Dream Team

ATHENS - Carmelo Anthony's cell phone kept ringing Sunday and on into yesterday. All the calls were from the United States. All the questions were the same: What happened? What happened, indeed? How did the U.S. lose its Olympic opener Sunday night to Puerto Rico, not on anybody's list of international basketball powerhouses. "Everybody was asking that," said Anthony, the former Towson Catholic star. Coach Larry Brown and his players know they must come up with some answers by tonight when they return to Helleniko Indoor Arena to face Greece, a team that won its Olympic opener, 76-54, over Australia.

The headline in the newspaper where the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team was training recently said it all: "America the Beatable" read the story in The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville. How prescient. That was before the United States lost an exhibition game for the first time ever in international competition, an embarrassing double-digit defeat to Italy on Aug. 3 in Cologne, Germany. That was before the Americans barely scraped by Germany - a team that had failed to qualify for this month's Summer Games in Athens, Greece - on a last-second shot by Allen Iverson the next day. Less than a week before his team's opening-round game against Puerto Rico, U.S. coach Larry Brown is facing the reality that he is coaching a team of dreamers rather than another Dream Team.

WASHINGTON - Despite weeks of steadfast rejections from Sen. John McCain, some prominent Democrats are angling for him to run for vice president alongside Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, creating a bipartisan ticket that they say would instantly transform the presidential race. The enthusiasm of Democrats for McCain, the Arizona Republican, is so high that even some who have been mentioned as possible Kerry running mates - including Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator - are spinning scenarios about a "unity government," effectively giving Kerry a green light to reach across the political aisle and extend an offer.

P.J. Wakefield grew up a Blast fan, a fixture at home games by the age of 8 - grabbing autographs and a hot dog - with the occasional chance to play on the carpet at Baltimore Arena during halftime. Those times have made these times that much more special for the hometown rookie, a Calvert Hall graduate and UMBC standout who has needed only three games to make a pro impression he hopes will be lasting. "It's something I dreamed about," he said. "I grew up watching the Blast, and I always wanted to play for them.

HERE IN Baltimore, the first round of the NBA draft this week was notable because the nearby Washington Wizards chose hometown hero Juan Dixon, the University of Maryland star, thereby adding another chapter to his inspiring story of transcending the tragedy of drug-addicted parents who died as a result of AIDS-related illnesses. But across the globe, the annual exercise in divvying up the best basketball talent was eye-catching because it affirmed that the pro game has truly become an international one. Three of the top seven draft picks, and 14 of the 58 taken in the first two rounds, were from abroad.

ATLANTA - As the victories piled up, the confidence grew into a quiet arrogance, yet a hint of desperation remained with the Maryland Terrapins as they plowed their way into the history books. The Terps could not relax, would not relax, until pressing this mission to the only conclusion they could envision. The hunger would be revealed in game after game, from the way senior guard Juan Dixon made big shots, forced key turnovers and ran defenders ragged, to the way senior center Lonny Baxter hammered opponents mercilessly in the paint, to the way senior forward Byron Mouton reveled in the dirty work of grabbing offensive rebounds and sacrificing his body while retrieving yet another loose ball.

This time, Marvin Lewis is back with the Ravens on his own terms. Less than 24 hours after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers backed out of hiring him as head coach, Lewis turned down a big-money offer from the Washington Redskins to become their defensive coordinator and agreed in principle to a new deal with the Ravens yesterday. "I'm tired of putting my family through this," Lewis told The Sun. "[Ravens owner] Art Modell, [senior vice president of football operations] Ozzie Newsome, right straight down the line through the organization have been loyal to me. I'm at peace with this decision."

The Brazilian Guitar Quartet, known as the "Dream Team" in Brazil, will present a concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre, under the auspices of Candlelight Concerts. The four guitarists are Grammy nominee Paul Galbraith, brothers Edelton and Everton Gloeden, and Tadeu do Amaral. During the quartet's first two U.S. tours, the musicians appeared in New York at the 92nd Street Y, in Washington (broadcast on National Public Radio's Performance Today) and other venues.

SYDNEY, Australia - It was after the game, after the medal ceremony, after all her teammates had left the floor and most of the fans had left the stands when Teresa Edwards sat at the midcourt circle. Just as she did when she was a little girl shooting baskets alone in a darkened gym decades ago, Edwards was collecting her thoughts, maybe even preparing to shoot a basket, one more time. She was savoring the end of an Olympic career that began in the summer of 1984 in Los Angeles and ended in triumph last night in the sultry springtime of Sydney.

SYDNEY, Australia - It was the night Dream Team III nearly awoke to a nightmare, the night the wealthiest Olympic team of them all was nearly taken down by five guys with crew cuts and scuffed sneakers, the night the Olympic men's basketball tournament came of age. The United States went to the brink and back last night against Lithuania, winning 85-83, to advance to tomorrow's Olympic gold-medal game against France. It was almost the greatest team-sports upset in Olympic history. It would have eclipsed America's "Miracle on Ice" hockey win over the Soviet Union at Lake Placid in 1980.