NBA Players More Than Olympic Equals : U.S. team: Some athletes in other sports are upset by the attention paid to the basketball professionals.

Not all U.S. Olympic athletes are overjoyed at being joined by America’s most-wanted basketball players.

“If you want to watch NBA basketball, watch NBA basketball. If you want to watch the Olympics, watch the Olympics,” swimmer Mike Barrowman of Potomac, Md., said. “The two things should be separate.

“Basketball is watched daily, but we only get to do this once every four years.”

Due to arrive here today, the basketball superstars are not expected to cohabit with their brother and sister Olympians in the athletes’ village. Most have elected to stay with their families in more expensive, more private hotels.

Said swimmer Jenny Thompson of Dover, N.H.: “I’m not really happy that these professional players aren’t in the village. I feel like they’re kind of ‘half Olympians.’ ”

In the basketball players’ defense, they intend to occupy apartments in the athletes’ village on nights before games. This is to create less likelihood of encountering traffic or directional snags en route to the arena.

However, because of the players’ uncommon celebrity, they might be compelled to insulate themselves as much as possible from some of the Olympians who wish to be treated as equals.

“They might get bombarded with requests for autographs,” said a sympathetic Trent Dimas, a gymnast from Albuquerque. “Maybe they couldn’t get any rest.”

Barrowman, former University of Michigan swimmer and world record-holder in the 200-meter breaststroke, said: “It’s a frustrating thing for Olympic athletes to see professional basketball players get publicity.

“You drive through Barcelona, Spain, and you see a 10-story Michael Jordan on a billboard. It’s not like Michael Jordan doesn’t have enough publicity at home.

“This is the only chance for a Matt Biondi or a Janet Evans to get their exposure--and we get Michael Jordan again?

“I know I speak for most American athletes. It’s not a jealousy thing. It’s frustration.”

Additional frustration, if not outright resentment, occurred when sprinter Evelyn Ashford suggested that the U.S. flag bearer at Saturday’s opening ceremony be basketball star Magic Johnson. Ashford carried the American flag in 1988 at Seoul.

The honor instead went Thursday to Francie Larrieu Smith, 39, a marathon runner in her fifth Olympics.

“I would rather see someone who is truly an amateur carry the flag and experience the whole shebang,” said Thompson, who attends Stanford and holds a world record in the 100-meter freestyle, before the Larrieu Smith announcement.

Added Chris Waller, a gymnast from Mt. Prospect, Ill.: “Magic Johnson is not what I would say is an Olympic athlete.”

In disagreement was the U.S. swim team’s captain, Tom Jager, a former UCLA swimmer who has won four Olympic gold medals in relays.

“It would be good to see (Johnson) as the flag bearer,” Jager said. “If you’re worrying about that, you’re worrying about the wrong thing.”

But gymnast John Roethlisberger of Afton, Minn., whose father and sister also were Olympians, said: “It would not be a good thing. Magic Johnson is the ultimate professional.”

Added the U.S. gymnastics coach, Francis Allen: “A lot of our kids have spent their entire lives and all their parents’ money preparing for these games.”

And added Dimas: “We live hand to mouth. I think there are other people who would be better than Magic Johnson to carry the flag.”

The flag bearer will precede the 650-member U.S. delegation into the stadium Saturday.

Barrowman said he bears the basketball players no animosity.

“Part of me thinks it’s great that they’re here. I want to see them go out and kill ‘em.

“But all the advertising budgets immediately went to the basketball players, and that’s dangerous,” Barrowman said.

“What a scam it is for them to have the NBA championships and then also the Olympics. But those are the cards we’ve been dealt.”