The Olympic basketball tournament was designed in Athens as a true show, and it allowed the Greeks to breathe in the scent of a past glory.
This is the 2nd part of the 11th chapter of a retrospective on the events, teams and players who have marked the history of the Olympic Games. Read also :
Olympics Berlin’36: The manager, the inventor and the dictator.
Helsinki’52, Melbourne’56, Rome’60: Interview with Jean-Paul Beugnot.
Mexico’68: Spencer Haywood, a 20-year-old prodigy
Munich’72: Three seconds, an eternity
Los Angeles’84: Bobby Knight, the General
Seoul’88: The end of an era
Barcelona’92: Magical Moments
Atlanta’96: Americans are a hit
Sydney’00: These Blues came out of nowhere
Sydney’00: Laurent Sciarra: “Carter’s dunk is the image of the Games”
Athens’04: Americans scalped
It takes ninety minutes to get there from Omonia Square, the fouled lung of the Greek capital. By metro, first of all. Direction Piraeus. The marble city-center stations, enriched with archaeological remains, without greasy paper, airy, testify to the immense efforts that Athens has undertaken to deserve the Games. These stations contrast with the filth of the sidewalks on the surface, which often smells of urine, and the sad buildings built, identically, after the war. Get off the metro at Faliro, take the tram, also brand new, with air conditioning. It runs along the coast and the dirty beaches where the city’s sewers flow, which does not put off bathers.
The gigantic Helliniko Olympic Complex was built on the old airport. It hosts the baseball, softball, hockey, handball, canoe / kayak, fencing and basketball competitions, for the first phase. After getting off at station 2nd Ag. Kosma, you have to take a footbridge that spans the motorway that leads to Cape Sounio, and avoid sunstroke. Do not speak here of temperature in the shade, there is none. No tree, no greenery. The Greek capital lacks green spaces, such as parking lots and pipes. To be ready for D-Day, Athens has imposed the labors of Hercules in the last few months. From there to take care of the details …
The two metro lines, the tram, modern buses, the commuter train, and the expressways – concrete, still concrete, still no twigs of grass – have oxygenated traffic in the capital. Especially since this month of August, the Athenian, like the Parisian, fled his city to invest the beaches and the islands. The Games have fertilized tourism, but newspapers report that it is to the detriment of other regions of the country, Corfu and Rhodes in the lead. Many Greeks wonder if they will not have a hangover after the big Olympic marquee is taken down.
The Athenians also do not like, it seems, the Zeppelin, equipped with high-resolution cameras, which constantly flies over the city, and the 1,500 fixed cameras on the lookout for the slightest suspicious movements. This is one of the most spectacular signs of the immense resources deployed to ensure the security of the Games. The Greek authorities mobilized 70,000 men, obtained NATO support, deployed Patriot, S-300 and Rattlesnake missiles, and spent 1.2 billion euros… The 531 American sportsmen sent to Athens, including the twelve basketball players, housed on the Queen Mary 2 which anchors in the port of Piraeus, represent an ideal target for terrorists in need of global publicity. They are accompanied by 400 special forces men and 150 American agents who
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Opening photo: Argentina, Olympic champion (FIBA)
