靠，台灣1/10的人口，籃球教練的煩惱層級卻差這麼多.... ------------------------------------------------------------ Without an anchor, islanders are adrift By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 8/24/2003 SAN JUAN -- Tevester Anderson can dream, can't he? In a better world he'd have Raja Bell and David Vanterpool at forward. He'd have Jabari Brown banging people around at big forward. And, of course, he'd have that Duncan guy in the middle. "We could finish second here," he smiles. Second place, or even third, will get you to Athens. That's why we're here. And while Tevester Anderson is not the only coach at the Tournament of the Americas lamenting the absence of a star player or two, his is clearly the saddest tale of woe. C'mon. How could you not root for the teeny United States Virgin Islands? The team Anderson's got is not disgraceful. But it entered yesterday afternoon's tussle with the United States as a winless team, and that situation wasn't going to change. The Virgin Islands isn't going to Athens. When the preliminary round is completed tomorrow it will be making the short trip home. Bell alone would have made a difference Friday night, when the Virgin Islands lost to a Dominican Republic team it has beaten twice in recent international competition. But the 6-foot-5-inch Bell isn't playing for his national team because he is an unsigned NBA free agent who could not take the risk of playing here without any kind of contract and insurance protection. "Totally understandable," says the classy Anderson, an American with an extensive collegiate background (he's the new head coach at Jackson State after being the head man at Murray State and a noted recruiting assistant at the likes of Auburn and Georgia) who has been in charge of the Virgin Islands program since 1985. Bell wants to suit up, so much so that he's been on the cellphone constantly keeping tabs on the team's progress. If a deal were to come through, he'd be on the next plane. But it would already be too late. Vanterpool is another midsize guy who is good enough to have been in some NBA camps and who has just signed to play in Italy. Why that precludes him from being here is another matter. But in this murky world of international basketball there is always "another matter." Brown is one such matter. The 6-9 kid who plays for Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma, and who would provide a useful big body for Anderson, is also AWOL, or however you'd like to phrase it. Suffice it to say there would be a uniform ready for him if he showed up. Tim Duncan is the greatest "What-If?" of all. But there really is nothing to talk about, either in terms of the Virgin Islands team in general or Anderson's personal connection with the team in particular. Duncan wouldn't be allowed to play for his home team even if he wanted to (and it's safe to say he does), while Anderson, despite being the national coach for 18 years, never got to coach the greatest Virgin Islands athlete of them all. Blame it on Hugo. That would be Hurricane Hugo, which was the Storm of Storms in 20th-century Virgin Islands history. When the hurricane devastated the Virgin Islands in 1989, Duncan was 13 years old, and more interested in swimming than basketball. Hugo wrecked the only Olympic-size swimming pool in the islands, and Duncan switched to basketball. But Hugo's effect was far-reaching. As a result of the storm, the entire national basketball program was suspended for more than five years. Anderson had no team to coach. And it was during that period that Duncan became a basketball player. The St. Croix-born Duncan is an American citizen, of course, and when he accepted a spot on the 1994 American Goodwill Games team he had made a permanent career choice in the eyes of FIBA, the international basketball governing body. According to the rules, you can only align yourself with one international team per lifetime, and never mind that at the time the Virgin Islands didn't even have a team. It's a rational rule. You can imagine what kind of chicanery might take place otherwise. But it has brought about an unhappy situation for Duncan, who made an 11th-hour decision not to play. Though he has never performed internationally for the Virgin Islands, he is a proud Virgin Islander, and is a huge celebrity back home. He was going to be playing against friends. There was no reason for USA coach Larry Brown not to honor Duncan's wishes, because if he needed Tim Duncan in order to subdue the Virgin Islands, the Americans are in desperate trouble. The USA coaching staff understands completely what Tim Duncan could do for any team here. Assistant coach Gregg Popovich is Duncan's coach in San Antonio, and after winning two championships with Duncan, he doesn't need to be educated in the matter. Neither does Brown. "You can see what Steve Nash has done for Canada," Brown says. "So imagine what Tim Duncan could do for a team. He is a Larry Bird at 7-1 in certain ways. He makes everybody better. Any team here with Tim Duncan would finish second." Put him on Argentina and it might win. It might win with the team it already has, frankly. A situation such as the USA's is an abstract to Anderson, who only got to work with his team for seven days before coming to San Juan. The reason? Money. There wasn't any. "We couldn't bring guys in before the last minute because we didn't have the money," Anderson explains. "What we need more than anything else is a sponsor." The coach tries not to think of Duncan too much, but how can he not? There really is enough residual basketball talent in the Virgin Islands to complement Duncan and make his team a nice international entry. The Olympics would be a very attainable goal. "Blame it on Hugo," Anderson sighs. --

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