They were trailed at all times by Soviet intelligence agents, while being exposure to freedoms beyond their reach. Interspersed with images of bread lines, the four teammates spoke about their travels to Europe and the United States for international tournaments. Marciulionis brought viewers to the court that he and his friends built in the poor neighborhood where he grew up. They, along with their teammates Valdemaras Chomicius and Rimas Kurtinaitis, talked about their childhoods in Lithuania. Two of the four ballplayers, Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis are familiar to American basketball fans from their subsequent careers in the NBA. Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and the rest of the Dream Teamers won gold in Barcelona in 1992, but the story of the four Lithuanian basketball players and their countrymen is even more compelling. Instead, the four stood at attention on the medal stand as the hammer and sickle of their oppressors was raised to the ceiling.Įmbarrassed by the defeat at the hands of the Soviets, the United States Olympic Committee decided to allow professional basketball players to compete in the Olympics, laying the groundwork for the international phenomenon known as "the Dream Team." Their country did not receive recognition for their accomplishments. ![]() ![]() The film focuses on the little-known fact that four of the five starters on that Soviet team were Lithuanian. They defeated an American team led by future NBA stars David Robinson, Danny Manning and Mitch Richmond 82-76 in the semifinals. Decades later, the Soviet Union men's basketball team won the gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.
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