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Sunday, February 26, 2006
These Games were lost in translation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Turin, Italy — For the true Olympic experience, there is nothing quite like being in Italy, listening to a young Asian translate a Czech hockey coach’s injury analysis into English, and somehow coming up with this: “He has a problem with his ill.”
I hate it when that happens.
This was Day One of the hockey competition at the Olympics. Czech goalie Dom- inik Hasek appeared to suffer a lower-abdominal injury. He spoke to reporters about it immediately after the game, although that also never quite made it through in translation. (“Our goalie is in the hospital.”)
The Czech translator, presumably plucked from a shallow pool in Italy, never made it to Day Two. The Winter Olympics, unfortunately, somewhat remained lost in translation.
Turin is a relatively large city as Winter Games sites go. The people are nice, the restaurants accommodating, the venues adequate. But there were a few too many ills. Competition, particularly from the U.S. perspective, was touched by too many crash-and-burns. There were enough headaches with the transportation system — buses not showing up, breaking down or going in the wrong direction — that some believed it worse than Atlanta. It was generally assumed that “worst ever” distinction was retired with Billy Payne.
But the most significant concern was the generally tepid response to the Olympics by the locals. Venues were seldom at capacity. The stands often were half-empty, looking like a friends-and-family turnout.
U.S. Alpine skier Lindsey Kildow went as far to say, “It doesn’t really feel like anyone cares it’s the Olympics. I don’t feel like there are a lot of people here. Maybe it’s just we’re in Italy in the [athlete’s] village. It’s not an ideal environment. It’s really bad. The best nutritional thing I’ve found is a chocolate ice cream bar.”
Granted, Kildow’s review could have been tainted by her performances. She failed to medal and was hospitalized after crashing in practice for the downhill. But she accurately contrasted the Turin scene with some loud crowds in Salt Lake City four years ago.
“I just think people should care more,” she said. “There are a lot of dedicated fans here. What it’s lacking is the Italians. There are no public Italians here. There are fan clubs and families and that kind of thing, but you haven’t seen the public coming out to support. That’s a bummer.”
Too many bummers. Michelle Kwan parachuted in and crawled out. The women’s figure skating finals, a signature event of the Olympics, devolved into Buns on Ice. Bode Miller made all previous winners of The Ugly American award look like Shirley Temple. (Almost made you forget about Mike Modano. But not quite.) Speedskaters Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis were Moe and Curly in news conferences, except not funny.
The Olympics should not be about creatures like Miller, Modano and Hedrick. They should be about athletes like U.S. women’s hockey goalie Chandra Gunn, who overcame epilepsy. Or speedskater Joey Cheek, who won a gold and silver medal and vowed to donate his $40,000 in bonus money to “Right to Play,” a charity that helps youth athletics in war-torn countries like Sudan.
Amid the glare of Miller, most also missed the Olympics’ greatest sportsmanship: Norway cross-country ski coach Bjoernar Haakensmoen. When Canada’s Sara Renner’s ski pole broke in the team sprint event, Haakensmoen handed her a replacement. The gesture allowed Renner and her partner to win the silver medal — and ostensibly knocked Norway into fourth.
Haakensmoen has become a national hero in Canada. “Some countries don’t give poles to their opposition — that’s bull,” he said. “We are a country which believes in fair play.”
That translates. Curling still doesn’t. But the U.S. team won a bronze medal, and it turns out the best stories revolved around shuffleboard on ice. Canada’s Christine Keshen overslept and missed the first two ends (think innings) of her match. Then there was that whole drug-testing thing. “I didn’t do very well,” she said. “I peed all over my hands.”
There was a streaker at curling.
There was a mother breastfeeding her baby at curling.
Check that: There was a competitor breastfeeding her baby at curling. Glenys Bakker, a 43-year-old mom on Team Canada, nourished her four-month-old daughter during a match.
Bakker also offered this when asked the perception of curling: “It’s that we’re a bunch of beer-swilling partiers. Here, it’s wine.”
Bakker won a bronze medal. Curling apparently is a more conducive sport for drinking than Alpine skiing.
Maybe Miller should try curling.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Other
Here’s the point: Hawks blew their No. 1 pick
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Even if Marvin Williams grows into the All-Star the Hawks presumably still believe he’ll be, he was the wrong choice. All Williams has done as a rookie is become the eighth-leading scorer on the league’s third-worst team. Had the Hawks picked more astutely, they wouldn’t be the league’s third-worst team.
Believe it or not, the Hawks have talent. As Terry Stotts, who once worked here and who now coaches Milwaukee, said Saturday: “They’ve got all those 6-foot-8 guys.” And that’s the trouble. That’s all they have.
The Hawks went into the 2005 draft knowing they needed a point guard and believing two really good ones — Chris Paul and Deron Williams — were available. Instead they chose Marvin Williams, another swingman. Deron Williams, taken two picks after Marvin, starts for Utah and averages 9.5 points and 3.7 assists. Paul, taken immediately after the Hawks selected, averages 16.3 points and 7.7 assists for the Hornets and will be the rookie of the year.
The Hawks are 17-37. Substitute Paul for Marvin Williams and they might be 24-30, which would put them 10th in the Eastern Conference, within hailing distance of the final playoff berth. When you’re a franchise that hasn’t reached the postseason since the last millennium, just being in the hunt would stir some interest. Being the Hawks, they flubbed their chance to become a civic talking point and, not coincidentally, they rank 29th among 30 NBA teams in attendance.
By drafting another wing, Billy Knight kept his similar-sized Hawks from taking wing. Their losses tend to track the same numbing path. They hang tough for a while but lose at the end because they have nobody to get the ball to the right guys in the right spots.
Saturday’s game was vintage. The Hawks drove hard and made every shot early, flying to a 14-point lead against an opponent that had lost four in a row. Then Stotts had the Bucks press, and that was essentially that. “We’ve got a lot of athletic guys who can get up and down the court,” said Josh Smith, lamenting his team’s failure against the press. But the athletic Hawks lacked the one man who could dribble through the traps and turn Milwaukee’s pressure against it. (Yeah, Tyronn Lue is hurt, but he shouldn’t be mistaken for a first-rate point guard.)
The Bucks pressed for the final three quarters. When the Hawks did advance past midcourt, they were blunted by the 2-3 zone Stotts ordered up in the second half. Again, that’s what happens when you play without a distributor. (It happens at all levels of basketball. Ask Georgia Tech.) Put Paul — or even Deron Williams — in a Hawks jersey and the Hawks would have won by 15. They lost by 10. Same as it ever was.
And Marvin Williams? He had an OK night — 24 minutes, 10 points, five rebounds, three turnovers. But there were long moments when you forgot he was on the roster, let alone on the floor. The Hawks needed their highest draft pick in 30 years to be an impact player, and Williams, who’s averaging 7.3 points on 42.7 percent shooting, simply isn’t ready to make a splash. And now his team will approach the 2006 draft seeking to fill the spot they should have filled last summer but with a lesser group of guards — Kentucky’s Rajon Rondo can’t shoot, and Villanova’s Randy Foye and Daniel Gibson of Texas are more hybrids than true points — to consider.
Someone asked Smith what the Hawks should do this offseason. Josh Childress, having apparently appointed himself room monitor, said: “Don’t answer that. You’ll get in trouble.”
“I won’t answer,” Smith said. Then, to the questioner: “I’m not the GM. You’ll have to ask Billy Knight.”
Surely the Hawks know what they need. Surely they’ve looked around the locker room and seen a lot of guys who do the same things but nobody capable of doing the essential thing. Surely a few among them might like to ask Billy Knight just how this happened.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Mark Bradley
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