It took Larry Bird just over two minutes to sum up the first Olympic qualifying tournament to be held in the United States.
The sore back of the Boston Celtics forward had allowed him to play in just one game until Sunday. That was one more game than the U.S. team was given by any of its six opponents.He took the court with 2:04 to play with smiles on every face in Veterans Memorial Coliseum, just as there had been all nine days of the Tournament of the Americas.
He scored two points in that time, not quite the pace the Dream Team had managed in blowout after blowout, but it helped keep the margin of victory as high as expected.
"I played the last couple of minutes obviously because I wasn't going to get hurt," said Bird, a co-captain of the team along with Magic Johnson. "I was almost sleeping until the time Magic ripped my pants off."
The United States was leading Venezuela by 45 points in the gold medal game - just below its 51.5 average margin of victory - when the sellout crowd of 12,888 starting chanting for Bird to make a cameo appearance.
Johnson did indeed pull Bird's warmup pants and top off and stood menacingly over his rival of the last 13 years as he tied his sneakers.
The crowd roared as Bird took the court and loved it even more as he got off three shots until finally scoring with 16 seconds left for the game's final margin of 127-80.
It was only fitting that Bird, who started the tournament for the United States with the first basket, scored the last.
"Magic was really giving him a hard time," said Chris Mullin, who had 12 points on Sunday. "Larry had been giving everybody a hard time every time they missed a shot. You knew one thing; he was going to get some shots off. I don't know if he's really that funny or if he was because he had all that time to sit there and think of things to say."
The decision on whether Bird will continue to sit when the team opens play in Barcelona on July 26 against Angola will be made after he returns to Boston for treatment.
"I figure that by the end of next week I should be OK," Bird said, then he began to talk of the Olympics. "Personally, I can't wait. I hope I can play. I think once we get there, we'll become more serious and more focused, and we'll be all business."
That has to be a scary thought for the other 11 teams which have qualified - Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Brazil being the other three from this competition.
Injuries were the only negative for the Americans. In addition to Bird, John Stockton broke a bone in his leg and his status for Barcelona is in doubt; Patrick Ewing missed the first game as he recovered from a broken thumb sustained in practice in San Diego, and Clyde Drexler missed one game as he nursed a sore knee.
The wins were easy and they came as U.S. players posed for pictures with opponents, played more golf than a mini-tour veteran and displayed a brand of basketball rarely seen at any level.
"I tip my hat to the U.S. team. They are a great bunch of players," said 39-year-old Venezuelan point guard Sam Shepard, who played at Delaware State. "At halftime I was a little disconcerted with the other players for not being focused on what we wanted to do. They seemed to be more concerned taking pictures of the U.S. players than being competitive with them."
No one was competitive with the Americans; the final game was a perfect example.
While the United States shot 62 percent (54 for 87), its devastating at times defense held Venezuela to 39 percent (35 for 89) and that included a wide-open, shoot-when-open final 10 minutes.
"We've had a very interesting two weeks," coach Chuck Daly said. "There's been some interesting bonding between the people on this team, the way they came together as a team. Obviously, we have controlled the games from the outset, our talent is at such a level."
Charles Barkley, who had tied for scoring honors Sunday with Karl Malone at 17 points, led the United States in scoring in the tournament, averaging 16.3. He summed up the feelings of the team fans and opponents couldn't wait to see.
"It's been just like a great vacation. I've had a lot of fun here . . . just hanging out with the fellows. It's been a lot of fun," he said, fingering the gold medal he had been awarded moments before. "But, I want the big one around my neck."