Olympics, Week Two: Doesn’t Anyone Have Spirit of the Games?

LeRoy Walker and the complaining athletes need to reassess their thinking about the U.S. basketball team. The Dream Team is guilty of only one charge: Being the most dominant collection of athletes in one of the most popular sports in Olympic history. The International Basketball Assn., not the United States, changed the eligibility rules to permit professional athletes to compete.

Walker’s concern that “We seem to have created first- and second-class Olympians,” based on the residence of the athletes during the Olympics, misses the point. Petty jealousies and scornful envy should not be tolerated. Walker doesn’t seem to understand that the complaining athletes, not the Dream Team, need a lesson in teamwork.

TOM LALLAS

Los Angeles