From: Dario Beksic
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.misc
Subject: Olympics (What else?)
Date: 28 Jul 92 04:15:07 GMT
Originator: beksic@red14


	Hello, everyone!

	So, the big party has finally started! Naturally, as a good
grad student I'm nowhere near the ability to afford the Triplecast
(too bad we didn't organize a nationwide boycott to stick it to the
greed of the NBC, but they're not getting much anyway), so I'm in
the mercy of the lousy-to-the-infinite-power regular coverage. Man,
I've lived my first 25 years in a third world country, but at least
the TV coverage of the world's big sporting events was decent...

	OK, enough bitching! After the first two rounds, group B saw
already some surprising results. Firstly, Australia blew Puerto Rico
out by 40 points - a huge difference against the always tough Carribe-
ans. Today, as I hear, Lithuania was forced to hang on its fingernails
against China, so it seems that the Far East is doing rather well.
In the more interesting (forgive my subjectivity) A group, the 
standings after two games are as follows:

USA		2-0
Germany		2-0
Croatia		1-1
Spain		1-1
Brasil		0-2
Angola		0-2

	The "Dream Team" started quite easily against Angola, they
didn't have trouble to reach the final 116-48, proving a point to
the Angolan coach - another guy that believes that the NBA players
don't play defense. Croatia had it easier than expected with Brasil,
with the final score of 93-76. Kukoc held the terrific shooter
Schmidt to reasonable 26 points, Radja was big inside with 20, and
Drazen Petrovic solid with 22. I must admit that I was quite
worried before the game, but obviously our guys are ready and lo-
oking good. Spain suffered a tough loss against Germany, by 9 points.
I don't know the details... Pedro !?! In passing, my "old pal" Epi
looked great on a totally fascinating opening ceremony - a marvel-
lous job by the Catalans! And all those gorgeous opera voices, and
the surreal scenography, and ... I'm still dreaming about it! In
passing, I really have met Epi in '89 on the European Cup in Zagreb
as I was doing some interpreting - he's a very nice guy.

	Back to reality, as today it was almost unbearably harsh to
the Germans: a thread of the needle 64-63 against Angola - it seems
that those Angolan guys do play defense, right? Spain got the hope
back with a thrilling 101-100 win over Brasil, from what I've caught
on the Radio Exterior, Spain played an excellent game and held the
lead throughout, toward the end the Brasilians came close and saw a
buzzer-beater by Schmidt miss from beyond the 3-point line. It's
nice to see the young Spaniards pull out a tough one, but at the
same time I feel sorry for Brasil that was always such fun to watch
with their wide open style - they're getting old, I guess. Again, 
no further details available (Thanks, NBC!!!).

	Today was a big one for me and all the Croatian fans: we
finally faced that fabulous NBA All Star team. It was a great game,
and I feel our guys looked much better than the final 103-70
would suggest. We started huge, scoring first off Drazen's steal
on MJ, playing a solid defense with "the Man in the Middle" Stojko
Vrankovic rejecting everything in sight! As Pippen came in for a
dunk, you could see Stojko's eyes light up: "Get that thing outta
here, man!" Our Catalan friends gave us a great fan support and
perhaps our guys were even too fired up, missing a bunch of foul
shots. Then US made its move, they played us really tough, with
full concentration and tremendous defense, especially on Kukoc,
I have to admit Michael and Pippen proved a point there. They made
two 8-0 runs and built a 22 point lead, but just as we feared another
mega-blowout, the "fastest gun in all Jersey" struck - Drazen scored
three 3-pointers in half a minute and we were able to go to the 
half with a glimpse of hope, down by 54-37. Our team started the
second half equally good, with some great passing and, yes, even a
couple of thunderous jams right in their face. But, the fact that
US has no less than twelve phenomenal players, together with some
foul trouble, soon confronted our hopes with the cruel reality.
By five minutes to go, it was decided as US pulled to the 25 point
lead, and then the NBC dorkheads concluded that it was no longer
interesting. The final 33 point spread was probably reached as our
coach Skansi cleared the bench - I'd certainly give all the guys a
chance of a lifetime to play against the NBA stars. In conclusion, 
an excellent showing for the Croatians, I really think they have a
good shot at the final if they can sustain this level of playing.
However, one must always worry about mental lapses with those
Mediterranean teams - must be all that rich wine and warm sun!

	So much for now, keep having fun, all of you! Cheers!!!

					Dario

P.S:	WE'LL BE BACK...