LIKE IT IS

NBA stars (of the future) lifted 1984 team

— Sitting at Corky’s for a founder’s meeting of the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Monday, a glance up showed a big group picture of the 1984 U.S. Olympic gold medal basketball team.

There were several future NBA players, including Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, who would become superstars.

Of course, there was former Razorbacks Joe Kleine and Alvin Robertson.

Kleine and Robertson actually arrived in Los Angeles to prepare for the games from Japan.

The Arkansas Razorbacks were in an international tournament, playing in five cities across Japan.

It was an amazing trip.

Beautiful country, bullet train, living on Coca-Colas and bread (trying cold corn soup has never entered my mind since that trip).

Being treated with incredible respect was a life-impacting experience.

Walking through a mall and having Kleine ask clothiers if they had anything in his size.

Seeing the kids run up to him crying out excitedly in Japanese, “Giant.”

Arkansas Coach Eddie Sutton gave the players one free night. We were in Sapporo and the players had a midnight curfew. Actually, Sutton hinted it would be good if Gary Hogan, then at KTHV Channel 11, and yours truly meet the same curfew.

I tagged along with Scott Rose, a Razorbacks player, and a bunch of the younger guys to an arcade where Rose got into a contest with a Japanese guy on a punching machine.

Back and forth they went until Rose finally ran up a perfect score and dislocated a knuckle in doing it.

The Japanese guy, embarrassed, and his buddies (these were young men, not college students) rushed out.

A little later, we headed back to the hotel and someone, Jay Crane maybe, said we were being followed.

There were at least a dozen guys with the guy that Rose had caused to lose face.

A fog had started to roll in on us and that made it even more tense as they started closing ground on us.

After about a block they yelled something, turned and ran the other way.

Kleine and Charles Balentine had walked out of the fog right behind us.

We made curfew with time to spare. That was also the city where earlier that day while walking around we heard this organ playing incredible Christian music. When we turned the corner, there was Razorback Leroy Sutton playing a souped-up keyboard.

When we got back to the hotel, Eddie Sutton was on the phone with Bob Knight, who was coaching the Olympic team. Sutton begged to let Kleine and Robertson be a few days late. The Hogs were 4-0 on the trip, and Sutton wanted to win the tournament.

Knight refused.

Robertson and Ricky Norton missed curfew that night by a few hours (5), and Sutton benched them for the game that afternoon.

When the Hogs fell behind 21-6, Sutton unbenched them.

The Razorbacks ended up winning that game but losing the final without Kleine and Robertson, who left to join the Olympic team, but everyone played hard and hadfun. Sutton played everyone that day.

Russia was boycotting the 1984 Games, but it probably didn’t matter in basketball that year. The U.S. team won its games by 48, 21, 36, 58 and 33 points.

The Soviets returned in 1988, but the U.S. went into those Olympics with just one shooter and he got hurt.

The Soviets won and then the Olympics changed forever. True professional athletes from the U.S. were soon allowed to participate, making the 1984 Olympic basketball team the last group of amateurs to win the gold.

Sports, Pages 17 on 08/02/2012

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