The New Yorker Radio Hour - Bonus Episode from La Brega: Basketball Warriors

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

Despite being a U.S. colony, Puerto Rico competes in sports as its own country on the world stage. Since the 70s, Puerto Rico’s national basketball team has been a pride of the island, taking home trophy after trophy. But in the 2004 at the Athens Olympics, the team was up against the odds, with an opening game against a U.S. Dream Team stacked with players like Lebron James and Allen Iverson. This episode of La Brega, from Futuro Media and WNYC Studios, tells the story of a basketball game that Puerto Ricans will never forget, and why he thinks now, more than ever, is a crucial moment to remember it.  The documentary "Nuyorican Basquet" is here. If you want to see the famous photo of Carlos Arroyo, click here.   To read more about sovereignty and sports, we recommend The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico, by Antonio Sotomayor.  CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Hiram Martinez’s workplace in 2004 as El Nuevo Dia. It was El Vocero. The story has been updated. New Yorker Radio Hour listeners, we want to hear from you.  We have a few questions about the show and how you listen to it. The survey takes about twenty minutes, and your feedback will help us make our podcast better.  Take the survey here.

It's David Remnick, and we've got something a little special for you today on the podcast, a bonus episode. It's a story from La Brega, a really interesting new series from our colleagues at WNYC and Futuro Studios produced in English and in Spanish. And we hope you enjoy it. Hey, quick note, there are English and Spanish episodes of La Brega. This is the English one. If you want to hear in Spanish, Wulve to feed and selectiona

the version with the title in Spanish Listener supported WNYC Studios Heads up there's some explicit language

in this episode In the summer of 1979 journalist Julio Ricardo Varela was 10 years old and he was spending the summer with his dad

in Rio Piedras in San Juan and it was the same year that the 1979 Pan American games were happening and were being hosted in Puerto Rico. It felt like it was our little mini Olympics.

For the opening ceremony, they commissioned this big Hollywood-style musical number. And it was so exciting because here they were. Here were all these athletes. And when you're 10 and you're a sports freak like I am, that's all you were thinking about. I mean, I was obsessed with it. I loved it. Especially he loved the Puerto Rican national basketball team. La Selection Nacional. It was just like, it was like watching. watching your heroes. And here were your heroes ready to represent your homeland in basketball. Julio 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. And in 1979, at the Pan American Games, it was easy to root for Puerto Rico. Because they were kicking butt. The other top team was the United States. But midway into the tournament, the U.S. squad got into a scandal. The scandal surrounded their coach, the infamously hot-tempered Bobby Knight, known for his outrageous outbursts and angry locker room speeches, like this one.

One day during the Pan Am game, Bobby Knight got into a scuffle with a Puerto Rican policeman, during which he allegedly hit the officer. According to the officer, Knight also called him the N-word. He was arrested and charges were pressed. It was all over the news. And it just so happens that Puerto Rico and the United States were set to face off in the final.

It was a hard-fought close game, but the U.S. side, led by a young Isaiah Thomas, ultimately won and took home the gold. After the game, Bobby Knight told the press that the only thing Puerto Ricans were good at was, quote, growing bananas. And there was something else. As they were leaving Puerto Rico,

this is what is reported. I feel like you're going to tell me that he spat in some mafungo or something. No. He dropped his pants, and he mooned Puerto Rico, he put his, you know, put his ass.

ass against the window. No. And he mooned Puerto Rico as they flew off. Like, the ugly American, here you go again, thinking you're better than us. Julio remembers the incident was the only thing

the grown-ups around him could talk about for weeks. That babina, what pendejo, cabron, egoista American, maltratando to us. That freaking a-hole,

the way he mistreated us. So throughout this history, right? To me, it's always about beating the Americans. And luckily for Puerto Rico, there have been chances to take revenge. From WNYC Studios and Futuro Studios, I'm Alana Casanova Burgess, and this is LaVerega. In this episode, David and Goliath play basketball. in Athens. 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, who has covered sports in Puerto Rico for many years, put it this way. The only place where we can call ourselves sovereign is in sports. In sports, we get this opportunity to be Puerto Rico, the country from the Caribbean. 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.

Today we're going to tell a story about one of those chances. You could say a chance for revenge against Bobby Knight, a time when Puerto Rico faced off against the United States in basketball on the sporting world's largest stage. Julio Ricardo Varela, a journalist with Futuro Media, takes the story from here. So at the time I was watching the 1979 game on TV, this guy was actually watching courtside. Well, my name is Floor Melendez.

