Brown proposes changes in ways team is picked

Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

Like most geopolitical issues for the United States, about a decade or so ago winning an Olympic basketball gold medal was a much easier proposition.

In 1992, all that was necessary was calling on a dozen soon-to-be Hall-of-Famers, rolling out the basketballs then sitting back and watching 50-point wins. Today however, there's no such luck, which was why, less than a week before the start of the Athens Games, U.S. men's coach Larry Brown couldn't be more nervous.

"I can't wish for things we don't have," said the coach, who then proceeded to run off a few items he'd like to see. Things such as two more weeks of practice time before entering into the U.S. team's current exhibition swing through Europe, which was to conclude today with a game against Turkey and a subsequent trip to Greece.

Brown then called for fundamental changes in the way USA Basketball goes about its business, including everything from an Olympic Trials for basketball to a different selection system.

"I might be a voice in the dark, but we need to have trials; I think you ought to bring 15 or 16 guys in -- I think there are 20 guys (in the NBA) who want to be on this team so you bring 'em in and let 'em go," Brown said, asking for a return to the days before the NBA entered the Olympic picture when college players tried out for the team.

"This is not '92, or '96, playing at home in Atlanta," he said. "We've got to understand that things are changing.

"If we want to win, we need to put the best team out on the floor and it's not just writing names down and it's not just coming in 15 days before the Olympics and expecting to win. It's just not going to happen, not in a 40-minute game, and not with these (international) teams being together for so long and having a great understanding of how they want to play."

Nicholson was a center fielder last season for the Toledo Mud Hens, the Detroit Tigers' Triple-A team. Brack used to play in the independent Northeast League.

"I said, 'Fight, because it makes your spirit strong,' " said her coach, John Smith. "She said, 'I have no choice.' Good, I like that."

Edwards and Smith are in Crete at the U.S. track and field training camp for the Athens Games, which begin Friday.

Richmond placed fourth in last month's Olympic trials, her 21-6 1/4 leaving her a half-inch behind Akiba McKinney. But she knew that McKinney would have to meet the qualifying standard of 22-11 3/4 to ensure herself a place on the team.

McKinney's last chance to do so was Sunday in Germany's three-nation Team Challenge, where she finished more than a foot short.

Richmond, meanwhile, made a jump of 22-2 1/4 on July 24 at a meet in Carson, Calif., and that was enough to get her on the team when McKinney came up short.

Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, a business partner of former Indonesian strongman Suharto, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2000 for his role in a multimillion-dollar scam involving a forest-mapping project in the early '90s.