Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 15, 1993 TAG: 9302150125
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: PHOENIX LENGTH: Medium
NO COLLEGIANS FOR '96 `DREAM TEAM'
There won't be any Christian Laettners on the 1996 U.S. Olympic basketball team.Laettner, the only collegian on the 1992 team, was a concession to the old guard when a group of NBA all-stars swept in to bring back U.S. dominance in Olympic basketball last year.
But basketball officials at a U.S. Olympic Committee meeting say it's extremely unlikely there will be any collegians on the 1996 Olympic team in Atlanta or the 1994 World Championship team in Toronto.
In each case, USA Basketball Executive Director Warren Brown said, "the goal is to pick the 12 best players, but common sense tells anyone that the best 12 players are in the NBA."
After the 1992 Olympics, new USOC President LeRoy Walker criticized the selection of the team and suggested that the '96 team be evenly split - six collegians and six pros. He has backed away from that, saying this weekend that he just wants to make sure the selection process is fair and open to all.
Brown says quotas - six and six - present a legal problem under the Amateur Sports Act and the USOC constitution. He said that there still won't be any Olympic trials and that the '96 and '94 teams will be chosen by a USA Basketball subcommittee.
The collegiate players will get to play in the 1994 Goodwill Games and future Pan American Games. However, the 1995 Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, will be a unique problem. Because seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, the '95 Pan Am Games will be March 11-27, in the heart of the NCAA Tournament. As a result, Brown said, the U.S. team may be made up of players from CBA, junior college or Amateur Athletic Union teams.