The Chat House: Athens 2004 Olympics
Michael Wilbon
Washington Post Sports Columnist
Thursday, August 26, 2004; 1:00 p.m. ET
The 2004 Olympic Games are underway in Athens and today is a big day for U.S. basketball. How are things going? Any major victories or losses?
Join Post Sports columnist Michael Wilbon online Thursday, Aug. 26, at 1 p.m. ET. He will join you live from Athens to talk about the Olympics.
Submit your questions and comments any time, before or during today's discussion.
Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Washington, DC:
Great work Mike! With the US hoops victory today, can we all agree that once again we are the favorite? Sarunas Knows Best!
Michael Wilbon: Well, I don't know about being the favorite...I have been operating under the assumption that the best team in the tournament is Spain. And a combination of effective U.S. passing a shooting and a dumb game of basketball by Spain led to a U.S. victory...But beating Argentina and Lithuania back-to-back would be very difficult...I think it would help the U.S. if Greece beats Argentina (in a game that begins in two hours) and the U.S. had to go through Greece and Lithuania. Greece isn't nearly as good as Argentina, but is playing at home...Also, Greece matches up much better with Argentina than with the U.S.
Anyway, Sharunas really does believe that...now we'll see if he's accurate...I don't think he wants to be, since there could be a rematch Saturday night for gold.
_______________________
Roanoke, Va.:
Mike:
Thanks for the great coverage. Are you planning to check out the team handball? That is a sport which the US should be pretty good at, if we ever figured out the rules....
Also, I'd say that the Estrada comments are the most embarassing things I've heard or seen a US athlete do at the Olympics. Do you agree?
Michael Wilbon: Usually I do check out team handball, not to write about it since there's no real clamor for it...But just to see it. I love watching it. But we're at the part of the Games now, the final three days, where it's a heavy concentration of the glamour sports: track & field, basketball, boxing...At least that's the way it is for me. The early days are when I try to see exotic stuff, like beach volleyball and fencing and judo or women's wrestling (a first-time sport). But it always boils down, at least to me, to the sports people reading The Washington Post seem to care about most...
_______________________
Germantown, MD:
Hi Michael,
Are the NBA players taking to heart all the criticism that has gone there way? How do they feel about being the first NBA led team that might not win Gold.
Take care,
Jay
Michael Wilbon: "Might not win the gold?" You really think professional athletes walk around thinking, "I might not win..."
I'm betting you haven't competed athletically in your life, have you?
They know they've played poorly and have said so, but they're not walking around with a dread on, especially not after beating Spain this morning...
_______________________
Falls Church, VA:
Michael,
Other than the obvious homerism of the crowds, which is to be expected, have you noticed any general trends in routing (or booing) directed at specific countries? For instance, have you seen any anti-american sentiment or anything directed at any of the European neigbors to Greece? At least on TV, it seems most people are just routing for good competition and athletic achievement. I'm interested in your thoughts.
Michael Wilbon: There's a little anti-American sentiment at the men's basketball venue. But since I don't hear any of that at any other venue (or at the same venue for the U.S. women) I've concluded it's about the U.S. men's basketball team being, historically, the New York Yankees of international sport. People root for the underdog, so never the U.S. men's hoopsters...Oh! I forgot, the U.S. boxers are getting booed...I'm trying to connect the dots here, but it's difficult...A couple of U.S. boxers--one in particular--made a fool of himself and should have been booed.
_______________________
Alexandria:
Michael,
What was the deal with the Spanish basketball coach today? So, Larry Brown took a TO, he heard the boos from the fans and sent his team back out on the floor AND apologized afterwards! What more was Brown supposed to do? The one who was a poor sport was the Spanish coach and his comments after the game!
Michael Wilbon: Spain's basketball coach behaved like a fool. And I'm writing a column today saying so. If an American coach in any sport behaved that way he or she should have been sent home...The guy is a disgrace. Larry called a timeout when the game was out of reach...He actually tried to decline it when the ref actually blew the whistle. But the scorer said, no, that Larry had to take the timeout.
Larry apologized multiple times to Spain's coach, the last time in a press conference before the entire international press corp and the guy behaved like an idiot, like a garden variety bum. And worse than that, he behaved like a bum after he did a lousy job of coaching his team.
His best player, Pau Gasol, might be the best player in this tournament...yes, better than Tim Duncan. Gasol has been a horse, and the reason Spain entered the tournament with a 5-0 record. But after scoring 25 points the first three quarters, the stupid coach allows the team to run up and down throwing up errant three-pointers instead of insisting they get the ball to Gasol, who was wearing Duncan's butt out...Oh, and Lamar Odom and Carlos Boozer, too. It was the kind of dumb performance by a team that if the U.S. players did it, they'd get ripped.
