Indiana University Olympians. David Woods

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СКАЧАТЬ sentimental favorite being Barkley, then a 280-pound forward out of Auburn nicknamed the “Round Mound of Rebound.” Barkley’s thunderous dunks and demonstrative fist pumps delighted onlookers but did not impress Knight. Coincidentally, Barkley was Alford’s roommate during the trials on the top floor of the Memorial Union.

      In a 1989 autobiography (written with John Garrity), Alford speculated that pairing him with Barkley was “one of Coach’s little jokes, putting me with a guy who looked as if he could eat the furniture.”

      Alford hid food from his roomie. “If I had any Cokes or candy bars, I stuffed them away in my gym bag,” Alford wrote.

      Otherwise, Barkley was delightful, playing H-O-R-S-E with ball boys after practice or wrestling Auburn teammate Chuck Person on Alford’s bed.

      Alford was mesmerized by Jordan, whose maneuvers were so unconventional that those at the trials could barely describe them. There were dunks with 360-degree spins, jump hooks, alley-oops—you name it. The one thing that Jordan did that Alford also could was wipe the soles of his shoes on a wet towel on the floor.

      Knight spotted the mimicry and yelled, “See that, Jordan? You think Alford can leap from the foul line and dunk now?”

      Alford could not. He could shoot.

      So when the cut to thirty-two players was made, and the list was announced, Alford was on it.

      Public scrimmages moved to Assembly Hall, which featured the atmosphere of college games, complete with cheerleaders and the IU pep band. Behind the scenes, Barkley was wavering on whether he wanted to play in the Olympics at all. He had already planned to leave college early, and if he went pro before Jordan, Barkley speculated he could make more money from endorsements.

      Following weekend play, another cut was made, this time to twenty. Among those not making it was Antoine Carr of Wichita State. Carr was good enough— he already had a $225,000-a-year contract with an Italian team and had played for the silver medalists at the 1982 World Basketball Championship. Carr played for sixteen years in the NBA. Yet Knight’s message had been clear: he would not be picking the twelve best players but the twelve making the best team.

      There were no leaks about who was going to make it and no politicking by players or their advocates.

      “I played in an era when there was no social media,” Alford said. “Not every person was able to voice their opinion publicly like they do now.”

      Players returned for a minicamp in May and full practices June 15. The NBA draft, held June 19, was not the spectacle that it is now. Instead of traveling to New York for the draft at Madison Square Garden, those still in contention for the Olympics watched from Bloomington. Once drafted, players were led to a WTTV studio for a live feed to the USA Network.

      Eight of the first eighteen selections were would-be Olympians: Jordan (drafted third); Sam Perkins (fourth); Alvin Robertson (seventh); Lancaster Gordon (eighth); Leon Wood (tenth); Tim McCormick (twelfth); Jeff Turner (seventeenth), and Vern Fleming (eighteenth). That did not include two players—Barkley (fifth) and Stockton (sixteenth)—who did not survive the cut to sixteen.

      In 1985, five of the top seven picks in the NBA draft were from the Olympic team: Ewing (first), Wayman Tisdale (second), Jon Koncak (fifth), Joe Kleine (sixth), and Mullin (seventh).

      The Olympians had multimillion-dollar contracts waiting, but there was a gold medal out there waiting too. Knight “didn’t deny” the draft happened, according to Tim Garl, the IU basketball trainer who served in that same role for Team USA. “But he said, ‘Hey, you need to do the Olympic thing first. We have a job to do.’”

      When it came down to the final cut, Alford did not have to sit in a chair and wait for names to be called. Knight told him, and told him he earned it. Predictably, there was an outcry that an Indiana player had been picked by the Indiana coach. Knight responded just as predictably.

      “We had twenty coaches who voted unanimously to keep him on the team,” Knight said. “What am I supposed to do, keep him off because he played at Indiana?”

      Alford felt no resentment from teammates. Knight yelled at him too often for that to happen. Alford and Tisdale were the most frequent targets of Knight’s invectives.

      Before heading to Los Angeles, the Olympic team went 7–0 on an exhibition tour against NBA players. The Olympians averaged 103.6 points a game and weren’t challenged against out-of-shape, out-of-season pros.

      One exhibition, on June 20, was played against a team of former Indiana greats: Ted Kitchel, Isiah Thomas, Kent Benson, Tom and Dick Van Arsdale, Randy Wittman, Mike Woodson, and 1976 gold medalists Quinn Buckner and Scott May. Team USA won 124–89.

      Patriotic and Indiana fervor were underscored in a July 9 game against NBA stars, which drew 67,596 fans—then the most ever to witness a basketball game— to the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. The NBA team included Thomas, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kevin McHale. Team USA won that one 97–82.

      The Olympic team practiced in San Diego for two weeks before heading to Los Angeles. There were team-building activities such as trips to the San Diego Zoo and a Padres baseball game, and Alford said some players slipped away for some “cheap thrills” in Tijuana, Mexico. Players took a bus trip to a JCPenney warehouse, where they were issued credentials, outfitted for uniforms, and allowed to stuff as much Olympics swag into a shopping cart as they could: T-shirts, jackets, caps, bags, sweats, shoes, pins, mugs, posters, and so forth.

      It would be no exaggeration to assert the Americans won the gold medal not by what they did in Los Angeles but by what they did in Bloomington, San Diego, and elsewhere. Alford said they had the best player on the planet, Michael Jordan, and the best coach on the planet, Bob Knight. Give Knight time to prepare for an opponent, Alford said, and “he was almost unbeatable.” And Knight had all summer.

      “We had a phenomenal leader in Jordan,” Alford said. “He’s as good as it got. . . .

      It was a phenomenal team that couldn’t help but get better. Those guys really did get better and better during that time.”

      In Los Angeles, players stayed in the Olympic Village on the University of Southern California campus. The team rode on the same bus with athletes such as gymnast Mary Lou Retton and boxer Pernell Whitaker. Alford met sprinter Carl Lewis and diver Greg Louganis. Alford said the experience gave him a lifelong appreciation of athletes from other sports.

      “We were a part of the Olympics,” he said. “We weren’t the Olympics.”

      Team USA swept through group play with a 5–0 record, beating China 97–49, Canada 89–68, Uruguay 104–68, France 120–62, and Spain 101–68. Alford came off the bench to score thirteen points against Canada on six-of-eight shooting. Against Uruguay, the Americans once made fifteen consecutive shots.

      Alford was taking antibiotics for a staph infection before the game against France, but it was not evident. In twenty-three minutes, he shot eight of eight from the field and two of two on free throws for eighteen points. For years, he has teased his basketball-playing children about it.

      “Anytime France comes up, whether it is in french fries or anything to do with France, I tell them, ‘That country can’t get over me. I shot that country out. I was eight for eight.’”

      His shooting in the quarterfinal was more consequential, considering he led the Americans with seventeen points in a 78–67 victory over West Germany. It was their СКАЧАТЬ