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Sunday, October 1
Americans overcome obstacles in Sydney
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- So many things could have gone wrong in
these Olympics for the U.S. women's basketball team.
The players might have run out of gas after a taxing WNBA
season. They might have lost their composure in front of the
hostile, supercharged crowds. The chemistry could have gone awry.
Nell Fortner's lack of experience as a head coach might have shown
at a critical time.
But this was a team determined to show it could win under any
conditions, and it did.
The United States struck gold again, and convincingly, against
the home team. The Americans completed an 8-0 run through the
Olympic tournament with a 76-54 victory over Australia that
confirmed their status as the best in the world.
"From the coaching staff clear through to the players, they
really were focused," said Warren Brown, USA Basketball's
executive director.
"It really does take a lot of focus in that situation because
you're thinking we've been together all this time and we put all
this into it, wouldn't it be a darn shame if at the end, because we
aren't focused, they beat us. That obviously wasn't the case."
Nor did it turn out that Fortner was unprepared. Though a few
eyebrows went up when she was hired in 1997 after just one season
as a college head coach at Purdue, it proved to be the right
choice.
Fortner had been an assistant to Tara VanDerveer on the team
that played together for nearly a year before the Atlanta Olympics
in 1996. She knew the nuances of the international game. She was
flexible and easy to get along with. Players genuinely like her.
"During the week, this is the toughest job in the world,"
Brown said. "Who'd want it because you don't know what's going to
happen after all you've put into it. So at the end, you could just
see the tension go out of her.
"But it wasn't like we were any geniuses. Although she didn't
have a lot of head coaching experience in the college ranks, she
had more international experience than anybody we could have
selected."
And when the pressure was on, Fortner didn't wilt. She can move
on to her next job, coaching the WNBA's Indiana Fever, knowing she
had answered the challenge.
"There's no question if you win with these players you're
supposed to win and if you lose it's the coach's fault," Fortner
said. "That's a tremendous amount of pressure, especially playing
on a contender's home court. I can't tell you how much I believe in
these players and how good they are. It's been a great
experience."
Her players answered the challenge, too.
Though not as dazzling as the group that won the gold in
Atlanta, this team played in more trying times. There were no home
crowds to energize the players. The other national teams are
getting better and because of the WNBA season this summer, the U.S.
team had to interrupt its training.
It also had to overcome the loss of one of the game's brightest
young stars, Chamique Holdsclaw, who did not play at all after
doctors found a stress fracture in her right foot the day before
the games started.
Still, the United States won by an average of 22 points and no
one came closer than 11. Not even the men's team can say that. And
in the final game, when it mattered the most, the women were at
their best.
"This year ... just showed how much heart our team had and how
much the WNBA actually helped us," center Lisa Leslie said.
"Because coming back with Nell after our WNBA season we were in
great shape and we really just had to adjust to whatever her game
plan was.
"I thought this team really showed its professionalism from
playing basketball in the United States."
It was the fifth and final Olympics for Teresa Edwards, who
collected her fourth gold medal. Edwards, 36, had indicated she was
retiring after winning a third gold in Atlanta, where she lives,
but came back. This time, she says she means it.
"I'm sure. I'm very sure," she said. "My body's had enough.
It's not so much that I couldn't do it. I just want a break. It's a
tough thing to commit yourself and dedicate your body to stay at
this level of play for that long. It's time to have fun, relax,
live a little."
And time to let someone else lead the way in Athens in 2004.
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