Believe me, I'm going bare-knuckles on the Spain team in tomorrow's editions.
_______________________
Washington, DC:
Wilbon. Loved the beach volleyball column. Do you think the men need to have a performance like that of Marbury's today to win the gold. Cause the odds of one of our guys shooting that well again is not good.
Michael Wilbon: No, Marburry doesn't have to do that again. In fact, nobody has to do that...They get a 31-point performance once every 50-plus years, so I wouldn't wait on that...The whole team is getting better. They pass better in the half court, though they are not defending as well as most of us expected they would...
_______________________
Washington, DC:
With today's performance, are the media and coaches going to get off of Stephon Marbury's back?
Michael Wilbon: Hey, we're not here for love taps. When Steph shoots 3-for-16, what do you want, hugs and kisses. When he turns the ball over, gets yelled at by his coach, and generally looks like a CYO player, you want pats on the back. We're not in business with athletes, we cover them. We look at them critically. Now that it's time to say, Steph played great, I'll say it. If he stinks in the semis, I'll say he stinks. That's the way it works
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
Isn't this basically what was predicted for the Men's basketball team? It seems like most writers were saying that they'd struggle through the qualifying round, then turn it on in the medal rounds. Is this really so surprising?
Michael Wilbon: They didn't "turn it on." They're getting better. I thought they'd struggle through the entire competition and they have...and probably will. They didn't turn on anything today. It was a four-point game until about four minutes left, and as I mentioned, if Spain hadn't been so dumb with the basketball it could have been dead even down the stretch. But the U.S. team wasn't dumb with the ball. They valued their possessions, they're making extra passes. They're getting better, which isn't akin to turning it on.
_______________________
Alexandria, VA:
I was fortunate to be in Athens to watch Halkia break the 400m hurdles Olympic record but had to watch the finals on TV here in DC. What has the reaction been like? Is anyone questioning her performance? Has she been tested and found clean? I don't think the Greeks could handle it if she were to pop positive for something.
Michael Wilbon: Oh yeah, people are questioning her performance, which I was in attendance for last night...One of the U.S. competitors--who lost, I should add--took a thinly veiled shot at her...check my column on the website or in the newspaper to get the full details...I'm punch drunk and can't remember what happened before this morning...It was rousing to see in the stadium, but cutting four seconds off your time in less than a year brings you under suspicion from the people in your event...And there's plenty of it, trust me.
_______________________
McLean, VA:
If you could add one sport and remove one sport from the games, what would they be?
Michael Wilbon: I'd take out that dreadful rhythmic gymnastics and put in nothing...I want to take a shot at sychronized swimming, but it's done so well and the skill level of these people in astonishing. I HATE sychronized swimming, but it's fascinating. I mean, they're SO DAMNED GOOD! Yet, it doesn't belong here.
Liz Clarke, sitting two feet from me, just said with a serious face: "How about something with dogs? How about Frisbee throwing?"
Guess what kind of pet Liz has?
Actually, golf is coming into the Games in 2008 in Bejing, and I'm not opposed to that. Look at how many countries play golf. EVERYBODY plays golf. Well, more nation's play golf than field hockey, right? Or than archery, for crying out loud. I'm okay with golf...And another thing: I'd take out tennis, largely because the U.S. Open is late in the summer and I wonder how much the greatest tennis players care...
_______________________
Silver Spring MD:
Mike, back when we used to play volleyball (with 6 a side, I think), I'm pretty sure you could only score on your own serve. Did they change that to speed up the beach game?
Michael Wilbon: Great question...Yes, to speed up the game you can now score on the other team's serve...I have no idea when the change took place. I was watching it here in Athens early in the competition and said to somebody sitting nearby, "What the hell happened here?" Everybody wants to make their sport more attractive and easier to sell...
_______________________
Washington D.C.:
Was the officiating today as attrocious as it appeared?
It looked like there were a lot of anticipation fouls called. It seemed the international refs were not used to seeing players recover from being out of position and still block/alter shots.
And since when is Pau Gasol untouchable. The game looked like a Christian Laettner/Duke game from the early 90's the way he was getting the "hands off" treatment.
Thanks so much and enjoy the waining days of the games.
Chris
Michael Wilbon: Please, don't go there with the officiating. Pau Gasol wore their little heinies out! Okay? He kicked their butts, so I don't want to hear it. If anything, the U.S. got benefit of several calls. Now, those calls didn't affect the outcome. On the two worst calls, the U.S. didn't score once it was (erroneously) given possession...But Gasol kicked butt...I'd take Gasol on my team any time...Don't you wish the Wizards had taken him instead of Kwame Brown???
