BROOKE GLADSTONE This is On the Media, I'm Brooke Gladstone.

 

BOB GARFIELD And I'm Bob Garfield. As we learned before the break, there are movements for and against independence in Puerto Rico. But in the meantime, the island stays in limbo with representatives in the United States Congress, but no say in who becomes president and many other such indignities. However, there is at least one international body that considers the island its own sovereign nation, and that is the International Olympic Committee, which has exclusive authority to determine which states count as countries for the purposes of Olympic law. And the IOC regards Puerto Rico as a country. And that's how the stage came to be set for one of the most epic showdowns in the island's sporting history. Here's Alana.

 

ALANA CASANOVA-BURGESS Without a doubt, there is a deep connection between being Puerto Rican and rooting for our sports teams. And yes, people all over the world love sports and are proud of their athletes. But in Puerto Rico, the stakes are just higher because Puerto Rico, despite being a U.S. colony, competes in international sporting events like the Olympics on its own, under its own flag, as if we were an independent country. Journalist Noel Algarin, who has covered sports in Puerto Rico for many years, put it this way.

 

NOEL ALGARIN The only place where we can call ourselves sovereign, is in sports. In sports, we get to be someone and then we get chances in a more symbolic way to face the country that owns you in some way.

 

ALANA CASANOVA-BURGESS We're going to tell a story about one of those chances. A time when Puerto Rico faced off against the United States in basketball on the sporting world's largest stage. Journalist Julio Ricardo Varela was born in Puerto Rico and grew up there, but when he was in first grade, he moved with his mom to the Bronx and would go back and forth to the island over the years. But he never had any doubt as to who his team was. It was always Puerto Rico.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Flor Meléndez was a coach of the team.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Bueno, mi nombre es Flor Meléndez.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA And he was a legend in Puerto Rico.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER [unintelligible] loco, piensen en lo que tenemos que hacer [END CLIP].

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA In a documentary about the 1979 games, you can see him screaming at players and gesturing wildly. He's looking really sharp with this thick black mustache and 'fro. Flor went on to become one of the national team's all-time most decorated coaches. And his story kind of runs parallel to the story of Puerto Rican basketball. So, Flor grew up in a big family

 

FLOR MELENDEZ 11 hermanos

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA the oldest of 11 siblings, they lived in public housing.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Caserio publicó

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA We're talking 1960. Flor started playing basketball at his local YMCA, then as a teenager, he played in the Puerto Rican League and pretty early on, Flor figured he had a talent for coaching. He described his coaching style as

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Fuerte.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Tough.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Yo soy una persona que me gusta la disciplina

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Discipline heavy. And Flor got into coaching right around this kind of magic moment for Puerto Rican basketball. Coaches like Flor started visiting New York City and scouring the courts where Nuyoricans were playing street ball, and they started convincing these players to leave their lives behind to come play professionally in Puerto Rico. Here are these amazing Afro-Puerto Ricans who learn the craft in the Mecca of the sport and brought it back.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER favorece a Raymond Dalmau, que lo empato, la jugada última

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA It was a different kind of basketball and people were used to Puerto Rico. It was a faster rhythm of play with big dunks, and it was fun. Like that type of basketball is fun. These were the boom years for Puerto Rican basketball. And as the team kept winning and becoming better basketball in Puerto Rico became the sport. Fans filled the stadiums. By the 90s, many from that generation of great Nuyorican players had retired, but they had inspired a new wave of Puerto Rican born players, and those players, they took the team to even greater heights.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER ¡Está ganando Puerto Rico! [END CLIP]

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER undecimos juegos Panamericanos. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Gold in the 1991 Pan American Games, Gold in the 1993 Central American Games, and maybe the biggest accomplishment of all, fourth place in the 1990 world championships. Puerto Rico, the fourth best team in the world. That's pretty good. With Puerto Rico having made a name for itself on the international stage, Flor Melendez got opportunities to coach in Argentina and Panama. But it was always clear to him that coaching the Puerto Rican national team, that was a different kind of responsibility.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Yo tengo un dicho que...

