Other Dream Team
The Other Dream Team is about the sports’ redemption of Lithuania, which runs after an uninhabitable dream of retaliation.
Words by Giovanni Maria Seregni
“I understand that I am not standing in a mob, but I am standing in a Nation”
In 1988 Seoul Olympic Games basketball finals, the USSR national team roster, which consisted of four Lithuanians, wins against the United States of America. The movie talks about the renaissance of Lithuania, which goes from being a Soviet Union colony to a free country and contributes to creating, other than the starsprangled national team, the other Dream Team. One of the best squads ever existed, made up of players who have never worn – until then – the Lithuanian colours. Men who, coming from the Kaunas neighbourhoods, have battled against the odds and the evil invader in order to make their motherland shine like in the ancient times.
The State, at the beginning of 1991, faces the independentists uprising and the Vilnius inhabitants’ occupation of the Television Tower. The January events are the confrontations between the local rebellions and the Soviet armed forces, taking place from 11th and 13rd of January when, once Lithuania declares its independence from USSR on 11 March 1990, the Soviet Union mounts an ethnic strife military campaign.
The Russian prime minister Gorbachev addresses Lithuania the constitution of Soviet Union through the revocation of the anti-constitutional laws. The Tele-vision Tower is the house of the conflicts taking place in Vilnius, following which attacks crowds of pro-independence supporters gather around the Su-preme Council begging for the peace between the two countries. Once the atrocities are interrupted, the former Russian prime minister Boris Yeltsin, being aware of such disgrace, declares: “I understand that I am not standing in a mob, but I am standing in a Nation”.
On February 1918, in accordance with the signing of Brest-Litovsk Treaty, USSR renounces to the Baltic states and, though the signing of the Independence act, Lithuania affirms the birth of its own Republic. Notwithstanding, following the non-aggression pact of Molotov-Ribbentrop, signed in by the Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Lithuania is occupied by the Russian troops. The Lithuanian communist party undergoes to the strict sovereignty of USSR, which both influence and impoverishes the nation’s culture.
Before Lithuania becomes an independent State, though its inhabitants – and the athletes too – are equal to the soviets, the Lithuanians used to disgrace USSR to be tightening the noose on their motherland. According to the motto “better dead than to be red”, the sentiments suggest the Lithuanians to prefer to be set apart from the Russians. On 15th June 1941 Soviet Union commences a series of 35 mass deportation, following which the victims would be forcibly transported to labour camps in Siberia. The relatives of Rimas Kurtinaitis are snatched from their homes and lead, by cattle cars with no amenities, in the cold Winter, to dead. Hence, the parents avoid the children to go beyond the houses, walking around the streets by themselves.
In 1974, the FIBA Basketball World Cup takes place in Puerto Rico hosting the 7th edition of the Championship, at the end of which Soviet Union is crowned the winners of the competition. Four out five roster players of the USSR national team do come from Kaunas, which is a small Lithuanian town, for whom citizens the Basketball looks alike either a religion or a way of life. People – as explained by former coach of Zalgiris Vladas Garastas – cannot afford the basketball utilities which, as much as the court retain a sense of humanity. Therefore, the athletes use a barrel in order to make a hoop, laying tiles and making a rudimental ball by themselves.
Anyone is lucky to be competing at the highest level, since nobody never imagine it is possible to experience a professional career. On the contrary, Sabonis used to be head and shoulders above his teammates, but as Sports Il-lustrated journalist Bill Walton admits: “Everyone considers him being a miracle”.
To understand something more about this rising star of European basketball, second overall pick of the last WNBA draft, you have to imagine a journey, you have to imagine countless air and sea routes, a long parental route that starts from the South Sudanese hinterland, that develops in the economic and academic hub of Khartoum, that passes through Cairo and arrives up there, where everything is colder and more reserved.