_______________________
Richmond, Va.:
Hi Mike,
Great work. Do you think that Marion Jones has a shot of winning gold in the long jump?
Thanks
Charles
Michael Wilbon: I don't know enough about the long jump, only that several women qualified with longer jumps than she did. But I do know that Jones is a competitor, whether we're talking about basketball or the 100 meters, and she has a great flair for the dramatic, and for the Olympics. It wouldn't surprise me to see her win...I'm not betting on it, but it wouldn't surprise me...
_______________________
Ashburn, Va.:
Michael, I'm sick of LeBetard of PTI, come back soon! Anyways, I heard all kinds of stories that the stadiums were half-empty, but Greek officials said it would change later on. Have you seen any change since the first week??
Michael Wilbon: Well, the venues have had more fans, but only basketball and beach volleyball have been full of the events I've attended. Boxing has empty seats. Gymnastics--and this is unheard of--had empty seats most nights, but not all. The state of the world scared off a lot of people, and as a result athletes have played to less than full houses.
_______________________
Columbia, Md:
Mike,
Yesterday the Post ran a photo of Amanda Beard, Natalie Coughlin and Jenny Thompson on the beach in string bikinis. My question - where were you??
Michael Wilbon: Taking the photo!
_______________________
From Warren Brown:
Hurricane Charley-ville: Hi Warren, greetings from southwest Florida! I thought you were the Chat King by posting from your Alaskan cruise, but last week Wilbon laid down the smack when he posted from Athens and called you out for posting on your vacation. Anything to say?
Warren Brown: To Brother Wilbon:
Those of us who are fortunate enough to have these jobs are first servants of our readers. They are why we are here. They are why we get paid. We should serve them at every possible opportunity, including on vacation.
After all, where would we be if our readers, listeners, and chatters decided to take a vacation from us?
Now, there you go, my brother. Your turn.
Michael Wilbon: Servant? Uhhhh, I think not. And didn't even the servants, the indentured ones, got vacation...
And when my job consists of driving Jaguars and Humvees and Porches around all day, then I'll chat 24-7, too.
Thank you, Brother Warren
_______________________
Laurel, Md.: Rulon seems like a class act. When I heard him speak, and read his quotes in the paper, I found myself amazed at how erudite and well-spoken he is. A nice chnage from the in-your-face celebratory attitude displayed by many other athletes who excel in bromides.
Michael Wilbon: Good observation. You're right about Rulon
_______________________
Herndon, Va.:
Mr. Mike: Great column on Marion Jones. With all the insinutations, charges, comments, whatever about so many athletes, are there any of which you can say for sure he/she's not using anything illegal?
Michael Wilbon: I can't say anything for sure...I just can't. And in this case, I don't cover much track & field. Nobody covers much track & field anymore, except maybe Track & Field news or the IAAF newsletter, or something like that. The track stars I know are all old, damn near old as me...Renaldo Nehemiah, Benita Fitzgerald, Evelyn Ashford...They seemed to me at the time to be totally intolerant of drugs...I can't swear to it, but that's my impression...Same thing goes for Cathy Freeman, who I've come to know a little bit only recently...I don't believe EVERYBODY does anything...And I know several athletes who seem so frustrated at the state of affairs in their sport that they have to be clean...or so incredibly delusional I don't even want to know...
_______________________
Arlington, VA:
Hey Mike, it's nice to see a byline story (mens hoops) from you after all these years. How do you like reporting an event w/o writing your column?
Michael Wilbon: I'd rather write columns on sports and people I am intimately familiar with...But here at the Olympics, where there are limited human resources, sometimes we need a story from a specific venue...There were other by-lined stories that I produced from Athens...And chances are there will be a couple of more before I check out of here in a couple of days. But I will say this: it's so much easier writing a game story than a column. The game story should reflect what happened, plus give the reader some insight into something he or she couldn't know without being there and having access to players, coaches, officials, the ambiance, whatever...A column is a peice of you and what you believe about something...Sometimes, they dovetail, sometimes not.
_______________________
McLean, VA:
Good afternoon!
Thanks for finding the time to do these chats while in Athens. I really appreciate it.
Two questions:
One, did you get to see any of the Opening Ceremonies? Watching at home, I loved the Greek history come to life in the parade. Having toured Greece a few years ago and seeing many of the artifacts in person, I spent the whole time screaming "I've seen that! I've seen that, too!" Was the ceremony that cool in real life, or was it too hard to see?
Two, the timetable for construction of the venues was such a big story before the games started. Is there any show of that now?