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA He has this saying...

 

FLOR MELENDEZ La bola de baloncesto es el arma...nosotros no tenemos ejército.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA He thinks about it like this. Puerto Rico doesn't have an army. So we, the national basketball team, we are the ones that have to represent the country. He says that the basketball is a weapon and the basketball jersey is actually a soldier's uniform. It's like you respect it, like you respect a flag. He told me he had this ritual he would do with the national team. That at the season's first practice, where they would put on their national team jerseys for the first time

 

FLOR MELENDEZ pues yo – yo le entregaba....

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA He'd go down the line and hand out little Puerto Rican flag pins to all the players. He says the players would get so emotional about it. And whenever they'd face the United States in international play, those games had a special kind of weight. It was the chance for his soldiers to go to war.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Es la guerra, la guerra, la guerra, la guerra, la guerra... 

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA The war we haven't been able to have to win our independence, he says.

 

[FLOR LAUGHS].

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Puerto Rico is generally pretty outgunned in this war. The U.S., after all, was and is the global superpower of basketball, especially after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. What happened was a few years before the International Basketball Federation made a change to their rules to allow NBA players in international competitions. And that change was huge.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER This summer, the U.S. Olympic basketball team will make history. The dream team of Jordan, Bird, Ewing, Robinson, Pippen, Drexler, Mullin Barkley, Magic. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA That first dream team that went to Barcelona in 1992 was legendary.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER This collection of superstars has been unselfishly magnificent. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA It wasn't just a sports team. It was a cultural phenomenon.

 

[CLIP]

 

ANNOUNCER You've got yourself the gold medal meal.

 

ATHLETE What you want, is what you get.

 

CHORUS At McDonald's today.

 

ATHLETE Gold medal? It's in the bag [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA And they kicked everybody's ass. It wasn't even close. It wasn't even fun to watch. They were that good.

 

[CLIP]

 

OLYMPIC ANNOUNCER And there it is. And the dream team, win gold. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA And from then on, the players change, but the dream team was here to stay. The U.S. won gold again in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics.

 

[CLIP]

 

OLYMPIC ANNOUNCER The United States has won the gold. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics. Same story.

 

[CLIP]

 

OLYMPIC ANNOUNCER And it's all smiles now from Dream Team 4. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA And then you get to the 2004 Olympics in Athens. And the U.S. team was an institution at that point. And the first game they were going to play that Olympics was with Puerto Rico.

 

The 2004 team was stacked. Alan Iverson, A.I, Dwayne Wade, D Wade, Tim Duncan, one of my favorite players of all time. I mean, the team even had LeBron James in his early days. LeBron James! These guys were invincible in the Olympics. I mean that literally. Since NBA players were allowed to play, they had never lost an Olympic game. They were the Death Star, and if the U.S. team was the Death Star, the Puerto Rico team was definitely the ragtag Rebel Alliance. The players were mostly local stars from the Baloncesto Superior Nacional, the League in Puerto Rico. You had José Ortiz, also known as Piculin.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Alli esta apuntalo para Piculin!

 

JULIO CESAR TORRES Oh, that's their leader. The rock, the legend [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA That's Julio César Torres. He's the filmmaker behind a great Puerto Rican basketball documentary called Nuyorican Basket. You had Eddie Cassiano

 

[CLIP]

 

JULIO CESAR TORRES Eddie man, Eddie was the firecracker. He will go toe to toe with you. And if he had to fight, he will fight.

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER McGrady and Cassiano going nose to nose. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Rolando Hourruitiner.

 

[CLIP]

 

JULIO CESAR TORRES He was all about the craft. Very disciplined, and a great defender [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA And a lot of other really talented guys: Larry Ayuso, Bobby Joe Hatton, and then there was Carlos Arroyo.

 

[CLIP]

 

JUILO CESAR TORRES Carlos Arroyo was the young gun.

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Arroyo por el cristal...con el primer canasto de la noche.

 

JULIO CESAR TORRES Anxious to prove himself with a lot of talent.

