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

8 страница из 79

Six invitees went into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame: Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and John Stockton. And Barkley, Malone, and Stockton did not make the Olympic team.

“Back then, when it was strictly amateur, no pros, you really had to hit it right,” Alford said. “You almost had to hit the Olympics when you were a junior or senior in college. I was very fortunate I got invited.”

He was a gym rat with a chance to play against some of the best players in the sport. That was going to be enough. Making the team was out of the question.

Trials began April 17. They were held at the IU Fieldhouse, across the street from Assembly Hall. Players were assigned to teams on each of eight courts with a simple instruction: play. Knight watched from a scaffold as a football coach would do.

Knight assembled a staff of nineteen college coaches to conduct three-a-day workouts and coach the games. There was a seven-player selection committee, although it was widely assumed Knight would have the final say.