UNITED STATES - AUGUST 10: Basketball: 1984 Summer Olympics, USA Michael Jordan (9) in action vs ESP, Los Angeles, CA 8/10/1984 (Photo by Peter Read Miller/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images) (SetNumber: X30349)
DOG COMMENTARY:
The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics USA men’s basketball team played the Spaniards in the qualifying round…..while eventually meeting them again in the gold medal game…and neither were much of a game….as the Yanks flat blew them away….both times…101 – 68 in this game on this video clip….and 96 – 65 in the finals. The truth is…..the 1984 USA men’s Olympic basketball team wasn’t just good….they were great. I have said before and I’ll say it again…..this was the best all amateur USA men’s team ever to hit the hardwood at the Olympics.
It is always fun for me to go back and watch the greats in athletics when they were young….just see what they looked like…..and how their game had evolved at that point in their career….for that is when sport is viewed with such purity of “the excellence of youth”….opening the fields of opportunity of expression….and I get to share some really great basketball players with you…..when they were young and matured….ready to take on the man’s game that the NBA was offering….getting to watch Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Steve Alford, Joe Kleine, Jon Koncak, Vern Fleming, Leon Wood, Jeff Turner, Wayman Tisdale, Sam Perkins and Alvin Robertson play the game they all loved so much with “the excellence of youth”. When you add up the total combined years played in the NBA….these 13 amateurs combined for 151 years of future NBA experience on this one amateur team….OH MY GOD DOG…. youthful excellence was exhibited on the floor at the L A Forum during these Olympic games.
Bone Daddy got to see the Gold Medal Game between the USA vs Spain….and the original sportsphile calls it “one of the best moments in my ’84 Olympic experience was getting to watch this team play basketball while being coached by the General”….USA Coach Bobby Knight…for Bone Daddy didn’t know it at the time…but he was going to see the brilliant coach win the NCAA Championship in New Orleans in 1987 on a last second shot by Keith Smart….after being assisted by Steve Alford….way down in New Aughlins.
