The Other Dream Team Page #2

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We'll see you at 3:00 today.

- Okay.

- Bring your A-game.

I said bring your A-game.

Jonas is a little bit of a

mystery in this draft.

Talent-wise, I think he could end up

being the best player in this draft.

What time he comes to the NBA,

and when that talent begins to blossom,

that's up for debate.

Exciting time for you, man.

You're only a rookie one time.

You only get drafted one time.

Might as well enjoy it.

My father played basketball

when he was young,

- but my father is rower.

- Yeah?

- Rower.

- A rower?

- Oh, really?

- My father told me,

"If you choose rower,

you will be good rower. "

- It's easy, right?

- Yeah. He told me, "Come on. "

The camp can be pretty intimidating

because these guys know that their future

depends on what the people

in the room think.

The dollar amount between

being the second pick in the draft

and the 20th is millions of dollars.

So there's a lot at stake.

There's question marks

about how ready he is

and we're never gonna know for sure.

He's a risk.

Going into the Olympics,

we were feeling pretty good.

We practiced hard,

we were well-conditioned,

well-trained to get out there and play.

We were definitely confident.

We felt that we had a good team.

We never played against Sabonis,

but we'd heard about this guy

so long that he should have

been over into the NBA.

But I guess they wouldn't let him come.

And now let's take a look

at the starting lineups.

They built this Russian team

to actually compete with the NBA,

to compete with

all of the best players in the league.

So they were fighting for something and

we were fighting for something.

In my mind's eye,

I see kind of the middle of the floor.

I see the ball sailing over the midcourt

and Kurtinaitis getting it

and stopping and popping.

He can shoot. I told you, folks.

He can shoot.

The Soviet Union played

a much more appealing game of basketball.

They were the ones that were up and down.

They were the ones

that were controlling the tempo.

They were the ones

that were passing that ball

and hitting the open shots.

Sabonis was the catalyst,

just tossing the ball,

then knocking down jumpers.

And every time it seemed like we got close,

they'd make a big play

and we just couldn't get over the hump.

Five minutes to go

and Marciulionis drops at the other end.

You could tell that they

had it in their eyes

that they were ready to play and they felt

that they could play with us.

And here's the frosting for the USSR.

They win it 82-76.

There's no reason to make any excuses.

They just outplayed us

and they were the better team.

Glasnost means "openness. "

It also means "something

spoken publically" rather than whispered.

Both meanings symbolize

the changes that are now

sweeping Soviet life.

There is the feeling Soviet sports officials

are close to allowing some of their great

athletes to play in America.

It is not something

those officials want to do,

but in this clash

of capitalism and socialism,

money is proving to be the big lure.

My first trip over there

was on an Athletes In Action tour.

I happened to get matched up

against this 6'5" bull

named Sarunas Marciulionis.

And he lit me up for about 40 that night.

So, later on, when I got into scouting,

I say, "Dad, there's a two guard

that's pretty good over there.

"We should try to extract. "

There were two teams vying for him.

And it was the Atlanta Hawks

and the Golden State Warriors.

And I think Don Sr. And Don Jr.

Were very smart.

They went via the Lithuanian angle.

"Lithuania should be independent.

"We respect that, come over. "

I was working on the Hawks' side.

It was different because in our relationship

that my boss Ted Turner had,

not only with the Soviet Olympic Committee,

but really dealt with the very highest

levels of the Soviet government,

we weren't in a position to do that.

Basically a free agent signing

just like you would

any American player or European player.

The difference was

he was behind the Iron Curtain.

They just told us,

"You can't have a conversation

"inside Sarunas' apartment

because it's bugged. "

So never did we ever talk about anything

inside the apartment.

After a while he told me, he opened up,

he said, "By me walking

around with you in public,

"a westerner, an American,

"people associate that with money

"and I'm putting myself in danger. "

Exposure to western lifestyle

is what Soviet sports bosses worry about.

They have watched

the enormously popular Garry Kasparov,

World Chess Champion,

thumb his nose at the sports establishment.

I used all opportunities

given by the glasnost

and perestroika for my fight.

Kasparov comes and goes as he wants.

One of the only Soviets who can.

Other sporting chiefs will be very slow

to allow their athletes his kind of freedom.

We were with Garry Kasparov

the night before Sarunas was going to

basically take on the establishment.

Sarunas knew the odds

and he was doing something

that could cost him his career.

And Garry said right there to his

face, he said,

"Sarunas, tomorrow you're gonna be one

of the richest men in our country,

"free to pursue your professional dream,

"or you're gonna be in Siberia. "

I remember walking in,

I guess it would have been

the Sports Ministry in Vilnius,

and I never saw Sarunas

so nervous in my life.

The five Americans sat

at one side of the table,

and there must have been

15-20 Lithuanians representing

all different parts of

Lithuanian government,

the Sports Ministry,

all the teams they played on.

All there really to say,

"What part of this do I get

if Sarunas goes to the NBA?"

I just remember seeing him,

he never looked up,

he looked down at the floor the whole time.

When we walked out,

he kind of grabbed my arm and he said,

"Wouldn't it be nice, this is my life,

if I could make the decision.

"But you see where I am?"

I'll never, ever, ever forget that.

Sarunas rolled the dice.

He basically read the tea leaves and said,

"The country's falling apart right now.

"If I act as an individual

and sign my own deal,

"kicking back nothing to the Soviet sports

machine that helped train me,

"but sign my own deal with Golden State,

"I'm gonna gamble that

they're not gonna come in and void it

"or put me in prison

or do anything to keep it from happening. "

And sure enough, he read it right.

The Golden State Warriors

of the National Basketball Association

today signed Sarunas Marciulionis

of the Soviet Union

to a three-year contract.

Marciulionis, the leading scorer

for his Olympic Gold Medal winning team,

is the first Soviet to sign with the NBA.

All of a sudden I heard that Sarunas would

be coming to the Golden State Warriors.

I mean, this guy

just beat us in the Olympics,

still was some bad blood there. No doubt.

But I knew that he can play,

he could help our team.

I think that when he first got here,

"You mean that I can buy that car right now

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