By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 10/1/2000

SYDNEY -- Give them a microphone, tap twice to make sure it's on, and then walk away if you want. These men are not shy, so you get the feeling that they would speak on the subject -- persecuted basketball players -- even with an audience of white walls and late afternoon shadows.

If you suggest that college players would be more interesting and appreciative Olympians than they are, they might call you a player-hater.

Even if the truth is that you hate the way they play.

If you tell them that the US (119-2 Olympic record since 1936) never needed NBA players in the Olympics, they might respond as Allan Houston did: "If you look at it that way, Marion Jones wouldn't be in the Olympics, although she is the best in the world."

Even if the truth is that "best" is relative, and that lesser talent may have made a better US team.

As for mentioning Jones and NBA players in the same sentence? Comical. Jones thought about and trained to be an Olympian for several years. There was an aura of genuine joy when she won her three golds. When this handpicked team from the NBA's Rent-a-Center beat France, it was similar to watching 12 guys win a semi-competitive round of PlayStation. They won, but not nearly gracefully or humbly enough to eliminate the So What? balloon lingering over their heads.

Really, how long do you think Vin Baker trained with the Olympics in mind?

This is Team USA, a group conceived and supported by Madison Avenue. It just finished its MTV-ish summer outing, "The Real World: Australia," with a gold-medal win over France Sunday. During the 85-75 win, Vince Carter jumped and nearly touched cirrus clouds on one of his dunks, Alonzo Mourning stared down a couple players, and Kevin Garnett ran hard, hit a turnaround jumper, and called a white Frenchman a nigga. Even though he meant it as a compliment. To himself.

Yeah, this team is deep in a lot of ways.

Now, finally, the players are on their way home. Maybe, with a little luck and a lot less insecurity from USA Basketball, the 2000 gold medalists can tell their friends that they were the last group of NBA stars to represent the country in the Olympics.

Some Americans watched the most recent version of the Dream Team and were moved to at least consider the question, "What will it take to change my citizenship?" The team doesn't affect me that way. In fact, I think some of the players are thoughtful and likable. But this is not about likability, it's about pros and cons. What's to be gained by continuing to send an all-NBA team to the Olympics, and what will be lost if they choose summer vacation over Olympic training?

One event we could welcome back is basketball's Olympic trials. They have become irrelevant with the intensely political pro selection process. If people are going to insist that pro players are involved, why not invite a certain number of NBA, CBA, and IBL players to try out? That way you would have a core of players who could understand, at minimum, the work it takes to make a team.

With the way things now stand, the pampered Olympians from NBA 90210 are embarrassing. It's nothing personal, but there aren't many Olympic things about them. They won their game Sunday, spoke of how emotional it was, and then boarded a charter for home. They still big-timed people here, just as many of them do in the States, although Garnett was gracious with a group of Aussie volunteers who asked for his autograph and picture.

NBA commissioner David Stern was at the gold-medal game and suggested that fans want it both ways: They don't want the US to blow away teams all the time, but they also don't want the games to be like US-Lithuania (85-83). That's true to a point. Fans are more annoyed by the treatment of the competition, not competition itself. If the US were only 2 points better than Lithuania, people would understand. That's not the case. A group of college kids would have been more attentive and taken the job more seriously.

The kids would have won, too.

This goes against the spin put out by USA Basketball. The organization panicked in 1988, following a 6-point US loss to the Soviet Union. From that, we heard that the world had caught America in basketball, and that it was silly to send the babies to war. Thus came the Dream Team, to reposition the flag atop the basketball world.

It was a good idea. For one Olympics. But the amateurs could have handled it, even if they were the ones responsible for coughing up America's 63-game Olympic winning streak. If John Thompson had gone with a point guard better than Georgetown's Charles E. Smith, he might have had enough to get by Russia. Remember, that '88 team knew how to rout Spain and Australia, too.

The world has improved, and so have players in America. If young Americans went to the Olympics and lost, for example, due to a lack of fundamentals, wouldn't that be a good lesson to learn?

The NBA Olympic lessons are these: The players dunk well, get excited about sloppy 10-point wins over France, and show the world how to talk trash with flavor.

During the US-France game, the Americans congratulated themselves over routine plays. Once, when the 6-foot-11-inch Garnett -- who played hardest the longest -- scored over 6-8 Stephane Risacher, he yelled loud enough for those in the first several SuperDome rows to hear: "The nigga's too little! The nigga's too little!" He then patted Risacher on the backside, playfully reminding the Frenchman that he couldn't guard him.

The players probably had a few laughs over that on the long flight to the US. But the laugh is on basketball fans who also happen to be Olympic fans. The original Olympic Dreamers of '92 entertained with their depth and dominance. Sincerely, gentlemen, thank you. Now, with so many American pros on the court, it feels like a hostage situation. Please, just let us see the kids.

Michael Holley is a Globe columnist. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].