I'm in Bayamon, in my house, in the pueblo of Bayamon in Puerto Rico. Flor Melendez was a coach of the team that year, and he was a legend in Puerto Rico. 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. Floyd 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, Flore grew up in a big family. Ols, the oldest of 11 siblings they lived in public housing. Casero public.

We're talking 1960. Flores started playing basketball at his local YMCA. Then as a teenager, he played in the Puerto Rican League. And pretty early on, Floyd figured he had a talent for coaching. He described his coached. coaching style as... Fuehente. Tough.

I'm a person that I like the discipline. Discipline heavy. And Florida got into coaching right around this kind of magic moment for Puerto Rican basketball. Coaches like Flore and league officials, they started visiting New York City

and scouting the courts where New Yorkicans were playing streetball. And they started convincing these players to leave their lives behind to come play professionally in Puerto Rico. Here are these amazing Afro-Portaricans who learned the course. craft in the mecca of the sport

and brought it back. It was a different kind of basketball than people were used to in Puerto Rico. It was a faster rhythm of play with big dunks. And it was fun. That type of basketball is fun. These were the boom years for Puerto Rican basketball. And as a team kept winning and becoming better, basketball in Puerto Rico, became the sport. Fans filled the stadiums.

cancha yenna and to convert in the first deport of the this by the way is a promotional rap song recorded by the team

in 1986 by the 90s by the 90s many from that generation of great New Yurican 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 Gold Rico Gold in the 1991 Gold in the 1991

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 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. He has this saying. The balleruncetto is the arm, we don't have a esprit, Puerto Rico, no,

we don't have a result. But that was, that was the arm that we represent our country, 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. And it's this reverence, right? It's like you respect it, 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. 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. It's a war. It's a war. It's a war that we haven't been able to have to win our independence, he says. Puerto Rico was 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. This summer, the U.S. Olympic basketball team will make history,

the dream team of Jordan, Bird, Huey, Robinson, Pippet, Drexler, Mullet, and Magic. That first dream team that went to Barcelona in 1992 was legendary. This collection of superstars has been unselfishly magnificent. It wasn't just a sports team. It was a cultural phenomenon. You've got yourself the gold medal meal. What you want.

That's what you get. Gold medal? It's in the bag. And they kicked everybody's ass. It wasn't even close. It wasn't even fun to watch. They were that good. And from then on, the players changed, but the dream team was here to stay.

The U.S. won gold again in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics. The United States has won the gold. In 2000, at the Sydney Olympics, same story. And it's all smiles now from Dream Team 4. 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 Irisen, AI, D. 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. The U.S. had the best basketball teams in the world when they were using amateur players. but when the NBA showed up, 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 rag-tag rebel alliance. The players were mostly local stars from the Ballen Cesto Superio Nacional, the league in Puerto Rico. You had Jose Ortiz, also known as Picculene. Oh, that's the leader, the rock, the legend.

That's Julio Cesar Torres. He's the filmmaker behind a great Puerto Rican basketball documentary called New Yorkan Basket. You had Eddie Casiano. Eddie, man, Eddie was the fight cracker. He would go toe-to-to-to-toe with you. And he had to fight, he will fight. But Brady and Cassiano going nose-to-node. Rolando Jorutinet.

He was all about the craft, very disciplined, and a great defender. And a lot of other really talented guys, Lari Ayuso, Bobby Johantin, and then there was Carlos Arroyo. Carlos Arroyo was the John Gunn. Angeus stood roof himself with a lot of talent. as a Royal Knocked down that jumper 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 Royo to the angle right Gets behind tag Shaking him bacon They double him all majority Now he goes right to the hoop

Reverse to the right side Baking up and he's foul 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 them. 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 a U.S. team. This is strangely standard practice leading up to these big international competitions, and it was an opportunity to get to know the enemy. 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, 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. That, for favor, that no we'd have to zone during the game, that we'd play a man to He said, can you please not play zone during this game?

And it was one of those, like, Floor Melendez moments, to be like, hmm, insert mysterious discovery music. Hmm. Interesting. They don't want to play against his own. And then we're just to keep quiet and pulled a classic Hilato move. He says whenever city people visit the country people They think the hibaros, the country people, are simpletons.

But secretly, they always have something up their sleeve. We'll be right back. This is La Brega. We're back. This is La Brega. It's the summer of 2004. the Puerto Rican national basketball team arrives in Athens to compete in the Olympics.

