Now we know when you think back to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona you will all think of the USA Dream Team first.  Well that is understandable as it was a dream to see that much iconic playing talent on one team but there was another dream team present in Barcelona.  This time the ‘dream’ transcended basketball and showed the world how important basketball can be as a message of freedom and hope.

After Eurobasket 2011, many of you are fully aware of how important basketball is to Lithuanians.  This has stemmed from its role to create a new Lithuanian state after Soviet rule.  Lithuania had won the European Championships back in 1937 and 1939. This development of a basketball dynasty was cut short by the invasion by the Soviet Union in 1940.  Their occupation was only interrupted by Nazi invasion during the second world war with the Soviets recapturing Lithuania in June 1944.  This, as with most invasions, was a dark day in Lithuanian history as tens of thousands of Lithuanians were relocated to distant parts of the the Soviet Union, mainly Siberia.

The Soviet occupancy would last for nearly 50 years and would have a profound effect on Lithuanian life.  Even though free speech was suppressed, they weren’t able to stifle the Lithuanian sense of national pride and spirit.  This invasion also included basketball, as the successful Lithuanian basketball programme was incorporated into the Soviet Union’s national basketball system.  They continued all the way through to the latter stages of occupancy where the likes of Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis  were forced to play for the Soviet national team.  This resulted in the Soviet Union claiming gold at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul beating Yugoslavia 76 - 63 in the final with Sabonis and Marciulionis combining for 41 points.  Lithuania had provided 4 of the starting 5 line up and players recount how they would have KGB minders wherever they went.  They were told where they could go, what they could say and to who.

Only 2 years later Lithuania would claim their independence back from the Soviet Union which would start the ultimate demise of the Soviet empire.  This meant that the stars of the 1988 Soviet Union basketball squad were once again free to represent the country that they had always felt was their true home.  Their first real opportunity to reintroduce the world to Lithuanian basketball was at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.  This was never going to just be about basketball as it was a bigger statement to the world about the value of freedom.  The Lithuanian squad struggled from the start as the home economy was still finding its feet and was unable to raise the funds to support the entry of the basketball team into the Olympics.  This led to what has to be the most unusual sporting sponsorship in history with American rock band ‘Grateful Dead’ stepping up to provide the finances needed to enable the Lithuanian ‘Dream’ team to take its place at the 1992 Olympics.  Part of this sponsorship was that the team would wear a Grateful Dead inspired warm up suit, which has since become an iconic image in basketball history.  The Lithuanian team took to the court wearing green, yellow and red tie died tee-shirt and shorts.

Their participation was reward enough for the Lithuanian people but it was not enough for the players who were there to make a Lithuanian shaped mark on world basketball for the first time in over 50 years.  They were drawn into Group B where they saw off Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Australia.  They also faced their recent occupiers who due to the splits within the Soviet Union were on court as the Commonwealth of Independent States.  Lithuania used the same five players for the entire forty minutes and unsurprisingly they lost by 12.  This result did not have an impact on their qualification to the knockout stages where they put up against Brazil.  They breezed their way past Brazil running out 114 - 96 winners.  This would then give them the semi final match up from heaven where they would take on the ‘Dream Team’.  This as expected was a step too far for this fledgling basketball programme, as the USA took the win by 51 points.  On the other side of the draw Croatia sneaked past the Commonwealth of Independent States by 1 point.

These semi final results set up a revenge match for Lithuania as they would face their oppressors in the fight for the Bronze medal.  At 1pm on the 8th August 1992 every city in Lithuania became a ghost town as Lithuania would go to battle on the hardwood against (what they saw as) the Soviet Union.  As expected the game was a close affair from the start but Lithuania managed to take a 6 point lead into the half.  The Commonwealth of Independent States picked the pace up in the second half but were unable to take the lead as Lithuania secured the Bronze medal by 4 points.  The win echoed around not just the basketball world but sent out an amazing story of the battle for freedom.

This amazing moment in basketball is set to hit the big screens (probably not in the UK) so here is the trailer for ‘The Other Dream Team’.  It is not the greatest quality recording but the producers have removed the official trailer so we are chasing them to send it through to us.  

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