play as a team and act as a team, and I don't think we did that".


text: After winning close games against Greece and Australia, The USA fell to Lithuania, dropping to 2–2 in the Olympic tournament. Even after an 89–53 win over Angola, the Americans entered the knockout rounds in fourth place due to goal average, the lowest seed of their group. The Americans faced undefeated Spain in their quarterfinal game, winning 102–94.


text: However, the semifinal match saw the team defeated by Argentina 89–81, ending the United States' hold on the gold medal. The USA did rebound to capture the bronze medal by defeating Lithuania. Still, it marked only the third time that an American team failed to win gold (excluding the 1980 Moscow Olympics boycott), and the first time for an American team composed of NBA players.


text: Following the disappointments in 2002 and 2004, USA Basketball appointed Jerry Colangelo to be solely responsible for selecting the team. Colangelo made it clear that he would ask players for a three-year commitment—the 2006 FIBA World Championship and the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the 2006 Worlds, the team was eliminated by Greece in the semifinal, losing the game 101–95. The head coach was Duke University's Mike Krzyzewski, with assistants Jim Boeheim, Mike D'Antoni, and Nate McMillan. While some prominent players, such as Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, stated that they did not plan to play for the team, superstars Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James publicly announced their commitment for the 2006 Worlds and the ensuing 2008 Olympics. Wade, James and Carmelo Anthony were named captains of the 2006 USA World Championship Team.


text: The United States Team, dubbed Dream Team V or the Redeem Team, dominated Group B in pool play, defeating China, Angola, Greece, world champion Spain, and Germany by an average of 32.2 points. After finishing first in their group, the USA earned the right to play the fourth-place finishers in Group A, Australia. The United States soundly defeated Australia 116–85 in the quarterfinal. Next up for the Americans in the semifinals was the 2004 Olympic gold medalist Argentina, led by Manu Ginóbili – the team that had beaten them in the semifinals four years prior. However, Ginóbili was hobbled by an ankle injury and only played sparing minutes in the first half. Behind Carmelo Anthony's 21 points, the USA defeated Argentina 101–81 to reach the gold medal game.


text: On August 24, the United States defeated Spain 118–107 to capture the Olympic gold medal with the electrifying spark by team U.S.A. leading scorer Dwyane Wade adding 27 points with 4 3's and 100% shooting inside the line. The victory ended an eight-year drought at major international competitions (Olympics & World Championships) with the first win since 2000.


text: Due to winning gold at the 2008 Olympics, the USA automatically qualified for the World Championships. The USA had not won the FIBA World Championship since 1994. It was initially believed that there would be only 2–3 spots available with most players returning from the 2008 Olympic team. However, by early July 2010, all ten invited players declined to participate, due to injury, free agency, rest, or personal commitments. Due to the roster being filled with 12 new players and the lack of star power, the team was dubbed the "B Team". Also, the coaches were criticized for selecting too many guards and inexperienced players, and not enough tall players.


text: However, the team won all five of its preliminary games, four of those by double digits (the exception being the win against Brazil by 2 points). The success continued in the knockout stage with victories by 55, 10 and 15. In the 2010 FIBA World Championship Final, the USA beat host nation Turkey by 17 points and won the gold medal. Tournament MVP Kevin Durant broke several Team USA scoring records (most points in a tournament-205, most points in a single game-38, and average points per game-22.8). In addition, Lamar Odom became the first player to win the NBA and FIBA World championships in the same year.


text: Team USA executive director Jerry Colangelo has said he's open to anyone from the 2010 team to play in future tournaments.


text: The US team clinched a berth in the 2012 Olympics in London by winning the 2010 World Championship. The Olympic team lost some players to injuries who might have made the team and appeared to be short on big men. Their roster featured five players returning from the 2008 Olympic team and five others from the 2010 World Championship team.


