Not the Goodwill Games

In Olympic Women's Basketball A Benefactor Turns Nemesis

by Alexander Wolff

Six times already the U.S. women's Olympic basketball team had shown its counterpart from Cuba no mercy, winning by an average of almost 24 points a game. But during two exhibition series with the Cuban nationals last spring, the Americans had shown Fidel Castro's emissaries considerable charity too, thanks largely to Dawn Staley, a reserve point guard with the shell of a Philadelphia street kid and a heart of sisterly love.

Rebecca Lobo and her U.S. teammates had to ultimately limit their generosity. photograph by David E. Klutho

Staley had organized equipment drives to benefit the Americans' impoverished neighbors. She cajoled her teammates into contributing everything from shoes to sports bras, athletic tape to water bottles, and then invited the Cubans up to her hotel room to distribute the booty, all in the name of international goodwill.

But these are not the Goodwill Games, and when it came time for the U.S. women to make their Olympic debut, at Morehouse College yesterday, the Cubans watched their benefactor turn into a nemesis. Staley entered the game with Cuba leading 20-17; by the time she left 7-1/2 minutes later, the U.S. was up eight. But it was the way Staley, a 5'6" Virginia alum and a former college player of the year, pushed her teammates into the lead—with a revved-up style learned playing with the guys at Philadelphia's Hank Gathers Rec Center that so impressed. The gemstone of that stretch was a Staley steal followed by a lookaway shovel pass to forward Katy Steding for a layup. "Dawn really made some fans for women's basketball with some of the passes and plays she made," U.S. coach Tara VanDerveer said after the Americans' 101-84 victory. "The team and the crowd were a little flat at the start, and Dawn got the crowd into it."

She kept the crowd in it, too. Midway through the second half she wrapped a pass behind her back to fellow guard Teresa Edwards for a fastbreak layup. Staley finished with only four points and played less than half the game, but each of her seven assists connected with the spectators. And the cumulative effect left the Cubans flummoxed, particularly with two of their best players, forward Leonore Borel and point guard Lisett Castillo, back in Havana, pregnant and suffering from a foot problem, respectively.

"She's one of those players you just love watching as a fan," U.S. forward Rebecca Lobo said of Staley. "And as a player, you have to keep your hands and eyes open, because she'll get the ball to you."

Having played the lithe and lissome Cubans so many times—and ekeing out one close call, an 81-78 victory in a tournament in China last March—the U.S. had more than its point guard up going into its opener. "You never know which side of bed the Cubans are going to wake up on," said Staley. "So you just don't take them for granted."

The same could be said of the Americans' next opponents in pool play, the European champion Ukrainians. "We've probably played them 25 times, what with scrimmages and everything," says Staley, without having to add that Ukraine hasn't beaten the U.S. either. Tomorrow's game—another 3 p.m. tipoff at Morehouse—should keep Staley in overdrive.

Same time. Same place. No one's betting against same result.