Thanks!
Steven
Michael Wilbon: Okay, first a confession:
I don't go to Opening Ceremonies anymore...Went to the ones in Barcelona and Seoul, not to mention Albertville and Nagano, and that's enough. Their pagents, which I don't care much for...Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful...But I get more from them watching on TV, too. And they're 3 hours! It's the last 3 hours of rest I get before the competition starts.
But I do love Athens, and a couple of other islands I've visited in Greece (Corfu, Santorini!)
Great question about the venues. I think, collectively, they're the best ever. The basketball arena, where the quarterfinals and medal rounds are played and where the gymnastics were contested, is as good as anything we've got on any college campus. It's like Comcast Center in College Park, which I think is beautiful...I'd love for my school, Northwestern, to have a building as nice...Beach volleyball would be a perfect 10,000-seat tennis stadium. The preliminary basketball venue seats 10,000 (not 19,000 like the medal round venue)and it's a pit...So, people who said the venues wouldn't be ready and would be problematic were wrong...dead, loud wrong. They're great, with no exceptions I'm aware of...Well, boxing is sort of dim and dank, but that's it.
_______________________
Melbourne, Australia:
I would like to know why you cast aspersions on the Australian female beach volleyball players who made some comments about the sexist nature of the beach volleyball. They were simply commenting on the inequality of having an all-female dance troupe in bikinis but no male dancers in bun-hugging Speedos. Also, don't you think, Mr Wilbon, that it's ridiculously sexist for the female players to be wearing next to nothing but for the male players to be wearing body-covering singlets and baggy shorts? Surely even you can see the double standards here.
Michael Wilbon: You ask very reasonable questions...But here's my assertion, and please don't think this represents anybody but me: I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT THE MEN WEAR!
You understand this, right?
Sally Jenkins or Liz Clarke or Amy Shipley or my editor Tracee Hamilton can write whatever they want to write about the men or the women and what the like or what they hate.
I like scantilly-clad women playing volleyball!
This is sinful?
I don't know if it's a double standard. As far as I know, the women wear what they want, and the men wear what they want...
Also, I was just talking a little smack about the hot Aussie player who spiked the ball into the Fun Girls...Although, why is she hatin' on the Fun Girls? What did the Fun Girls do to her? See, now I'm getting all frosted again!
Hey, it's BEACH FREAKIN' VOLLEYBALL...I'm not going to take anything that happens there as seriously as civil rights.
_______________________
Falls Church, Va.:
Enough of this. You can pretend to be focused completely on the Olympics, but you know you want to scream about your choking dog Cubbies. Nomar banged up! Sammy getting booed! At Wrigley!
Michael Wilbon: I know, I know...The first thing I do every single morning when I come into the main press center (noonish here, so 5 a.m. in the east) is log on and check some website for the Cubs score...Believe me, there are times I've awakened at 8 a.m. here (1 a.m. there) and called the desk at the newspaper looking for a score...Is Nomar on the DL yet? The Cubs have won eight of 11, though they're setting me up for The Big Choke, which all Cub fans know in their hearts will happen. Still, it's nearly Sept. 1 and we're alive and kickin' for the second straight year...That may be the first time in my 45 years that's the case.
_______________________
Bethesda, Md.:
Michael,
I read your column today and have to disagree with you. I think the olympics are better off without some star athletes such as Marion Jones and Maurece Greene. I am also glad the US basketball/crybaby team is also getting a lesson in humility. The olympics are not about the star athlete that we see on tv every other week. The olympics are about people like Roulon Gardner who come out of obscurity, do their best, weather it is winning gold or bronze, and then fade back into their lives. The olympics are about those athletes who train in obscurity for four years or more for thier one moment on the olympic stage. I think Roulon's act of taking off his shoes and leaving them in the middle of the ring was one of the most gripping, and meaningful moments shown yet by NBC. I am happy to see new champions in track and field and I am also pleased that for the most part they are showing a degree of class and dignity in victory unlike some of the bravado and classless acts displayed in previous olympic games.
Michael Wilbon: The Olympics are about a lot of stuff...And I don't disagree with you about those athletes who toil in obscurity for years...I love those stories...like Patricia Miranda the U.S. women's wrestler who lost every match wrestling against men because there was no women's team while she attended Stanford...How incredible is that, to keep your self-esteem through that and manage to earn a spot on the Olympic team once the sport is accepted, and then to win bronze?
I love those stories...But I love the other stories as well. What, NBC doesn't have enough hours to tell them all? Space is available. That's why they do it once every four years. Can't we all just get along?
