Real gold-getters: Women's squad plays the USA way

ATHENS — It wasn't one of the great passes of Sue Bird's young career. But at this point, it's clearly the most historic.

With time ticking down for the U.S. in the fourth quarter of the gold-medal game for women's basketball against Australia, the Seattle Storm guard, fresh off the bench, dribbled several times, looked at the clock, and let her genius show.

"I just remember thinking, 'I've got to get the ball to Dawn (Staley),' " Bird said. "It's only right that she ended the game with the ball in her hands. I was able to do that. So that was my one triumphant moment."

When the horn blew last night, Staley, 34, the veteran floor leader who teammates credit with "willing her way" to another U.S. gold medal, was lifted skyward by young teammate Diana Taurasi, giving the diminutive point guard some altitude as she pumped her arm maniacally skyward to celebrate a 74-63 win.

Bird and a half-dozen other players surrounded them, forming a hopping, human ball of bodies at midcourt.

Center Lisa Leslie, 32, an unstoppable force in these Olympics, leaped atop a sideline table and raised her arms high to the crowd, dancing like a schoolgirl. Coach Van Chancellor cried.

They came through in the clutch, again, against an Aussie squad, led by red-hot Storm star Lauren Jackson, that had been gunning for them since four years ago in Sydney.

That night, the United States started strong and never looked back, humbling the Aussies on their home court. This night, the Aussies put on a third-quarter blitz that almost put them in the history books as the first to beat the American women in the Olympics in the past 24 games. The win meant that the United States has won the gold medal in five of the past six Olympics (the Soviets broke the string in 1992).

It took major third-quarter heroics — again — from forward Tina Thompson, a star of the WNBA's Houston Comets, but a first-time Olympian, to stem the tide.

Thompson, who led all scorers with 18 points, slammed the door on an Aussie spurt that put the Opals up by four points early in the third quarter, traditionally, the time Team USA puts pesky opponents away.

That was the game. And it showed, once again, that America's women's team is deeper than any other.

Jackson might have been the best player in the Olympics. But she could only be in one place at a time. All too often, that place was up against the armpits or hips of Leslie, Thompson or other parts of a rotating wall of bodies the United States threw at the Olympics' leading scorer.

Jackson was double-teamed, walled out, screened off and generally frustrated. Even when the 6-foot-5 Aussie star, who played 35 minutes, did get free, her inside shots were rushed, and her outside three-point attempts fell flat from tired legs. She finished with 12 points, her lowest output of the Olympics.

She took it in stride, saying Australia had improved since the last Olympics, but clearly has a way to go to challenge the United States.

"They had a great team," she said. "You've got to give a lot of credit to them."

After the medal ceremony, Jackson found her Storm teammate, Bird, in the postgame interview area, sneaked up behind her, and gave her WNBA point guard a big, sneak-attack hug.

Bird just grinned, and explained how the U.S. collection of stars stifled Jackson the way no single WNBA team can.

"We have depth at the 4-5 position," Bird said. "Just throwing different people at her. Part of the game plan was not to let Lauren get going. If you stop Lauren, you stop Australia. We always said, let the rest of the team beat us. And they almost did tonight."

What's it like, Jackson was asked, to face a team with an endless stream of big, agile bodies?

"Annoying," she said, managing a weary smile. "It was annoying!"

Jackson was 4 for 16 from the field, also finishing with 14 rebounds.

"I've got no regrets about the game," she said. "I really did leave it all out there."

Aussie players acknowledged that the United States had overwhelming force at its disposal. But talent and size alone didn't carry the U.S. to the top here. Coaches don't get a medal, but Chancellor (who said he plans to go to Wal-Mart when he gets home and buy the fixins to make his own) might deserve one.

The all-star group coached by Chancellor, the Houston Comets' coach and assisted by Storm coach Anne Donovan, played smart from Day 1, going 8-0 and never once getting ragged.

"There's a saying in women's basketball (in the United States)," Chancellor said. "There's a USA way. And that's the only way we're going to do it."

The keepers of that flame have been Leslie, Staley and Sheryl Swoopes, 33, each of whom won their third consecutive gold medal last night. Staley, who coaches at Temple, won't be back — at least as a player — for Beijing in four years. Leslie and Swoopes say they're holding the door open but can't make guarantees given advancing ages and other demands.

But nobody in the bowels of the Olympic Indoor Hall last night was talking about a pending crisis in U.S. women's hoops. Au contraire.

"We have young players getting ready to do it the USA way," Chancellor said. "And let me tell you: When you've got Ruth Riley, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Swin Cash, you're going to be fine."

It's an embarrassment of riches, really, he said, noting that Bird, a WNBA star, played only a few minutes a game here.

"You've got a pretty nice team when your third point guard is Sue Bird," he said.

Bird sounded ready to accept the leadership mantle.

"This is such a great experience," she said. "Why not do it again if all goes well for me and I make the team again?"

Her playing time here was irrelevant, she added.

"I'm sure there are people who are like, 'Oh, she didn't play that much, this probably doesn't mean (anything).' But I was glad to be on the bench cheering for my teammates, watching them do their thing and watching them beat everyone.

"That's going to be great for me down the road. It's like Dawn said: 'OK, It's your show. Take it.'

"Hopefully I'll be able to do that."

If she does, she will inherit an awesome legacy, an Olympic purity that the American men's team, which rebounded to win the bronze last night, can only dream of. Women's basketball at these Games was a class act, and Team USA was its teacher.

At medal-ceremony time, the players from America, Australia and third-place Germany congratulated each other — in a way that looked like they meant it. The crowd of 10,120 applauded all three teams equally on the medal stand. It was great basketball, and fans from around the globe appreciated it.

Afterward, Aussie Coach Jan Stirling said it was an honor to play against a squad with Leslie, Swoopes and Staley, a trio she called a credit to the game, and an inspiration to young players.

"They're very respectful of the game," she concluded, turning to tell Chancellor: "You've proved it again on the world stage."

It was gracious, and touching, and made you actually feel good, for once, to be part of the American world of sport.

How, exactly, is that kind of universal respect possible, given that America's women hoopsters live in the same places, eat the same food and attend the same schools as the men's squad wearing the same team colors?

American women's basketball, explains Staley, who is uniquely qualified to do it, is all about camaraderie.

"It's basketball played the way it should be played," she said. "It's great basketball. It almost takes you back to your childhood days, when you just played simply for pride. And that's what we do for our country."

Ron Judd: rjudd@seattletimes.com