There are 12 names on the roster, and 11 virgin Olympians in that dozen.

	Vince Carter and the other first-time U.S. Olympians will get the gold.

They have combined to win exactly zero NBA championship rings, or two less than their coach has.

And there won't be a single true center in the starting lineup or on Rudy T.'s bench, for at least one game, when Alonzo Mourning briefly returns home for the birth of his second child on Sept. 22.

This is a Dream Team?

Yes, naysayers, it still qualifies.

Even a bad Dream Team is still a Dream Team, if that's what the rest of the world wants to call it. And, rest assured, much of the world hasn't changed its opinion -- no matter how many basketball mavens in this country rail against the practice of linking Zo and Co. to the words Dream and Team.

Fact is, plenty of foreigners remain excited by the prospect of watching NBA stars hover in their earthly midst, even if it's just Vin Baker and Ray Allen. Compared to the prospect of tuning in to catch Angola ... or New Zealand ... or (yikes!) ... the Frederic Weis-led French, you can understand why the international hoop community doesn't care that the ailing Tim Duncan and Grant Hill have been replaced by Antonio McDyess and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

The true disappointment of the forthcoming Olympic men's basketball tournament is that the competition is fading rather than gaining. Dream Team V -- or, for you sticklers, the fifth all-NBA roster to represent the United States in a major competition -- will have to lose interest quickly before it wins a game by less than 30 points, since no other "contender" apart from host Australia will be fielding its best team.

Yugoslavia, the silver-medal favorite, is without Sacramento's Vlade Divac, who, like Lakers counterpart Shaquille O'Neal, opted to spend the summer with his family. Ditto for Yugo quarterback Aleksandr Djordevic, leaving Kings swingman Predrag Stojakovic, Heat and Mavericks-ex Sasha Danilovic and recent Bulls signee Dragan Tarlac to get run over.

Lithuania, thanks to various injuries, won't have even one of its Big Three: Portland's Arvydas Sabonis, Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Seton Hall alumnus Arturas Karnisovas. France, sans Denver's Tariq Abdul-Wahad, is forced to rely on Weis, the other center Knicks fans love to hate. Canada offers up Dallas' Steve Nash and Philadelphia's Todd MacCulloch, but won't field the Lakers' Rick Fox, Sacramento's Bill Wennington or Hornets first-round pick Jamaal Magliore because of chemistry concerns and/or the trio's reluctance to participate. Furthermore, the two silkiest foreigners in the NBA -- Philadelphia's Toni Kukoc (Croatia) and Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) -- won't even be in Sydney because their countries didn't qualify.

	MacCulloch

	Longley

So who or what does that leave? Australia, with a quartet of recognizable names: Luc Longley and Chris Anstey, past and present Chicago centers from Down Under, and gunners Andrew Gaze and Shane Heal. Look for the home-court advantaged to challenge for a medal, along with Nash's band of Canadian overachievers, in part because the rest of the field is so weak.

We agree: The Dream Team concept is definitely losing some luster, but not only because it's Steve Smith and Allan Houston out there instead of Magic and Larry. By now, almost a decade removed from the original Dream Teamers, the gap was supposed to be narrowing, as we've seen in the women's hoop realm. Bet we wouldn't be so concerned with charisma if presented with a competitive game now and again.

"I've heard that description, boring, which I've never really understood," said NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik, disputing the widely held notion that the league's numbingly good Olympic neophytes can't capture our collective imagination. "(Flamboyance) is fine for All-Star Games, but I don't think we ever make that a priority in the Olympics. ... You do the best you can and hope the public likes it."

Said Canada's Nash: "Boring? Are you kidding me? How can a team with Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett and Jason Kidd be boring?"

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