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER As Arroyo knocks down that jumper. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Carlos was in the NBA. He was a starting point guard with the Utah Jazz that season and was on a path to becoming a legend.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Arroyo, to the angle right, gets behind tag, shakin and bakin, doubling momentarily – nice – goes up to the hoop...and he's fouled! [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA At 6'2, he was a lot shorter than most other NBA guys, but Carlos was fast and he played with energy and he played with heart. And we all loved him. So, a few weeks before the Olympics, the Puerto Rican team goes to Florida for a week of practice and a series of warm up games against the U.S. team. This is strangely standard practice leading up to these big international competitions. And at these games, they're playing man to man defense, which is what it sounds like. Each player follows a player on the other team and sticks to them. And Puerto Rico, because of their size or lack of it. You know, the Americans are bigger. They were faster. They wanted to play zone defense where you literally stay in a zone and you defend a set area of the court. During one of those games, the American coach went up to the Puerto Rican coaches and asked for a favor.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Que por favor, que no le jugaramos...

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA He said, can you please not play zone during this game? And it was one of those like, Flor Melendez moments, to be like hmmmm – insert mysterious discovery music – hmmmm. Interesting, they don't want to play against the zone.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ despues nosotros pues nos quedamos callados. 

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA He says they kept quiet, and pulled a classic jibaro move.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Del jibaro....

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA He says whenever city people visit the mountains, they think the jibaros, the country people.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ que uno no sabe nada.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Are simpleton's... but secretly, they always have something up their sleeve.

 

BROOKE GLADSTONE Coming up, the Puerto Rican national basketball team goes to the Olympics. This is On the Media.

 

[BREAK]

 

BROOKE GLADSTONE This is On the Media, I'm Brooke Gladstone.

 

BOB GARFIELD And I'm Bob Garfield. We pick up the story in the summer of 2004, the Puerto Rican national basketball team has arrived in Athens to compete in the Olympics. Journalist Julio Varela takes it from here.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA On the morning of the game in Athens, the Puerto Rican team is expecting the worst. Rolando Houritiner was in his dorm room in the Olympic Village when one of the coaches on the staff, Julio Toro, barged in the room.

 

[CLIP]

 

HOURITINER Early in the morning, Julio comes in. It's like, "hey, hey, you guys," "what's going on Julio, it's too early man?" "So, I want you guys to know that we're going to do something different today."  "I said what are you talking about?" It's like, "well, you have to wait and see."

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA A few hours later, the players are gathered in the locker room, and the coaches bust out their plan. They thought maybe they had found the weakness in the Death Star. They're going to do a variation on the Zone defense that the Americans didn't want to play against, back in Florida, For all you basketball nerds out there, a variation known as a triangle and two defense with the goal of forcing the U.S. team to take outside shots.

 

[CLIP]

 

HOURITINER So we looked at each other like, hey, you know, never done it. We lose by 30 every time, so might as well try.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA The game was set to start at eight p.m. Athens time, 1:00 p.m. in Puerto Rico. To jog my memory for this story I recently re-watched the game.

 

I'm excited. This is the first time I've put this on since 2004. You can see in the broadcast that the arena in Athens was pretty full. Everybody wanted to see the debut of the U.S. team. The whistle blows. The start of the game, it was pretty tight back and forth.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER The United States leading early by 2. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Puerto Rico didn't really start off strong. They just played enough to keep it close.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER An impressive start for Puerto Rico. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA I was like, OK, all right, how long is this going to last? This will be entertaining until the U.S. scores like 80 points in a row, and then we're down by 60.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER There's the buzzer ending the first quarter. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA But for me, things really kicked off in the second quarter when Carlos Arroyo found Piculin with a super cool pass. Here it comes, here it comes. Look at this pass. Hello. Hello!

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Carlos Arroyo. Oh, what a ball fake! [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA And then it begins. Something just clicks, and Puerto Rico has this sequence of amazing plays.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Excellent ball handling from Carlos Arroyo.

