Читать книгу Indiana University Olympians. From Leroy Samse to Lilly King онлайн

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The Olympic team practiced in San Diego for two weeks before heading to Los Angeles. There were team-building activities such as trips to the San Diego Zoo and a Padres baseball game, and Alford said some players slipped away for some “cheap thrills” in Tijuana, Mexico. Players took a bus trip to a JCPenney warehouse, where they were issued credentials, outfitted for uniforms, and allowed to stuff as much Olympics swag into a shopping cart as they could: T-shirts, jackets, caps, bags, sweats, shoes, pins, mugs, posters, and so forth.

It would be no exaggeration to assert the Americans won the gold medal not by what they did in Los Angeles but by what they did in Bloomington, San Diego, and elsewhere. Alford said they had the best player on the planet, Michael Jordan, and the best coach on the planet, Bob Knight. Give Knight time to prepare for an opponent, Alford said, and “he was almost unbeatable.” And Knight had all summer.

“We had a phenomenal leader in Jordan,” Alford said. “He’s as good as it got. . . .