Their first rival is the United States Dream Team, who, by the way, aren't staying at the Olympic Village with the rest of the delegations, but in a luxury cruise ship in Athens Harbor. Julio Ricardo Varela picks the story back up. On the morning of the game in Athens, the Puerto Rican team is expecting the worst. Rolando Orutined was in his dorm room in the Olympic Village

when one of the coaches on the staff, Julio Toro barged in the room. Early in the morning, Julio comes in, he's on his, you know, jockey underwear or whatever it was. No shirt, no nothing, just barefoot. It's like, hey, hey, you guys. What's going on? Julia, 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. 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 in two defense, with the goal of forcing the U.S. team to take outside shots. So we looked at each other like, hey, you know, never done it. We lose by 30 every time, so might as well try it. The game was set to start at 8 p.m. Athens time. I'm 1 p.m. in Puerto Rico. I remember I was at my home in the Boston area that day, watching the game in my bedroom all by myself, all alone.

I had a Puerto Rico shirt. I do remember that, my old Puerto Rico t-shirt, and I had really low expectations, to be honest. To jog my memory for the story, I recently rewatch the game. I'm excited. This is the first time I've put this on since 2004. You can see in the bruntary.

broadcast that the arena in Athens was pretty full. Everybody wanted to see the debut of the U.S. team. Before they started playing both teams lined up for a group picture, every single photographer turned to photograph the U.S. team. And the Puerto Rican team, they just stood there. The whistle blows. The start of the game, it was pretty tight back and forth. United States leading early by two.

Puerto Rico didn't really start off strong. They just played enough to to keep it close. An impressive start for Puerto Rico. I was like, okay, 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. There's the buzzer ending the first quarter. But for me, things really kicked off in the second quarter when Carlos Arroyo found, Piculing with a super cool pass. Here it comes.

Here comes. Look at this pass. Hello. Hello. Carlos O'Royal. Oh, what a ball fate. And then it begins. Something just clicks.

And Puerto Rico has this sequence of amazing plays. Little by little in the broadcast, you start to notice that most of the people in the arena were rooting for Puerto Rico. And how could you not root for Carlos Arroyo that time? He had these super flashy passes. He was making incredible shots, just dominating the court. Excellent ball handling for Carlos Arroyo with the steel. Those things were done.

They said, but what's here, these people no fail. Floor watch Puerto Rico nails shot after shot. He says he noticed the U.S. players in a bad mood. 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 Jorutina. You know, we were pretty physical and we were really giving it to them, you know, and it's something that they were not used to it, and it was our turn to tuck 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? As the second quarter ticked down, Puerto Rico's lead just kept growing. It's hard to believe I'm saying this, but the United States trails by 20. And there's the puzzle ending the first half. A disastrous first half for the United States. 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 look so dejected. Meanwhile, at 1 p.m. in Puerto Rico, Iram Martinez, then a sports editor at El Bocero, was getting ready to turn on the game. When his wife asked him to go to the mall with her to pick something up, my spouse to make something up. Reluctantly, Iram goes to the mall

and finds a store window with the television's turn to the game. About 100 people were crowded around doing the same thing. And to Iran's support, 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 asked?

No, if I, what diablo, neither I'm going to be reading. I'm like, no, why bother? And she says, we're winning. Soon I'm getting frantic calls from the newspaper. Where are you are you are going to? Puerto Rico is going to

the United and gain. Where are you? Get over here. We're beating the U.S. and we're beating them good. And I, no,

no, can't be. Even the Puerto Rican players in the locker room at half time were surprised at the score. Here's Roland. First of all, my first was,

are we really beating this team by 19? That was my first thought, right? Go walk into the locker room. And second was like, wow, I have more pressure now

than I did at the beginning of the game because it's a brand new game, 20 grand new minutes. And you know they're going to come back stronger. 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. Good drive to the basket.

Pretty move from Allen Iverson. But Puerto Rico maintains its lead. A royal inside and lead back up to 21. The quarter closes 6548. Puerto Rico is still leading by 17 points. And then the fourth quarter starts. And that's when things get scary. It starts with about nine minutes left on the clock,

Puerto Rico's up by 15. And LeBron James. James wide open. And it's the three. LeBron James from downtown, and it's a 12-point game. It was the first three for the United States in a long time. And then they just keep making baskets. Ramar Otom cuts the lead to 12.