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Body flying all over the place, Arroyo with the steal! [END CLIP]

 

FLOR MELENDEZ nos daban las cosas, las cosas se nos daban.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Flor watched Puerto Rican nail shot after shot. He says he noticed the U.S. players in a bad mood, frustrated, and it was probably because the Puerto Rican strategy seemed to be working. Here's Rolando Houritiner.

 

[CLIP]

 

HOURITINER We were pretty physical, and we were really giving it to them, you know, and it was something that they were not used to it. And it was our turn to talk trash. "Go ahead and shoot it –You don't want to shoot it, right? Go ahead, shoot it. Let me see it. Let me see your shot, right" [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA As the second quarter ticked down, Puerto Rico's lead just kept growing.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER It's hard to believe I'm saying this, but the United States trails by 20.

 

[BUZZER]

 

And there's the buzzer, ending the first half, a disastrous first half for the United States. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA At halftime, the score was 49 to 27, 22-point lead for Puerto Rico, and you could see it on the faces of the American coaches. They looked so dejected. Meanwhile, at 1:00 p.m. in Puerto Rico, Hiram Martinez, then a sports editor at El Nuevo Dia, was getting ready to turn on the game when his wife asked him to go to the mall with her to pick something up

 

[CLIP]

 

HIRAM Mi esposa queria que...  [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Reluctantly Hiram goes to the mall and finds a store window with the televisions turned to the game.

 

[CLIP]

 

HIRAM Como habian 100 personas haciendo lo mismo [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA About 100 people were crowded around doing the same thing. And to Hiram's surprise, Puerto Rico's doing pretty well in the first minutes. But he thinks, who cares? They're just going to come back and slam us. So, he heads back home in the car. When he gets a call from his daughter. Are you watching the game, she asks. Hiram's like, no, why bother? And she says, we're winning. Soon Hiram is getting frantic calls from the newspaper. Where are you? Get over here! We're beating the U.S., and we're beating them good!

 

[CLIP]

 

HIRAM Y yo no. No puede ser. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Even the Puerto Rican players in the locker room at halftime were surprised at the score. Here's Rolando.

 

[CLIP]

 

HOURITINER First of all, my first thought was, wow, I have more pressure now than I did at the beginning of the game. Because it's a brand-new game, 20 brand new minutes. And, you know, they're going to come back stronger. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA You thought the Americans were going to make a run eventually and come back and beat us. They had to. The third quarter is also really back and forth. The U.S. makes points.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Good drive to the basket, pretty move from Allen Iverson. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA But Puerto Rico maintains its lead.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Arroyo inside, and the lead back up to 21. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA The quarter closes 65-48. Puerto Rico still leading by 17 points. And then the fourth quarter starts. And that's when things get scary. It starts with about 9 minutes left on the clock. Puerto Rico's up by 15...And LeBron James

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER James wide open, and hits the three. LeBron James from downtown and it's a 12-point game. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA It was the first three for the United States in a long time, and then they just keep making baskets.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Lamar Odom cuts the lead to 12, Iverson for 3. Boy, that's a huge bucket. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA On the court, Rolando watched as Puerto Rico's hard fought lead disappeared from 22 at half time to just 8 points

 

[CLIP]

 

HOURITINER I would look up at the clock, I'm like, to me it's like, hurry up and, you know, finish right. I just want to end his game. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Suddenly, it looked like the U.S. could turn the tide in the final minutes, but then. Right here, baby! Right here Carlos! Carlitos!

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Fight for the rebound here comes Arroyo.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Carlito!

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Arroyo draws the foul and 1. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA That was awesome! Up by 11.

