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Esta página no está disponible en español. Arroyo Totes Hopes Of A Nation…Ortiz, Ayuso Lead Puerto Rico… Olympics Has Own Definition Of `Nations'
Arroyo Totes Hopes Of A Nation By Tim Buckley, Deseret Morning News August 14, 2004 With fists full of respect, he carried his homeland's flag in Friday night's Opening Ceremonies for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Starting this weekend, Carlos Arroyo totes the hopes of an island nation. The hand dealt him as the Games go on, however, is something much less favorable than Friday's honorary task: His team, which isn't expected to medal, opens pool play Sunday against the usually powerful USA. Yet, as Puerto Rico's starting point guard, Arroyo feels a sense of responsibility -- not just to represent but to do so knowing full well that the eyes of an entire United States territory will be watching over him. "When I do it," he said of wearing the Puerto Rican national team's uniform, "I do it with a lot of pride." Puerto Rico was puffing, too, when Arroyo -- the Jazz's No. 3 point guard two NBA seasons ago, and their starter at the point in 2003-04 -- agreed last month on a four-year, $16-million contract to remain in Utah. "This is great for my country," Arroyo said after signing the pact. "Everybody that sees me on the streets (in Puerto Rico)," he added, "they stop me and say, 'You signed. Great. Congratulations. We feel very proud.' " As sports icons go, Arroyo hovers near -- maybe even at -- the top of Puerto Rico's current hot list. "What Carlos is to the Puerto Rican people," Jazz owner Larry H. Miller said, "is something I think is hard for any of us to understand -- unless we're there, seeing how he's talked about in the media, and the regard he's held (in)." Arroyo's mug is plastered on billboards scattered throughout the island, smiling larger-than-life. He has an endorsement with McDonald's franchises in Puerto Rico. And in the days and weeks leading to these Olympics, there have been more photo shoots than there are throwaway cameras in a San Juan souvenir shop. It's largely because the undrafted Arroyo has overcome the odds, converting himself into something others from Puerto Rico before him could not. This isn't, mind you, big man Jose Ortiz, who bombed during a relatively short NBA stint with the Jazz -- but is still a noted fixture on the Puerto Rican basketball scene, and a teammate of Arroyo's this month in Athens. Instead, this is a little guy, someone who has made something of himself at hoops' highest level, parlaying a four-year stretch at Florida International University and short stints with the Toronto Raptors and Denver Nuggets into what seemingly is bound to be a long-term NBA stay. Moreover, it is someone who hasn't forgotten his roots -- and who ranks playing for Puerto Rico roughly equal in esteem to suiting up for the Jazz. And why not? The parallel professional and international careers have been, after all, mutually beneficial. It was after Arroyo played for Puerto Rico at the 2002 FIBA World Championships in Indianapolis that the Jazz signed him for the first time. Last summer, after a season stuck behind not only now-retired NBA all-time assists and steals leader John Stockton, but also then-backup Mark Jackson, who merely is No. 2 on the league's career assists list, Arroyo's game took a giant step forward -- bolstered the whole way by his play while helping Puerto Rico qualify for Athens. "He got some confidence that he can play and move his game forward," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said of Arroyo's efforts last summer. "I think that was important for him, and I think this (the Olympics) will be important to him as well. "If you grow from those experiences," Sloan added, "it will make you a better player." Arroyo agrees. "What I try to get when I play in these tournaments," he said, "is experience. It's gonna help me get better for the (NBA) season." By the same token, Arroyo feels his skill on the world stage has been aided by the responsibilities he had to tackle as Stockton's Jazz-starter successor. "I'll take what I learned here (in Utah)," Arroyo said, "over there (to Greece)." That, chiefly, is this: "Playing in pressure games." Games like the one last season against the Nuggets, when Arroyo hit a winning shot at the buzzer that prompted teammates to mob him as if they had just struck gold. That particular thriller of an ending excited many in the Delta Center, perhaps no one more than Bobbye Sloan. Sloan, the coach's wife, was fighting pancreatic cancer at the time. She lost the battle, but it was Arroyo's winner against Denver that provided the courageous Jazz super-fan one last flicker of joy. Or so goes the tale as it was told at Bobbye's recent memorial service, a story that eventually made its way back to Arroyo himself. "I heard it," he said, "and I got goose bumps. . . . I'm glad I made her happy." He did, about as happy as Jerry Sloan made Arroyo by naming him starter at the start of last season, then sticking with him. Because of that fact, Arroyo insists, he is a better player today than he was a year ago. "I had a big responsibility in my hands," Arroyo said, "to take the team and guide it, night-in and night-out." It was an inspiring charge, though certainly no more overwhelming than the chore he had Friday in the arena that was opening night at Athens. "I cannot put it in words," he said of his flag-bearing role's significance. "It means to me so much." Jazz Play Role In Puerto