Team USA mandate: Play nice at all costs

ATHENS, Greece — The early whispers were shocking. The unnamed flag bearer for Team USA would be a basketball player from Philadelphia.

If the goal were to ignite World War III, Allen Iverson would’ve been a perfect choice.

Of course, the mission is much more genteel. So the humble Dawn Staley — who plays in the WNBA, coaches at Temple University and created a foundation for at-risk kids — will carry the flag in Friday night’s Opening Ceremony.

Team leaders were subjected to a 75-minute briefing, largely on the importance of personal conduct. In one form or another, the 538 American athletes have all been told to limit the gyrations and celebrations, thus reshaping the view of America in three short weeks.

"I haven’t got the lecture yet," swimmer Gary Hall Jr. said.

He will.

"We can start a new tradition with this Olympic Games," said former Olympian Herman Frazier, Chef de Mission of Team USA.

This is a lofty goal and a somewhat offensive position for those that who prefer Americans be bold, arrogant and in your face at all times. It is also a dire reflection of our global identity, and why there are security people carrying semiautomatic weapons on every street corner.

"I believe that’s not because of the athletes, but the politics that the American president follows," Greece resident Demetrius Apadopoulos said. "The athletic problem comes from the political problem."

Nevertheless, it’s the American athletes that who are being painted with a broad brush in Athens. We are a land of millionaire athletes too busy to be bothered with the kinship of the Olympics, and it it’s already been said that, just by showing up, sports writers have shown more courage and dedication than Shaquille O’Neal and Jennifer Capriati.

To keep our attention, we require titillation from pinup athletes like Amanda Beard and Amy Acuff posing seductively for national magazines. Even worse, we have become a drug-infested delegation of cheaters, a reputation that once plagued the East Germans when it produced mustachioed female swimmers capable of bench-pressing the Berlin Wall.

The BALCO investigation and the dark shadows around our track and field contingent is at the root of the latter perception, so much that World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound blasted the team on Thursday, saying it carried no credibility in the 2004 Games.

"Leadership of USA Track and Field is largely responsible," said Pound, former IOC International Olympic Committee executive. "I think they have to look at their own house."

In the past, one could’ve expected an angry response from the United States U.S. Olympic Committee. But the don’t "mess with us" mentality is gone, and that sort of combativeness doesn’t fit the new agenda. Team officials adroitly sidestepped the charges, while the quest to appear mannerly officially begins Friday night, when the U.S. team will walk into the stadium in neat rows of eight, not a dancing mass of flag-waving flesh seen in previous Olympics.

They will hope this will soften the blow, just like another break of opening night fortune: because of the Greek alphabet, the U.S. United States will be introduced during the middle of the program, not the end when all the beer has been sold.

"They’re not going to be goose-stepping or marching in any identified protocol," said USOC chief executive Jim Scherr.

But they will be subdued and dignified. Not that such demeanor is a bad thing, but it’s not exactly coming from the heart. It’s coming from headquarters, where a mixed message is being sent to our athletes: Unleash your best performance, but keep a lid on the exhilaration.

As if our athletes didn’t have enough to worry about with security concerns, now comes the responsibility to act like the Tabernacle Choir, even if other countries are shaking like Terrell Owens in the end zone after beating us to the medal stand.

"We are all very conscious of how we are going to be viewed," Staley said.

It’s a shame that it has come to this. For the USOC, it seems to matter more what the athletes wear on their sleeve, not what they’re wearing around their necks. And this is supposed to be must-see television? What happened to the great American tradition of kicking tail and taking names?

Complicating things, the other villain — the host country — is suddenly receiving great praise. Athens may have pulled off a minor miracle cleaning up its city and getting all the venues done on time, an accomplishment so unexpected that USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth claimed that the organizing committee has already won the Game’s Games’ first gold medal.

Problem is, that leaves only one villain.

So listen to Friday night’s reception and try not to cringe. The only villain is us, as in U.S., and it’ll be a true pity if Hall’s patriotic robe gets left in the closet.