U.S. Basketball Team Remains Well-Kept National Secret

So what was the problem? I just wanted to shoot some hoops for a little while.

So this was at UC San Diego’s Triton Gym. On Wednesday morning. And the USA Olympic team was practicing.

No big deal. I figured I’d just use a basket off to the side. Keep to myself. No sweat.

Just, you know, see what Mr. Robinson’s neighborhood was like. Maybe Glide with Clyde. Be like Mike. Fly with the Birdmeister.

My Nikes were laced up. I was ready. There was this security guard.

He did not move.

“I just want to go inside and shoot around,” I explained.

“No!” he growled.

He stared. Not that this was a cold stare, but if it would have lasted much longer, the water inside my eyeballs would have frozen over.

The gym was shut tighter than a post office on Veterans Day. Doors were locked. Windows were blacked out. There was only one possible entrance.

At which no fewer than four security guards were on the lookout.

This was at the end of a tunnel, which stretched about 100 yards. There were more security guards at the entrance to the tunnel. And soon, there were probably 200 to 300 people lining the temporary fencing.

The team bus pulled in about 10:30 a.m., and the reaction can best be described in these sentences:

“WHOOOH!”

“YEAH!”

“USA! USA!”

“WHOO-HOO!”

Click, click . Whirrr .

There was clapping and cheering. Coach Chuck Daly was the first off the bus, followed by his assistants.

Then came Karl Malone, David Robinson, and Larry Bird; Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Chris Mullin.

They breezed past the crowd. A couple smiled. None waved. There were no autographs.

The whole thing took two minutes. Then they were inside.

That was it?

Well, there was something else.

“Groupies,” said security guard Bob. “The groupies have been incredible.”

He said they ask him if they can get things signed and talk with the players. Bob says no.

Things had settled down a bit. The team was inside. I regrouped and walked toward the gym. White men can too jump, I was thinking.

There was this other security guard. He stepped in front of me. He shook his head no. He folded his arms and stuck out his chest.

My U-turn came quickly.

It’s been a rough week for gawkers. The fencing along the tunnel keeps them at least 20 feet from the stars. The scene is not unlike that at a rock concert.

Bird stayed after practice on Tuesday to work on a few things and then signed autographs for about 20 minutes on his way out. Other than that, not much.

There are about 20 security guards on duty at any given time. They had to call in extras on Tuesday because of the large crowd.

Fans have come from all over, as if on a pilgrimage.

There was this astrophysicist from Tel Aviv University.

He was Joel Rephaeli, 45, who said he is on sabbatical. He is working at UCSD and was here with his son Eden, who is 12.

“He admires all of the NBA stars,” Joel said. “That’s why I had to bring him over here.”

Eden follows these guys in Israel?

“Yeah, of course,” Eden said enthusiastically. “They’re the best!”

Said Joel: “They’re big stars, huh?”

Big enough to draw hundreds of admiring fans whose glimpses of their heroes totaled no more than, oh, one minute per player. That’s counting the players’ arrivals and departures combined. And that’s being generous.

“We’ve had a bad time,” said Lee Clay, 20, a guard with Staffpro. “People are starting to do stupid things, like trying to get messages to players and trying to sneak in.”

Clay, in charge of security at the team hotel, gets to do what the fans cannot: See the players up close and personal. He rides the team bus each day from the hotel to UCSD.

His observations?

“This is millions of dollars sitting around telling jokes to each other,” Clay said. “It’s really strange.”

Millions of dollars who are certainly not worrying much about their public and the people who purchase the products they endorse.

Mike Graceffo, 32, from Burbank, took time off from work this week specifically to be in San Diego during the team’s camp.

“I knew the practices would be closed,” Graceffo said. “I didn’t think it would be so hard to get access or even take pictures. They won’t even let you near the hotel.”

On Monday, Graceffo said, hotel personnel put up barricades out front before the team was to leave for practice. A crowd gathered and was told to stay behind the barricades and the team would be coming out soon.

“They kept us out there for an hour while they brought the players through an underground, back entrance,” Graceffo said. “They treat you like dogs.”

And then on Tuesday, Graceffo said he yelled to Daly as the team was getting off of the bus, asking him why practice isn’t open to the public.

“He said, ‘You guys (in San Diego) had your chance. You had a team,’ ” Graceffo said.

Ouch.

“The players won’t even look at you (as they’re boarding the bus),” Graceffo said. “Jordan kept his head down. . . . It’s supposed to be America’s team. I don’t understand.”