The Other Dream Team Page #4

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"Dream Team. "

We're being blown out

by these incredible athletes.

You know, I'm just like a little kid.

I'm like, "There's nobody

taking pictures, actually. "

Well, he's got the best position

in the house.

So I just start taking pictures

of the actual game.

By the way, none of those pictures

came out well.

And we beat them. We beat Lithuania

and everybody was surprised.

They were really, in a lot of respects,

trying to launch themselves back

into the European community.

Springboard themselves

back into respectability,

and they were using the only tool they had,

basketball, to do that.

Their final game against Russia

was to live or die.

That's the feeling.

But...

You can imagine

the moment of victory,

how every one of us felt.

It was the proudest moment

in our athletic history.

That bronze medal was for us like gold.

Not only for us, but it was for our country.

Our U. S. "Dream Team"

came to be known as how good it was,

but in Lithuania

it was a different kind of dream.

It was very much a dream team

that fulfilled the dream of a nation.

In walks President Landsbergis,

who was the guy that was sitting in

front of those Russian tanks.

In the locker room, it was winning

the NBA Championship times five.

Sarunas shows up and he says,

"The Grateful Dead believed

in us when we were nobody

"and we're gonna pay a tribute to them. "

And here comes this Lithuanian crew

just off the side door here,

just kind of parading in.

It looked like they came

from a Grateful Dead concert.

Not in a straight line

and just totally free.

The rock 'n' roll Grateful Dead team

and they're wearing

tie-dye on the medal stand.

It was one of the few priceless moments

in sporting rock 'n' roll history.

They could have been laughed at

if they weren't as good as they were.

They would have looked like

fools wearing tie-dye,

but we had a championship golden team

flying their colors.

The dream of freedom.

The dream of independence.

The dream of being liberated

from social and political domination.

The dream of being able

to chart your own destiny

and make your own choice tomorrow.

Something we take for granted.

Yeah, that was a bigger dream.

With the fifth pick

in the 2011 NBA draft,

the Toronto Raptors select

Jonas Valanciunas

from Utena, Lithuania.

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