Thursday, September 21, 2000
5th Olympics for 'Mother T'
Basketball star Teresa Edwards stil loves these Games
SYDNEY, Australia — Her fifth Olympics seems like her first. The only difference is the size of the ice bags on her knees. At 36, Teresa Edwards is still an Olympian because nothing can replace the high she gets from playing basketball at the Games. Also, because she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up.
“I'm going to hit the real world like a brick,” Edwards said the other day. “Whatev er I do, I have to accept it's going to be like starting from scratch.”
The Americans beat the Russian Federation Wednesday 88-77. It was a parade of elbows and floorburns. For the first 30 minutes, until the U.S. depth and talent ran the Russians into the wood, it was a who-wants-it-more kind of game. One made for Edwards, who has never been given anything.
“This is not easy. It may seem easy, because I've been here five times. I wasn't born good. I had to work. I've never been put on a team. I've always had to make a team,” she said.
When she was a kid in rural Georgia, Edwards shot basketballs at garbage cans and bicycle rims. It was good enough to get her to the University of Georgia; a summer stuffing pickles into jars at a local plant convinced her a devotion to basketball could be her salva tion.
She made the '84 U.S. team as a sophomore, “and no one knew I was there, not even the coaches.” Three gold medals later, the players call her Mother T.
“She's playing for the love of the game,” U.S. coach Nell Fortner said. “In that respect, she and the other older girls on this team are probably the last of the Mohicans.”
This used to be why you watched the women's game at the Olympics. For the purity. Only now the women
are pros, but you still come, for the talent.
It isn't new to suggest the women's Olympic game is more than chest passes and the pick-and-roll. If they're not yet above the rim, they're at eye level. What's remarkable is how fast it has progressed.
“When I started this, nobody could run a fast break,” Edwards said.
The world is catching up to the U.S. women, though. Most nights, the men can still show up, throw on their Superman capes and win by 35. Men have played the game much longer; they have a huge head start on the rest of the planet that the women don't.
The Russians led by three at halftime Wednesday, mostly because the U.S. was spectating on the defensive end. When a player can take a pass, set her feet and shoot a two-hand set shot in peace and quiet, the defense is resting.
That changed after the break. The U.S. opened with a 10-3 run and won by 11. The American women had been pointing to this game for months, ever since they saw their Olympic draw. “We assumed we'd play (the Russians) in the gold medal game, unless Australia beat them,” center Natalie Williams said.
They never pulled away, though. “We're going to have to earn this thing,” Edwards said, “and when we do win it, you better tell us we earned it.”
Someone asked Edwards what she might do when the Olympics (and likely her career) are done.
“I've got to get a real job,” she said, offering a perspective not found on the men's side of the court. “The Olympics are the best thing for me. What's the next best thing?”
Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.
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