Olympics: Hoop dreams turn into a nightmare
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The picture of defeat is the best basketball player in the galaxy slumped on a chair in the waning minutes. The picture of defeat is a coach shaking his head in disbelief, watching his team disintegrate.
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ATHENS - They didn&#39;t always play with the energy of desperate men. But they played harder. They didn&#39;t often play an attractive brand of basketball, but they played it sometimes.
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The athletes have packed up. Olympic banners are coming down. But another challenge for the city of Athens is just beginning. It&#39;s a realization that&#39;s just starting to hit the Olympic hosts
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ATHENS, Greece - The U.S. men's basketball team endured another brutal loss...
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Team USA&#39;s 94-90 loss to Lithuania last night was not revelation, but confirmation. It reaffirmed that the erstwhile Dream Team is deeply flawed and poorly suited to international basketball; that its shooting
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As a child, Lin Ju lay in bed at his parents&#39; home in the Fujian province of China and dreamt of representing his country in the Olympic Games. Yesterday at the Galatsi Hall, the venue for the table tennis competition, that dream came true almost exactly ...
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China grabbed its first-ever men's Olympic gold in track and field on Friday, but it was a night of misery for Americans, who saw any chance of a fourth consecutive gold in basketball crushed.
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The Duke coach was supposed to be Team USA's savior, but their stunning loss to Greece showed that he is a mere mortal - and that U.S. basketball still hasn't learned the right lessons from the Athens Olympics
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The final night of gymnastics competition at the 2004 Games ended with another black eye for the beleaguered sport as spectators at Olympic Indoor Hall turned their rage against a panel
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The American had just taken his chance at a gold medal and tossed it like a stone into the Mediterranean, stumbling off the vault like a man stepping on his own shoe lace, nearly falling onto the judges&#39; table the way basketball players ...
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ATHENS, Greece Aug. 28, 2004 - An attempt by world gymnastics officials to find an easy ending to the Paul Hamm medal saga has backfired and turned the whole thing into an even bigger mess.
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The United States suffered their worst day of the Athens Olympics on Friday when a tearful Marion Jones flopped, their basketball "Dream Team" were humiliated and they captured only one of the 20 golds on offer.
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The season once held so much promise. There were gold medal dreams, Grand Slam possibilities and aspirations of continued dominance.
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The United States suffered their worst  day of the Athens Olympics on Friday when their basketball  "Dream Team" were humiliated and Marion Jones flopped, leaving  the world's top sports nation almost starved of gold medals.
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ATHENS - The Olympic oracles had long prophesied doom for the Summer Games&#39; Greek homecoming. Unfinished venues. Lax security.
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Tim Duncan wore a haggard look as he emerged from a locker room of bronze medalists. Hardly an emotional guy, he mumbled that his international basketball career is &quot;95 percent&quot; over and that, oh yeah, &quot;FIBA [stinks].
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An attempt by world gymnastics officials to find an easy ending to the Paul Hamm medal saga has backfired and turned the whole thing into an even bigger mess.