 

Puerto Rico answers the charge. Suddenly, only one-minute remains. Puerto Rico is back to leading by 20, and it's clear the U.S. is run out of time to catch up. With victory near, the coach takes Carlos Arroyo out of the game.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER Carlos Arroyo, the game of his life. 24 points as he comes out. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA As he walks off the court, cocky as all hell, he looks at the stands and grabs his jersey and pulls forward the part where it says Puerto Rico, as if to show everybody watching the name of the place he's from. Oh, that was awesome when he did that. In part, it was a gesture of defiance to a U.S. player who had fouled him a few moments ago, but to many in the audience, watching, the message was way bigger than that.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Fue como decirle a los tipos

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Flor says, that it was like Carlos was telling the Americans

 

FLOR MELENDEZ nosotros somos los poderosos, vité, o sea

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Look, we're the powerful ones. In the newsroom, in San Juan, people started hugging each other, tears were falling. The final score, 92 to 73.

 

[CLIP]

 

SPORTS ANNOUNCER It's finally happened, the United States loses an Olympic play with NBA players. They showed some signs in the second... [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Back at the offices of El Nuevo Dia, everyone was buzzing to get the paper ready for the morning. They had already decided on the cover when Hiram saw a photo come in that instantly caught his eye. It's of Carlos Arroyo showing off his Puerto Rico jersey. It was this quick moment on the court. If you blinked, you could have missed it. And Hiram says.

 

[CLIP]

 

HIRAM Esta es la foto! [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA This is the photo. The layout designer was like, no way. We already have the cover. But Hiram's like this – is the photo! This is the photo we're going to be talking about 50, 100 years from now. This needs to be the cover.

 

[CLIP]

 

HIRAM Cuando hablemos de ese juego. Esta es la foto que siempre va a tener la gente en la mente [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA All night long, the island celebrates the win. The next morning, the team wakes up and heads mostly together to the cafeteria for breakfast. And as they walk through the Olympic village,

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Eran todas las delagaciones.

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA All the delegations of athletes from around the world were there. And as they walked into the cafeteria, Flor says you'd think it was a Puerto Rican party.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Todo, todo, todo lo países

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA Everybody from the Germans, the Iraqis, all of them, stood up, stopped eating and clapped for Puerto Rico.

 

FLOR MELENDEZ Imaginate, eso uno no se lo imagina nunca que eso puedo pasar

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA He says it's something one never imagined could happen. They were getting a standing ovation, from the world. And it's just a fleeting moment, that's the thing that is just so bittersweet about it, it's 24 hours of joy and then that's it. The team doesn't perform nearly as well for the rest of the tournament. They were eliminated in the quarterfinals in a game against Italy. But when Puerto Ricans remember Athens, they don't remember losing to Italy, they remember beating the United States. Rolando Houritiner says people on the island still come up to him and thank him.

 

[CLIP]

 

HOURITINER It was very emotional for the island. It's the day that we beat USA, it's like David beat Goliath. [END CLIP]

 

JULIO RICARDO VARELA It hasn't been 50 or 100 years yet, but the image of Carlos Arroyo grabbing the jersey has become an enduring symbol of Puerto Rican power and pride. Everybody knows that image was even painted as a mural in Viejo San Juan. I think it means more than ever now. To me, 2004 was before the hard times hit Puerto Rico. The debt, hurricanes, people leaving, political failures, this creeping feeling of failure, of no hope, because everywhere around you, you know you're not winning. So I think there's something special about looking back at what happened in Athens. That moment when the game is over and Puerto Rico is on top, it tells people that, yes, you can win. So that's why you've got to hold up that jersey and show it off a little bit.

 

BOB GARFIELD That's it for this week's show, but you can and should go to the La Brega podcast feed to listen to the other episodes in the series. Every episode is available in English and Spanish.

 

BROOKE GLADSTONE The stories in this episode of On the Media were produced by Alana Casanova-Burgess, who's actually leaving the OTM team this week to go on to new adventures. She's been a prime mover of some of our best work, a passionate voice, and a leader. Alana, you are a force who helped propel us forward, and we will eagerly, instantly tune in to whatever you do next. Katya Rogers is our executive producer. On the Media is a production of WNYC Studios. I'm Brooke Gladstone

 

BOB GARFIELD and I’m Bob Garfield.

 

ALANA CASANOVA-BURGESS Leadership support for Labriola is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional support provided by Amy Liss.

 

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