He Dares U.S. to Go All Out on the Court

Giving the Dream Team, a.k.a. the U.S. Olympic basketball squad, bulletin board material will never rank as one of the great strategy moves.

But it happened the other day. Brazil threw down the gauntlet.

“I hope, honestly, that the NBA all-pro, all-universe team will play the best they can,” veteran guard Marcel Souza said, when there was still a chance the teams could meet Sunday in the final of the Tournament of the Americas in Portland, Ore.

“I’m not seeing the USA team play their best. They are hiding. They are playing just for fun. I hope in the final that they play their best.”

Then Souza turned to teammate Oscar Schmidt.

“If they are the Dream Team, what are we, Oscar?”

Schmidt covered his microphone with his hand.

“If they are the Dream Team,” Souza continued, “we are the Nightmare Team.”

He spoke too soon. The Brazilians’ nightmare came Friday in a semifinal loss to Venezuela, meaning the closest they will get to the United States is in their dreams. They can always hope for the Olympics.

Add Brazil: Souza later told reporters that he wasn’t trying to be provocative or challenging. But Brazil is serious about wanting the United States to be more serious.

“People playing golf, people with sunglasses,” Souza said. “What have they come here for?”

Trivia time: Which team won the most championships in the American Basketball Assn.?

L’affaire Lindros: Eric Lindros, touted as the NHL’s next superstar, has landed in Philadelphia after being traded by Quebec, but the saga might continue.

Said the Sporting News: “There is reason to believe that goalie Ron Hextall, defenseman Steve Duchesne and center Mike Ricci will also balk at going to Quebec City as a part of the Flyers’ offer for Lindros.”

Peter Forsberg, two first-round draft picks and $15 million completed the Flyer package.

“Ron will be a very unhappy pup if the Flyers win this thing,” Hextall’s agent, Steve Mountain, said before Tuesday’s ruling. “The possibility of him having to take his family to a French-speaking city and sending his three children to French-speaking schools has him scared to death.”

Said Ricci’s agent, Anton Thun: “Mike thinks he’d find it difficult to assimilate into that culture. Plus, he’d be in a 53% tax bracket.”

Hooligans in training? Alan Rothenberg, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation and chairman of the 1994 World Cup organizing committee, promises that the tournament will be sold out at its various sites, culminating with the final at the Rose Bowl. That would be about 3.5 million tickets sold in one of the few nations where soccer has yet to take off. As Hank Steinbrecher, general secretary of the USSF, told Reuters:

“The U.S. World Cup ’94 flags were stolen from outside our headquarters in Chicago last night. We do have fans!”

Checkmate: Jim Hrbek, coach of the U.S. Olympic women’s judo team, noting that he puts an emphasis on the intellectual side of the sport: “It’s an awful lot like chess with bruises.”

Trivia answer: The Indiana Pacers, three.

Quotebook: Steffi Graf, on her German shepherd puppies: “My dogs? Oh, yes, I talk to them every day. I must, every day and night. I call and they tell me, ‘We miss you.’ ”