Dream Team

SYDNEY, Australia - America's Dream Team III met China's Great Wall last night, and it sure was a sight to behold. There was big, burly Alonzo Mourning, barely coming up to the shoulder of China's 7-foot-5 center Yao Ming. And there was sleek and agile Kevin Garnett with an up-close view of the chin of 7-1 Wang Zhizhi. Of course, the United States won the opening-round Olympic game, 119-72. But the score was beside the point. This was about the lure of the Olympics, the spread of basketball and sizing up the biggest potential market of all, China.

Over cream puffs and bite-size egg rolls, members of two of the most powerful groups in southern Anne Arundel County made small talk and sized each other up in matters of public policy this week. These 36 people -- the newly appointed members of the Shady Side/Deale and South County small area planning committees -- will spend the next year drawing up a development blueprint that will guide land-use and zoning policies in the southern portions of the county for the next 20 years.

Sykesville Mayor Jonathan S. Herman has put together what he calls a "dream team of experts" to help the town map a future for its newest annexation.But planning the development of the Warfield Complex at Springfield Hospital Center will proceed without the county Department of Economic Development, which was once keenly interested in the 131-acre site along Route 32.Of the 14 people invited to serve on the Warfield Advisory Committee, only John T. "Jack"...

LOS ANGELES -- The good news: Before it had even released a movie, DreamWorks SKG had won an Academy Award.The bad news: It was for a failed TV pilot. "Dear Diary," a sitcom starring Bebe Neuwirth that had been rejected by the networks, won this year's Best Short Film Oscar.Ah, well, the test begins in earnest today, when DreamWorks, the first new major Hollywood studio in 60 years, releases its premier film, "The Peacemaker," a political thriller starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman.

CLEVELAND -- They've swept the more marketable Seattle Mariners, won two starts against the more intimidating Randy Johnson and have yet to face the more loathsome New York Yankees. Yet only one-fourth into the season and with the Yankees only a day away, the Orioles have tempted their most hardened fans to dream and the most veteran elements of their (( clubhouse to ponder dominance.May in Camden Yards has again became a setting for the Million Fan March. Last week's two-game homestand against the Detroit Tigers drew the two largest regular-season crowds in the ballpark's existence.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A sign in the end zone said, "Today's Panthers victory dedicated to Cleveland."What a joke.If Baltimore had gotten the expansion team it deserved, the Browns might still be in Cleveland.If Baltimore had gotten the expansion team it deserved, its team might be 11-4 instead of 4-11.If Baltimore had gotten the expansion team it deserved, it might not be stuck with a debt-ridden, PSL-driven calamity of a franchise.This isn't sour grapes over the Ravens' 27-16 loss yesterday to the Carolina Panthers -- it's the same story every week, so why even get upset?

Suppose there was a team that couldn't play the game. team that didn't have enough people, didn't own the right equipment, didn't know the moves, didn't stand a chance.Suppose this team got trounced but kept trying. Suppose this team got pummeled but kept growing. Added young, scrappy guys with raw talent. Lured a flashy franchise player -- one of the best in the world -- and a cool-headed veteran who had mastered the game. Suppose this team started winning, and the fans started following, and together they went all the way to the national tournament, where the best in the country battled for the sport's highest honor.

ATLANTA -- The Centennial Olympic Games were all about women in sport, from the dramatic performance of tiny gymnast Kerri Strug, to the record crowd of 76,481 that attended the women's soccer final, and yesterday to the roof-raising gold medal performance of the U.S. women's basketball team.Male track stars Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson may have dominated the headlines for a few days, but the XXVI Olympiad featured more female athletes than ever before, and featured more American achievements by female athletes than come easily to memory.

ATLANTA -- There never was any reasonable doubt. The USA basketball team won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympiad at the same time it won the 1992 Olympic title, on the day the International Olympic Committee endorsed the notion of allowing professional players to participate in the Olympic basketball competition.No one figured on any suspense. The only question was whether the NBA all-stars would live up to the international hype and show the world just how well they can play.Maybe not, but they still crushed Yugoslavia, 95-69, last night with a late onslaught that made the game look far more lopsided than it was.The Yugoslavian team showed surprising resilience and even a little spunk on the way to the silver medal.

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.