Iverson for three. Boy, that's a huge bucket as we go under the five-minute mark. On the court, Rolando watched as Puerto Rico's hard-fought lead disappeared. From 22 at halftime to just eight points. 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 this game. Suddenly, it looked like the U.S. could turn the tide in the final minutes.

but then Right here, baby right here Carlos Carlitos Fight for the rebound Here comes the royal The Royal Draws the foul

And won That was awesome A 5-11 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. has run out of time To couch up Back in San Juan at the offices of El Vosero, at that very moment, Iram finally exhaled. With victory near, the coach takes Carlos Arroyo out of the game. Carlos Sorroyo, the game of his life, 24 points as he comes out. As he walks off the court, cocky is 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. Flort says that it was like Carlos was telling the Americans, Look, we're the powerful ones.

In the newsre? In the newsroom in San Juan, people started hugging each other. Tears were falling. I was like if it was a new editor novato. Iram was so shaken up with joy that he says he felt like a brand new journalist. at a loss for how to do his job. The final score? 92 to 73.

United States loses in Olympic play with NBA players. They showed some signs in the second half but dug themselves too big a hole and an experienced team led by a brilliant performance from Carlos Arroyo put the game away. On the court at Athens, Rolando remembers that final moment

as having this dreamlike, out-of-body quality. You come off the court celebrating by the same time. you're not still believing what happened and then you've been interviewed in Italian by the Italian press. It's a lot of things happen at the same time that you are, you know, you're consumed by all this and you don't even know how to react. You are kind of numb. Back at the offices of Elbocero, everyone was buzzing to get the paper ready for the morning. They had already decided on the cover when Iram saw a photo come in that instantly caught his eye. It's of Carlos Arroyo. From that moment he

walked off the court showing off his Puerto Rico jersey. It was this quick moment on the court. If you blinked, you could have missed it. But here, captured by the camera, there's something special about that image. Aniram says,

This is the photo. Then I go to the artist and me says, no, if we're just now, no, no, no, no, no. This is the photo. This is the photo of the that we're going to be The layout designer was like, no way, we already have the cover. But I Ram'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. When we'll be that game, this is the photo that's always going to have the people in the mind. 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 walked through the Olympic Village, all the delegations of athletes from around the world were there.

And as they walked into the cafeteria, and as they walked into the cafeteria, because they were the Germans, the U.S. All the Germans, all, all the countries, parado, they're done to have to have to applauded the people of Puerto Rico. Glor says, You'd think it was a Puerto Rican party. Everybody from the Germans, the Iraqis, all of them stood up, stopped eating, and clapped for Puerto Rico.

Imagine that one no, no, so 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 Orutinert says people on the island still come up to him and thank him. It was very, very emotional for the island. And up until today, people remember the date. It's like, you know, like one of those presidents' day or whatever. So it's the day that we beat USA. It's like David beat Goliath.

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. It 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 about these sports victories. They aren't permanent, but that moment when the game over and Puerto Rico is on top, it tells people that yes, you can win. So that's why you got to hold up that jersey and show it off a little bit. Julio Ricardo Barrella is a journalist with Futuro Media

and co-host of the podcast in The Thick. La Brega is a co-production of WNYC Studios and Futuro Studios. This episode was produced by Marlon Bishop, Ezekiel Rodriguez-Andino, and Mark Bagan. The story was edited by Luis Treyes, fact-checking by Gabriel Abiles Aponte. Engineering is by Stephanie LeBow. Original music for La Brega was composed by Balloon, and our theme song is by Ife.

Art for this piece was done by Mia Pagan. Leadership support for LaVrega is provided by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, with additional support provided by Amy Liss. Special thanks to Marga Pabon, Noel Algarine, and Tujo. Julio Cesar Torres, who made a great documentary about basketball in Puerto Rico called New Yorkan Basket, and you should seriously go see it. Oh, and Julio has one last part of the story to tell you. There's another happy ending for this story.

For Rolando Orutinen, Athens changed his life in more ways than one. He met his wife in Athens. And she did sing running swimming for Puerto Rico. He met her on his way to the cafeteria the morning after the game. I came with more than what I thought I was going to come back with, right? Question. Do you think you winning, beating the United States, kind of added, you know, it was like high school in the cafeteria?

You're like, oh, my God. No, I don't think so. I don't think so because I really had to battle, right? I really had to bring my A game. And coming up next episode, the people standing on the long line of Puerto Rico's debt and their struggle to collect what the government owes them. Until the next.