It was 10 p.m. in Lithuania. Sarunas Marciulionis had returned home a few hours earlier from a trip to Siberia to watch an all-star game of Russian college-age players before your basic Krasnoyarsk-Moscow-Vilnius hop.
Through the bitter cold of the Eastern European winter, he was typically warm, the way the likeable Marciulionis is remembered from eight NBA seasons as a muscled 6-foot-5 guard barreling down the lane. Through the sketchy phone connection with the delay and occasional echo, he was clear.
"Wow," Marciulionis said. "That's how I reacted: 'Wow'."
Amazement in 2010 at where the amazing 1992 has led.
Marciulionis is nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame not for his lengthy career around the world. He's nominated for helping create the Lithuanian Olympic team 18 years ago in a tumultuous time for the entire country, a work of quick fundraising and organization that culminated in the bronze medal in the Barcelona Games. It instantly shifted the landscape of international basketball.
Finalists in the induction class -- likely led by Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen -- will be announced in 2 1/2 weeks at All-Star weekend in Dallas, marking the final step before inductees are announced at the Final Four in Indianapolis.
Marciulionis had a decent NBA career -- 12.8 points a game with the Warriors, Sonics, Kings and Nuggets from 1989-97. He won a gold medal with the Soviet Union at the 1988 Olympics and bronzes with Lithuania in '92 and '96, too. It just wasn't anything at the level of Hall induction.
The uniqueness of Marciulionis' presence on the list is that the nomination spearheaded by long-time friend Tommy Sheppard, the Wizards' vice president of basketball administration, and Raymond Ridder, the Warriors' executive director of public relations, is centered on a historic event. That one moment turned out to have such significance, and so much human drama, that it is impossible to brush aside the Marciulionis candidacy. And the Sheppard-Ridder presentation packet that goes out to the screening committee that decides the finalists will emphasize the importance of 1992.
In 1990, Lithuania had become the first Soviet republic to declare independence, making it a time of tremendous upheaval. Its basketball heritage had already developed to where Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis would become important parts of NBA teams and were members of the Soviet Union's gold medal team in 1988. In the infancy stages of a new country, though, organizing sports federations, finding money and preparing for qualifying tournaments are hardly priorities.
Marciulionis was at the forefront of a drive to make it happen without so much as missing a single Olympics. Searching for sponsors, he at once landed financial backing and unimaginable publicity by signing on the Grateful Dead. Reports at the time put the actual donation at $5,000, but the real strike was the Dead getting one of its licensees to outfit Lithuanian players with red, yellow and green tie-dyed T-shirts that generated huge sales and worldwide attention.
Sabonis, Marciulionis and the new roster reached the Barcelona Games by winning the European qualifying tournament. In the Olympics, they advanced through the pool play that included a victory over what remained of the Soviet roster, now playing as the Commonwealth of Independent States. They beat Brazil in the quarterfinals of the medal round before being crushed 127-76 in the semis by the original Dream Team. Lithuania then beat the CIS for the bronze.
What followed was an outpouring of attention. Marciulionis returned to his Warriors life with Dream Teamer Chris Mullin and All-Star Tim Hardaway as teammates. Don Nelson, on his first tour as Golden State coach, was there, with young assistants Gregg Popovich and Donnie Nelson on the bench, too. The Lithuanian team moved on as one of the best programs in the world, remaining at the forefront of major international competitions. It has sent Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Darius Songaila, Linas Kleiza and Sarunas Jasikevicius to the NBA. Another countryman, agile 7-footer Donatas Motiejunas, is tracking to the 2010 lottery.
Marciulionis?
He got nominated for the Hall of Fame. He got the wow factor.
"It was a very remarkable time," Marciulionis said. "We had to qualify. We had to play against the best European teams. We won 11 games in a row and then got to the Olympics. We had to do so many things. The games. The fundraising. That whole atmosphere."
Marciulionis, 45, lives in Lithuania as a businessman who still works to promote basketball. He spends about three months a year in San Diego and may buy a place there. He stays in touch with Mullin, Mitch Richmond, Sheppard, Donnie Nelson and several others from his NBA life.
They share an amazement in what Marciulionis has accomplished, and an interest in what lies ahead.
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