Rican Victory By Lee Benson August 16, 2004 ATHENS, Greece -- An hour after the game he still stood in the interview area under the grandstand of the Helliniko Indoor Arena, talking away. His young sidekick, Carlos Arroyo, was upstairs in the formal press conference, but Jose Ortiz stood there in the trenches, where he's been throughout his improbable 25-year basketball career -- and talked. It should come as some solace to those in Utah mourning the latest death of U.S. worldwide basketball supremacy that the resident professional basketball team in Salt Lake City had plenty to do with the demise. Sunday night's 19-point defeat, 92-73, to the Puerto Rican national team in the opening round of the Athens Olympics was fueled mightily by current Jazz player Arroyo, who led Puerto Rico with 24 points and seven assists, and by Ortiz, the Jazz's first-round draft pick way back in 1987, who contributed eight points and whose six rebounds were the team high. It was only the third loss in Olympic history for the United States, and the first since professionals were included in 1992 -- when the fabled Dream Team that included Jazz icons Karl Malone and John Stockton defeated Puerto Rico in Barcelona by 35. Jose Ortiz remembered that game as he talked under the stands. "They killed us," he said. "That was a great, great team." He should know. He played against most of the players on that team, either at Oregon State, where the 6-foot-11 center turned into one of the best college players in America from 1984-87, or during his one-and-a-half-year tour of the NBA as a member of the Jazz. Drafted two years after the Jazz acquired Malone and three after Stockton, Ortiz was touted to be the third corner of that triumvirate. But as a pro in Utah he sputtered. He sat the bench. His maturity and enthusiasm were questioned. Halfway through his second Jazz season in 1988-98 he fled back to Puerto Rico, making the unusual request to be placed on waivers. Essentially, he traded himself. Few who follow basketball expected to hear much from Jose Ortiz after that. Back home, though, he reinvented himself. His country's professional leagues welcomed him with open arms and the national team made him its centerpiece. He was named to his first Olympic team in 1988. He's played in every Olympics since except in 2000, when Puerto Rico failed to qualify. No one would have been surprised if he hadn't returned to the Olympics, not with his 40th birthday coming up before Athens. But one of his first acts as a 40-year-old -- he turned 40 in October 2003, three months after Karl Malone turned 40 -- was recording a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in Puerto Rico's 79-66 win last winter over Canada that got the Puerto Ricans into Athens. Admittedly in better shape now than he was 15 years ago in Utah, Ortiz refuses to point fingers at the Jazz for his disappointing and short-lived NBA career. "I wouldn't put blame on anybody but myself for what happened," he said. "Utah was good to me in a lot of ways. I learned a lot in Utah." Much of it had to do with work ethic. "I decided to work hard -- I learned that by watching Karl Malone," he said. Who would have guessed that what Ortiz called "the biggest win of my career" would also include an assist from his other old Dream Team/Jazz teammate, John Stockton -- who gave Arroyo a ringside seat about playing hard as a point guard when Arroyo joined the Jazz two years ago during Stockton's final season. Out of Stockton's shadow last season, Arroyo started 71 games for the Jazz at point guard and averaged 12.6 points and five assists. "This is a great day for Puerto Rican basketball," Arroyo, who turned 25 two weeks ago, said as more than 100 journalists from around the world listened. "This is why we worked hard, twice a day. Without any doubt it is the happiest game of my life." At times, Arroyo's play bordered on the spectacular as he made shots over Allen Iverson and delivered assists past Tim Duncan. "He's fearless," Ortiz said of his teammate and fellow Jazz fraternity member. "He just doesn't back down." Ortiz said he will end his basketball career after these Olympics, whatever they bring. An opening-round win, even over the U.S., hardly guarantees a medal. He knows that. Puerto Rico might have to face America again, and that would be a war. He'll deal with that if and when. Sunday night in Athens, he was more than happy to stand under the stands and talk. Elias Ayuso Leads Puerto Rico Through The Olympic Basketball Tournament By MARK WHICKER August 17, 2004 ATHENS - Elias Ayuso, basketball vagabond, doesn't know where he'll park his suitcase next season. He's not going back to Istanbul, where he played last winter. He worked out with the San Antonio Spurs this summer. He has shot his jumper in Greece and Italy and Spain. He grew up in New York and Puerto Rico. And in 1997, he helped Southern Cal reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in Henry Bibby's coaching tenure. He has done most of this without the world watching. This week it is. Ayuso was a major player in Puerto Rico's cataclysmic 19-point victory over the United States in Sunday night's Olympic basketball opener. Tuesday night didn't turn out as well. Ayuso scored 25 points, but the Puerto Ricans lost to Lithuania, 98-90, primarily because the Lithuanians hit 16 of 30 tries from the 3-point stripe. "We gave them time and space to shoot the ball and you can't do that," Ayuso said. "We probably didn't have the focus we did the other night against the U.S." Lithuania, which