Men cash checks, women grab gold

ATHENS, Greece - They live below the rim, where the pay is commensurate with that of your average middle manager. American women do not alley-oop. They do not break your ankles with crossovers. They do not reap the garden variety spoils of professional basketball celebrity.

So this is where they come for their revenge, the Olympic Games, the one sports stage where it pays to be a vertically-challenged woman rather than a rim-rocking man. This is a place even Gloria Steinem couldn't fathom.This is where the system favors the female athlete, and leaves the men playing for his poor pot of bronze.

``I think for women the pinnacle of our careers are on the Olympic stage,'' Dawn Staley said Saturday after scoring 14 points in the United States' 74-63 gold-medal victory over Australia. ``We don't have a whole lot of professional women's sports, and the Olympics are a platform for us to showcase our talents after college.''

The NBA is the platform for men to showcase their talents after high school. Saturday night, that showcase was the bronze-medal game with Lithuania, a game the Americans won.

Two teams flew back to the States decorated in medals; only the women had earned the right to recline in first class.

The IOC didn't need to adopt Title IX; these Summer Games represented a self-correcting enterprise. The U.S. softball team won it all, again, and the U.S. baseball team never set foot on Athenian soil. The U.S. women's soccer team won it all, again, and the U.S. men's soccer team never set foot on Athenian soil.

The U.S. women's basketball team hit Australia with the broad side of its Naismith doctrine, and the U.S. men's basketball team lost another international tournament and another piece of its aura.

The multimillion-dollar contracts afforded male centers and shortstops back home have swung open a gate to Olympic greatness for the women denied those very paychecks. Shaquille O'Neal and Tracy McGrady are too busy living the lifestyles of the rich and famous to care about the Games; Kenyon Martin, in fact, didn't bother showing up because he said he'd be too busy negotiating his $92.5 million deal.

``It's made me thankful that Sheryl (Swoopes) and Dawn are here,'' Lisa Leslie said, ``because I could probably feel what Tim Duncan was feeling out there. Being with so many of these young guys, there were no veterans to turn to and say, `Come on, let's get it going.' It's kind of like (the men were) out there, and there was no leader, no one or two more experienced players that they could really turn to. Our team is different.''

Her team was different because it included the best female players in the world. If the U.S. trotted out the WNBA's second- and third-tier stars, the U.S. would've lost to league MVP Lauren Jackson and Australia the way the NBA's second- and third-tier stars lost to Argentina.

But the three-month WNBA season leaves the Leslies and Staleys and Swoopeses so fresh and so hungry to expand their profiles and pocketbooks, they seize the Olympic opportunities often rejected by the NBA megastar.

``The (men) came in with a really big mountain to climb,'' Tina Thompson said after dropping 18 on Australia and then releasing a flood of tears over the privilege of playing for her country. ``A lot of them weren't supposed to be here, but they came and I think that says a lot for them.''

Yes, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury and friends deserve credit for showing up. But four years from now, the men are likely to see the same kind of turnover that transpired between last summer's qualifying team and this year's bronze medalists.

Vince Carter, Mike Bibby, Jermaine O'Neal, Ray Allen and Martin were among the stars who qualified in Puerto Rico, and then passed on the real deal for one reason or another. The men hit and run, deke and dodge, leaving behind no hint of a program or a plan.

Meanwhile, the same veteran women keep coming back to the Games, and keep teaching the new arrivals such as Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Swin Cash and Ruth Riley all about accountability. Staley, Leslie and Swoopes are done the way soccer's Fab Five are done. They played more than 70 international games together, winning three Olympic gold medals and two world titles.

``There was a point tonight when we got down by five points,'' Swoopes said, ``and we had the experience to say, `Ok, let's get the job done.' I think that's one of the biggest differences between the team we have here, and the men.''

``It's a different kind of basketball here at the Olympics,'' Staley said, ``and if you don't have anybody who is used to playing that way, who can share the experiences, it's going to be very, very difficult for (the men) to be successful. They had no players with Olympic experience.''

And they had no chance because of it.

``I think it's the camaraderie,'' Staley said of the women's advantage. ``It's the innocence of basketball that's played on this stage. ... USA basketball is a selfless environment. We come back because it's great basketball. It takes you back to your childhood where you played simply for pride. That's what we do for our country.''

Staley said she's known Leslie for so long, ``actually I changed her diapers.'' Leslie said when she saw Swoopes at the airport on the way to their pre-Olympic training camp, this after fearing Swoopes' injured foot wouldn't allow her to play, ``I just ran and hugged her. I was like, `Yes, you're here. All right. We're OK.'''

The American women moved the ball, set picks for each other, and made their share of jump shots. They had talent, experience, and a roster that fit much better than the men's.

The women had three pure playmakers, the men had none. ``You've got a pretty nice team,'' said women's coach Van Chancellor, ``when your third point guard is Sue Bird.''

Staley, who doubles as Temple's coach, ran a huddle during a late timeout, coaching her teammates through her last Olympic game. With time expired and her third gold medal secured, Staley cradled the ball while her teammates mobbed her like the soccer players had mobbed Mia Hamm.

Staley carried the American flag into the Olympics, before making like a good point guard and passing it off to a scorer, Hamm, who will carry it out at Sunday night's closing ceremonies.

``If (the women) can come and continue to win gold medals each and every Olympics,'' Staley said, ``certainly somebody in the United States should embrace the fact that we are good.''

The women are better than good at the Olympics. They are better than the men.

``Hopefully,'' Leslie said before Iverson and Marbury took the floor, ``our men can at least win bronze. Not `at least.' We only think about gold when we come here. It's an afterthought to think of any other medals.''

The Olympics have become the afterthought for the men, and the women have capitalized on the opening. Back in the States, the men will reclaim their professional sports throne. They will play above the rim, and they will cash their absurd checks.

That's OK. Four years from now, the women will get their revenge in Beijing.