Commentary : Word From the Basketball Trials: It’s Thompson’s Team

According to a coach I know who was at the U.S. Olympic basketball trials, if the first game was tonight, the following people would start: Charles Smith of Georgetown at point guard, David Robinson at center, Danny Manning at power forward and Sean Elliott at small forward. “The big question is at two guard,” the coach said, rattling off the names of Hersey Hawkins, Mitch Richmond, Jeff Grayer, Todd Lichti and the exiled Rex Chapman, who hasn’t hit a shot since he announced he was going to the pros.

That’s one man’s opinion. I’m lucky to have it, because people like me -- reporters, the eyes and ears of the American public -- were generally barred from the practices and from talking with the players. The people who ran the trials, led by Bill Wall, the self-inflated president of the self-inflated ABAUSA, with the apparent acquiescence of John “My Locker Room Is Always Open” Thompson, concluded a free press was too much of a distraction; it might reveal if someone missed eight straight shots, or quote a player saying he liked Whitney Houston. So reporters got the boot. Not to worry, though, because sneaker guys were welcome, and I’m sure they’ll be glad to tell you what went on.

NBA people and sneaker guys had carte blanche. Kind of puts the Olympic spirit in perspective for you. Black and white and read all over, take a hike! The only color we’re interested in is long green. Here’s the game plan: Ignore the First Amendment and genuflect to corporate profiteering. You a reporter? Get out. You’re a shoe rep? That’s different. Come right in, sir. Can I get you a cocktail?

I bring this proliferation of business to Thompson’s accusation that the Portland Trail Blazers are damned near committing treason by helping the Soviet superstar, Arvidas Sabonis, with his rehabilitation. Tabling for the moment the notion that the true Olympic spirit is about bringing nations together through friendly competition, the NBA is in business, the Trail Blazers are in business, sneaker guys are in business and all the coaches are in business. When he’s coaching Georgetown, Thompson is fiercely Georgetown -- first, last and always. He does what he wants, says what he wants and schedules who he wants, because it’s his head on the block. When he’s coaching the Olympic team, Thompson is USA all the way, as it should be. But does anyone seriously think a smart businessman like Thompson wouldn’t do all he could to grease the skids to sign Sabonis if he coached the NBA team that drafted Sabonis?

Off the soapbox, back to the trials: There are some locks, like Robinson, Manning and Elliott. But some people will say that by keeping Charles Smith, Gene Smith and the teen-age wunderkind Alonzo Mourning after two cuts, Thompson showed favoritism to his own program. I remember when El Deano put four Tar Heels -- Walter Davis, Phil Ford, Mitch Kupchak and Tom LaGarde -- on the 1976 team. He was accused of favoritism, too. The U.S. won. The critics shut up. My coach tells me Charles Smith was the best guard, bar none, at the trials. Smith knows what Thompson wants from a point guard, and Thompson trusts him. Would you ask Bill Walsh not to pick Joe Montana? My coach also says Mourning is so good, no coach in his right mind would have cut him. Mourning lunched on Rony Seikaly, a 23-year-old who may well be a lottery pick. Right now, it looks like Mourning or Dwayne Schintzius, who’s as big as a shopping center, can make the team as back-up to Robinson. As for Gene Smith, he’s still around because he can play defense and teach it to the others. He’s a demonstrator. He probably won’t make the 12-man team, but having him practice with people who will is like having an extra coach for free.

Thompson ought to pick players he’s comfortable with. It’s his team, just as the ’84 team was Knight’s and the ’76 team was El Deano’s. And from what we know of a Thompson team, it’s not individual stars he’s after, but the kind of honest, selfless player -- like Charles and Gene Smith -- who’ll make the whole seem greater than the sum of its parts. He’s also looking for personalities who can maintain a comfortable demeanor if they’re not stars. That’s why unknowns like Central Michigan’s Dan Majerle and UC-Santa Barbara’s Brian Shaw may make this team. That may be why outstanding talents like Sherman Douglas and Mark Macon were cut.

Losing the Pan Ams to two guys from Brazil who repeatedly shot uncontested 3s taught everyone who was paying attention a lesson about international ball: If the Americans want to win, they have to play pressure defense throughout the game, chest-to-chest, baseline-to-baseline. Nobody teaches that better than Thompson. Nobody executes it better than Charles and Gene Smith. Opponents will probably play drop-back zone to envelop powerful inside players like Robinson, Manning and perhaps J.R. Reid, Stacey King or Pitt’s Charles Smith. So Thompson is looking for guards to push the ball up the floor as fast as possible, before a defense can adjust; transition, a Georgetown staple. B.J. Armstrong may be a point guard to consider, as he’s from Iowa, the Big 10 team that most closely approximates the Georgetown style.

The Pan Ams evidenced a disturbing inconguity, an American vulnerability in a shooting contest, so Thompson needs people who can hit the 3s. At 6-foot-10, Danny Ferry can; plus, he passes better than any college big man. Hawkins will hit it, too. In a twist on the Orioles sending Jim Palmer to Hagerstown to get straightened out, Thompson sent Chapman to Europe to rediscover his shot. If he does, he can make this team. If he doesn’t, the door may be open for lights-out Todd Lichti.

The talk of the trials was how hard players worked -- big name players who may never have worked as hard before -- how much hustle and how much intensity players exhibited, particularly on defense. They knew what Thompson wanted. They knew he wouldn’t settle for reputations, and they paid him respect. Whoever finally makes this team will be exhausted. Then the real running will start.