BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS: DAY 3 : THEY ARE BASKETBALL PATRIOTS NOW
When the Soviet Union stunned the U.S. men’s basketball team at Seoul, four of its star players met privately to have their picture taken. They were center Arvidas Sabonis and guards Sarunas Marciulionis, Valdemaras Chomicius and Rimas Kurtinaitis.
All are Lithuanian, playing this year under their own flag for the first time.
“You know, when you play for the Soviet Union, it’s not your country,” said Kurtinaitis. “It is OK, but not like playing for Lithuania.”
Lithuania played the Commonwealth of Independent States, the successor to the Soviets, in the European qualifying tournament.
“We want to win by 53 points,” Chomicius said. “You know, for 53 years in the Soviet Union.”
Lithuania won by 37.
This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant, all Times-Mirror newspapers.
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