Dream Team

Unless you've been visiting relatives on Mars, you know about this country's Olympic "Dream Team," that agglomeration of pro basketball stars making mincemeat of opponents in Spain.But did you known about the local "Dream Team" that might be formed in the not-so distant future? It would consist of all-stars that look so good on the hardwood court of political Maryland that they stand a chance of clobbering opposing Democrats in 1994.It could be the chance of a lifetime for the Maryland Republican Party.

ATLANTA -- Argentina hadn't played men's basketball in the Olympics since the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland, losing to the United States by nine points.Talk about laying in wait.Argentina, a team that former Duke star Grant hill admitted last week he knew nothing about, proved to be the Dream Team's worst nightmare for more than a half last night at the Georgia Dome.When the United States woke up from its nearly 30-minute slumber in their Olympic opener, it pulled away to a deceptively one-sided 96-68 victory.

ATLANTA -- In 1956, a U.S. Olympic men's basketball team led by collegiate stars Bill Russell and K. C. Jones won its games by an average of 53.5 points.Did anyone demand the next Olympic team be composed of high school players?In 1960, an Olympic team featuring Jerry West, Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas won its games by an average of 42.4 points.Did anyone decry that outcome?Enough whining about the Dream Team already. Yes, it's going to beat Yugoslavia tonight for the gold medal. Yes, it's still far ahead of the rest of the world.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Charles Barkley compared the Dream Team experience to "summer vacation," but it's more like summer camp. Golf in the daytime, basketball at night, rest in between.Head counselor Chuck Daly makes sure everyone gets to play, and the NBA Olympians follow instructions so well, he doesn't even have to threaten them with arts and crafts.Tuesday night, Daly needed two volunteers for finger-painting -- er, zone-busting. Chris Mullin and Michael Jordan raised their hands, and soon after the game was decided.

The Dream Team is aptly named: Watching it is a snore.How dull are the Dream Team's games?So dull that NBC has stopped showing them in their entirety on its regular broadcast.NBC cut away from the U.S. men's basketball game against Croatia with about 10 minutes to go in the second half.And you know what happened to the TV ratings when NBC switched to swimming?They went up.And so during the next Dream Team game against Germany, NBC didn't even wait for the second half. It left the game in the first half.

BARCELONA, Spain -- Any country out there need a Dream Team?Disowned by its future president, entangled in controversy at every turn, running on empty emotionally, the U.S. men's basketball team squeezed by Puerto Rico, 115-77, yesterday to reach the semifinals of the Olympic tournament.This may or may not have come as good news in the posh Victoria Hotel, where LeRoy Walker, incoming president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is staying.Walker criticized the basketball players for staying in the posh Ambassador Hotel, adding: "I'm not convinced yet we had to have NBA athletes on our team.

MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- Sixteen days without a game figured to produce a Grade A horror show, even for the Dream Team, whose 111-71 triumph over the French National Team last night was an artistic mess.No offense to the feisty French, but under any normal circumstances, do you really think it would have taken Team USA 5 1/2 minutes just to get a scroungy, scruffy little one-point lead? Sure.Well, it did. Not until Michael Jordan took a feed from Larry Bird and stuck in an acrobatic three-point play on the baseline did the Americans forge ahead of the French National Team by an 11-10 score.

In his inaugural address, Bill Clinton paraphrased John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech with his call for self-sacrifice by the populace.But basketball's best and brightest may be reluctant to risk their careers for the glory of Uncle Sam. Getting a group of NBA stars comparable to the Dream Team to audition for the 1994 World Championships in Toronto could prove a tougher challenge than nominating an attorney general.Michael Jordan, who, along with Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin, helped the United States win gold medals in both the 1984 and 1992 Olympics, said the physical toll of playing basketball year-round could dissuade young millionaires Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning and Kenny Anderson from following his example.

Duke Dailey's scoring and T. C. Henson's rebounding led the Severn Dream Team to a 37-6 win over Michael Adams League foe East Glen Burnie (0-5) in an 8-10 boys basketball game Saturday.Dailey paced the Dream Team (6-0) with 10 points, four rebounds and two steals. Henson grabbed a team-record 13 rebounds and contributed six points.Louis Benson also scored six points and had three rebounds and a steal.Daron Paschell had four points, five steals and a rebound, and Eric Comocho had three points and two steals.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- The latest version of the Dream Team was unveiled yesterday and, for a while, there were questions about whether the right team was going to the Olympics.Instead of quickly demolishing its opponent -- the original Dream Team won its games by an average of 43.8 points -- this team found itself trailing by 17 points at halftime against the USA Select 22-and-under team."They got off to a good start," Karl Malone would say after the game. "And they tried to bury us."Desperate situations call for desperate actions, which is why the Dream Team spent the second half elbowing, shoving and tripping its younger foes on the way to a 96-90 win yesterday before a 21,454 at the Palace of Auburn Hills.