text: The US went undefeated but appeared vulnerable at times in winning five exhibition games. They finished the tournament with a perfect 8–0 record, defeating opponents by an average of 32 points while trailing in the fourth quarter only once. The Americans often played with a small lineup that emphasized speed, quickness, and outside shooting. The team set an Olympic single-game record with 156 points scored against Nigeria in the preliminary round. In a rematch of the 2008 finals, Team USA again narrowly defeated Spain to capture the gold.


text: This was announced as the final Olympic Games for Kobe Bryant. By winning the gold medal, the USA automatically qualified for the 2014 FIBA World Cup.


text: The United States had automatically qualified for the World Cup by virtue of the gold medal won by their 2012 Olympic team. The Americans were considered favorites to win the World Cup. The roster was filled with two players returning from the 2012 Olympic team, three from the 2010 FIBA Championship Team, while seven other NBA players made their senior international debuts. The 2014 roster featured four players or larger, the most of any USA team since Mike Krzyzewski began coaching the team in 2006. The team was also the youngest American team since 1992 when NBA players were first allowed on the team; the average player was 24.08 years old, roughly a half-year younger than their 2010 team.


text: The team advanced to the knockout phase after starting the tournament 5–0 during the group stage. They went undefeated 9–0 in the tournament, winning by an average margin of 33.0 points. The United States was just the third country in World Cup history to repeat as champions. Combined with their 2010 World Championship along with gold by their 2008 and 2012 Olympic teams, they also became the first country in FIBA basketball history to win four consecutive major titles. The United States defeated Serbia in the World Cup Final by 37 points and clinched a berth for the 2016 Summer Olympics.


text: Multiple withdrawals (largely triggered by a freak injury to Paul George in a pre-2014 World Cup scrimmage) left the 2016 U.S. team with just two players with prior Olympic experience (Durant and Anthony). The Americans seemed vulnerable in the preliminary round, narrowly defeating Australia, Serbia, and France by a combined 16 points. However, the team gained momentum in the quarterfinal match against Argentina, winning 105–78. The U.S. team then defeated Spain in the semifinals setting up a rematch versus Serbia in the gold medal game. The Americans proved their superiority, easily defeating their rival by 30 points. The team averaged 100.9 points (with an average margin of victory at 22.5 points) a game with Anthony (he won a record third straight Olympic gold medal) and Durant as top scorers. Krzyzewski stepped down as the most decorated coach in USA Basketball history, coaching three Olympic gold medal teams and winning two FIBA World Cups.


text: The U.S. team has achieved unparalleled success in the Olympic games. While always being at a disadvantage to the Eastern Bloc countries that had used their best and most experienced professional players listed as soldiers or workers in a profession to subvert the amateur rules, the U.S. team (typically composed of AAU or collegiate players) did surprisingly well, winning nine out of eleven Olympic tournaments they had entered before the introduction of NBA players. The U.S. is the only Western country that achieved success in a team sport during the Eastern Bloc dominance. Canada's results in ice hockey and Western European football teams' results in soccer significantly deteriorated after the introduction of the Eastern Bloc countries and their quasi-professional players in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1992, the U.S. team was represented by the NBA players for the first time and defeated its opponents by an average of 44 points en route to the gold medal against Croatia. The Americans have continued to dominate the Olympic tournaments ever since, excluding underachieving performance at the 2004 Summer Olympics.


text: Prior to the introduction of the NBA players, the United States was usually represented by military, industrial or collegiate players. European and South American countries, meanwhile, were allowed to use their best players. In 1950 and 1954, AAU teams Denver Chevrolets (in 1950) and Peoria Caterpillars (1954) were the U.S. representatives,; in 1959, the United States sent an Air Force team; in 1963 and 1967, the team was composed of AAU, armed forces and college ranks; in 1970 and 1974 (with the 1974 team being the youngest and least experienced team in history), the U.S. fielded exclusively collegians; in 1978, an Athletes In Action (AIA) team was the American representative; in 1982, 1986, and 1990, the team was again made up of collegiate players. Starting with 1994 and with the exception of 1998, when the U.S. used players from the European leagues and college players, the team was made up of NBA players.