Expert: Borko Bariæ - 8/15/2004

Question
Don't you find it kind of weird that Dell Harris is coaching the Chinese basketball Olympic team? He's not Chinese. Granted, China isn't exactly our enemy, but won't it look funny when Dell is trying to beat the U.S. in hoops?

Answer
Well, weird? Maybe. Unusual? Not really. Donnie Nelson has  been a fixture on Lithuanian bench, and other sports (namely soccer) have followed that practice for years - I think Bora Milutinovic was US soccer coach a few years ago, Greece has just won Euro 2004 behind a German coach and the current US waterpolo coach is Ratko Rudic from Serbia.

It probably will be a little strange to see Dell Harris trying to beat the US team, but to caoches, it's all business. Their job is to coach basketball, and if there's any chance to coach at the Olympics, they take it, wheter it's with USA, China or Mali.

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Just for the follow-up, Donnie Nelson has stated he won't be on the Lithuanian bench for the game against the US, since he couldn't handle being a part of the team beating the US. So, I guess there is some patriotic pride left, after all... ;-)