nearly beat the Americans in the semifinals of the 2000 Olympics, is one of the favorites here. "I think it's wide open," Ayuso said. "You can't forget the Dream Team (the U.S.). They've got too many good players. I'm not going to take anything away from Lithuania, but you need ballhandlers to win on this level." The 6-foot-4 Ayuso scored 15 against the U.S. He and Carlos Arroyo, who plays point for the Utah Jazz, each scored 25 on Tuesday. He shook his head when reminded that the U.S. team blames its occasional troubles on lack of practice time together. "We haven't been together that long either," Ayuso said. "Maybe four weeks. We've all been playing on different clubs. I don't see the other guys very much because I'm only in Puerto Rico during the summer. "But enough of us know each other that we've built some confidence. When we come to a tournament like this, we're expecting to win." Only Arroyo and center Daniel Santiago (Milwaukee) are currently playing in the NBA, although 40-year-old Jose Ortiz has NBA experience. Peter John Ramos, a raw but imposing 7-foot-2 teenager, was a second-round draft pick of the Washington Wizards. "Obviously this is a good showcase for me," said Ayuso, 27. "The NBA is still the ultimate goal for me. It's a tough life, what I've been doing. You're always alone in a country that's not your own. "But you can't be thinking about individual goals in a tournament like this." And afterward? Where will he call home? "I'll have to let that take care of itself," Ayuso said with a grin. "I've got homes all over the world." Olympics Has Own Definition Of `Nations' By L.A. Chung August 17, 2004 Shock. Dismay. The vaunted U.S. national basketball team lost resoundingly to Puerto Rico. Oh, the national mortification. The morning chatter over coffee paused. Wait a minute. Isn't Puerto Rico the United States, too? That is, isn't it a U.S. protectorate, its sons and daughters already Americans? No passports or visas are needed to go there. They use dollars there, don't they? Then the jokes: Does that mean California could field a team? If you were closely watching Friday's opening ceremonies in Athens, you may not have needed an embarrassing loss to have wondered how the Olympics' definition of ``nation'' differs from your own. Sure, we've seen countries in the parade of nations that aren't recognized by other countries: Witness ``Chinese Taipei,'' which most call Taiwan, even though it calls itself the Republic of China, which is completely unacceptable to the People's Republic of China (that is, mainland China). Yet it never occurred to me that parts of the United States would compete separately. And Puerto Rico isn't the only one. Guam fields a team of three. American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands have teams, too. Nations, and then some Here's how the International Olympic Committee puts it on its Web site: ``Although most National Olympic Committees are from nations, the IOC also recognises independent territories, commonwealths, protectorates and geographical areas.'' So the parade of nations could be called the parade of nations, aspiring-nations, not-fully-recognized-nations and disenfranchised territories or commonwealths associated with nations. How is the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico disenfranchised, a colleague asked? Well, it gets a representative in Congress, but one who can't vote. Which makes it a bit like the District of Columbia -- except D.C. doesn't have a basketball team in the Olympics. And maybe that's D.C.'s problem. Spend some time in Washington, like I did this month, and you can't miss the license plates that say ``Taxation without representation.'' D.C., home of Congress, the White House, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the newly inaugurated World War II Memorial, doesn't get a say in many things without Congress' OK. D.C. may be on Orange Alert, and district cops may be out in force, but its representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, can't vote to get the city more funds. Puerto Ricans don't even have to pay federal taxes, the mayor's press aide points out. So D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams seized an opportunity when welcoming a convention of 8,000 journalists to the city, including myself. The road to suffrage? ``Isn't it ironic that in a city overflowing with the symbols of our democracy, our citizens are denied voting rights?'' asked the natty Williams, bow-tied and righteous. ``There are only three groups of people denied voting rights in our country: children, convicted criminals and citizens of the District of Columbia!'' Gee. I never thought about it that way. So Monday's triumph of Puerto Rico over the U.S. got me thinking. If D.C. wants to get Congress' attention, I say it should field its own basketball team on the Olympic stage -- and beat the pants off the U.S. team. So, D.C., mortify us. Humiliate us. Rub it in our faces. Tell us that if we would just let the district vote, enfranchise its citizens, let it have a say over its own affairs, you'll dissolve the basketball team, play on ours and sing ``God Bless America'' with us. ``It's something the mayor can think about,'' said Tony Bullock, Williams' director of communications. ``It would be a stretch to do it.'' I don't think so. There should be plenty of talented NBA players who are D.C.-born. Imagine D.C. routing the U.S. team, then facing off with Puerto Rico. And the U.S. still wins!
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