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
Mike,
From today's NY Daily News:
Which medal-winning U.S. Olympic team has been severely scolded by its coach for doing the nasty in public places? Their smooth-skinned sexcapades are the talk of the Olympic Village ...
Have you heard anything about this? I am assuming it is the swimmers...
Michael Wilbon: I have no idea...but it's the kind of important news you'll have to get from one of the fine New York tabloids...
_______________________
Silver Spring, Md.:
What do you think about the Russian delegation protesting every single negative result? Gymnastics, three times. Track and field, 100m women's hurdles? Roy Jones STILL got jobbed in Seoul (not letting that one go) and I didn't see anyone volunteer to give back the medal to the rightful winner. What gives?
Michael Wilbon: I think the Russian delegation should be ignored...Ripped by guys like me, then ignored.
_______________________
Arlington, VA:
Tracee Hamilton conducted a chat on the Olympics earlier today and said that the US women have won every gold medal in hoops except for 1976 and 1980. Didn't the women's team get bronze in Barcelona in 1992? The US men will be a poor contrast to the women's team this year regardless, it's important, however, for people to realize that the U.S. can't win all the time by 40 points. That's not reality, and kind of sad that the effort of the 12 guys here are showing isn't being admired soleley because of how much money they make on their day job. Is there any way that this can be brought to a greater audience?
Michael Wilbon: Tracee reports she was given bad info by a certain women's basketball expert whose name will not be mentioned here, only that he went to Duke and I'll be you a million dollars you cannot pronounce his by-line properly...Yes, the U.S. women won bronze in '92.
_______________________
Montgomery, Al.:
Wilbon,
Two questions, with the most important one first.
What's up with Malcolm Jamaal-Warner playing you on the Tony-TV show?
Secondly, do you agree that Paul Hamm, the USOC, and the gymmastics have handled this thing totally wrong? I agree with Christine Brennan-- if the guy would give back the medal, he could send a great message to young people everywhere about the Olympic spirit and sportsmanship. As well, how proud can he/they be of a medal they know is tainted, and frankly he did not win?
Thanks, and hook a brother up with a job on PTI. Latah
Michael Wilbon: Thanks, first of all. And I love Malcolm Jamal-Warner...We do talk and e-mail now...How damn flattering for me?
Now, onto this Paul Homm thing: Brennan, who I love like a sister and have known since we were both 17 years old, wouldn't give up one outfit out of four 26-inch Tumi bag, much less a gold medal. Brennan and Sally, who are the sisters I never had and didn't want, are out of their minds. Sally wouldn't give up cigarette to clear her own lungs, much less a gold medal...So I don't want to hear any more of this junk from sportswriters about giving back a medal. If I hear one word of this stuff again, we're going to start swinging feathered pillows at each other!
_______________________
Springfield, VA:
Hi Michael,
Are all the olympic athletes tested for drugs or is it random? It really bothers me when another athlete suggests drug use by another with the comment like "They knocked 4 seconds off their time in a year...You tell me how they did it." If you know that someone is on drugs then come out and say it. Go to the authorities before the event. Don't wait until after they win the gold medal and come out and suggest they were on drugs.
Michael Wilbon: This is the first Olympic competition where every sport is tested. All medal winners, I'm told, are tested, even table tennis, and there's random testing beyond that.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.:
Mike, any new buzz going around about the gymnastics judging fiasco? Are they going to take a long hard look at themselves or what? And also...I remember reading a past article of yours where you served up some Olympic boxing judges in Seoul for handing the gold to a clearly undeserving South Korean kid...from your firsthand experience running around the Games, do you get a clear sense that the sports based on "judging" are generally a fix?
Michael Wilbon: Great question..."Generally fixed?" No. But it has happend twice in my own Olympic experience, first in 1988 with the boxing competition in Seoul and then two years ago with the skaters in Salt Lake City...So maybe I'm a fool to not believe there's more of it...I don't want to believe it...I think referees and scouts are the most honest people in spots by and large, and have less bias than anybody else around sports. I know refs, umpires, judges, linespeople...My god, you have no idea how they love sports and how they stress out over a missed call if they think it affected the outcome...
_______________________
Michael Wilbon: Okay, I don't want to lose my edge on ripping this Spanish coach's lungs out after his sorry performance, so I'm going to finish it now, then try to sneak out for a night on the town...the great thing about Athens is that old people (read: over 40) hang out all night, too.
The next time we chat, I believe I'll be back in The States...Have a great weekend.
_______________________
washingtonpost.com:
Thank you for joining us for this discussion. Please continue to log on to washingtonpost.com for more discucssion from Athens with Post sportswriters.
_______________________
Automatically Update Page
Get New Responses
Submit Question
| 