Kotka is a splinter harbor overlooking the Gulf of Finland, a sprawling archipelago observes it unchanged and unchanging. Kotka is an unsuspected mecca of Nordic basketball, of ‘Koripallo’, a magical place, atypical and perfect cradle for the greatness of a young predestined migrant. "When we arrived in that small town, we didn't have relationships with other people. Basketball was key to becoming part of the community, to understand the Finnish way of life. Neighbors, classmates, everyone was passionate, everyone was united by basketball. If it wasn't for that local tradition, I would probably be a different person today".
“Everyone considers him being a miracle”
In June 1985, despite being picked by Atlanta Hawks, the centre cannot sign the contract for being too young at the time. The year after he gets the chance to play for Portland Trail Blazers, but the Soviet Union – once it impedes the transfer – prevents Sabonis to leave the country.
No matter how good he is, considering that living in the eastern Europe means to be condemned by the Soviet regime. The national team, used to be indoctrinated by the KGB, which forces them to behave according to the politics info which restrict their freedom. Nevertheless, playing for USSR means to be able to travel abroad, experiencing the realm outer the national borders.
In May 1984, the USSR National Olympic Committee boycotts the participation in the Los Angeles Olympic Games, announcing the non-participation of Soviet athletes in its 23rd edition of the competition: “With total connivance of the United States authorities, extremist organizations have sharply stepped up their activity, aiming to create unbearable conditions for Soviet athletes”.
In 1985, Zalgiris Kaunas goes to the Finals of Soviet Union National League Championships against the central red-army sports club CSKA Moscow. The match is a political clash in the role of David versus Goliath and, as the myth occurs, the tiny club representing the independent Lithuanian movement de-feats the Soviet invaders.
In 1988, on the occasion of the Seoul Olympic Games basketball finals the United States of America deals with USSR. The Soviet Union, apart from the 1972 Munich exhibition, never wins against stars and stripes Dream Team.
The national team former head coach Alexander Gamelsky promises the ones who give their all in order to contribute to the cause would get the permission to leave the country for playing abroad. Surprisingly, the national team, as well as the four Lithuanian roster players, win the gold medal against the Dream Team.
By means of the Goodwill Games – the international sports competition fathered by the CNN founder Ted Turner – Šarūnas Marčiulionis, being supported by the Russian chess master Gary Kasparov, addresses a political divergence with the Soviet Sports Agency. The basketball star finally obtains the permit to play for Golden States.
The Lithuanian Slam-Dunking Skull man iconic jersey embodies the eastern Europe basketball counterculture. The symbol which has had a major influence on the future of sports fashion. Mike Thompson – the national team designer – wants to represent, like a Phoenix from the ashes, to slam-dunking a flaming rebirth: “It is not a dead skeleton but represents rebirth and a new life”.
Once Lithuania declares its independence, the national team qualifies for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. The squad reaches the tournaments semi-finals against the United States of America. No matter the outcome of the match, the players are living the dream to be playing against the Dream Team. Despite the loss, the forward Arturas Karnisovas captures those euphoric moments, taking pictures of the match from the bench. An image which enshrines the players’ euphoria to get in the game against the American basketball stars.
“It is not a dead skeleton but represents rebirth and a new life”
The other Dream Team wins the bronze medal game versus former USSR. The first international competition victory is not one of some Soviet colony – where the glory goes to Moscow – but the first chapter of Lithuania’s basket-ball resurrection.
It is not only a victory in Olympic sports, but it is a triumph over communism itself. In the same year Jonas Valanciunas was born and, In July 2012, the centre gets selected as the fifth pick of the NBA Draft. The proof Lithuania, by obtaining the rule of law, becomes a constitutional state. The Other Dream Team is an intimist movie which touches the sports’ sentiments of moral payback. A revenge that recoups from the political injustices the colonists suffer from the autarkist Soviet regime. The vanquished redemption against the tyrannical oppressors urged on by the ordinary folks passionate about basketball culture.
