The pain in Spain: 'Explain'

ATHENS, Greece — In an arena where anti-American sentiment was running about 100-to-1, the men's Olympic basketball team from the United States of America walked off the floor to the universal language of displeasure. Boos are boos in any language.

In the aftermath of their 102-94 victory over Spain that moved the men within two victories of the gold medal that is their supposed birthright, the crowd was unhappy for many things, among them the fact that U.S. coach Larry Brown had the bad form to call a timeout with 23 seconds left and the game out of reach.

As he would spell out for the media later, Brown said he had asked for the timeout with about a minute to play, after two turnovers that caused him concern. But as is not uncommon in international basketball, the scorekeeper didn't award him the timeout immediately and Brown later, satisfied all was well, tried to cancel the request. "But they wouldn't let me do that, they gave it to me anyway," the coach said.

After the game ended, one of Spain's coaches screamed at Brown, inciting the crowd. "I tried to apologize," Brown said, "but it was like a disagreement with my son. Sometimes he doesn't want to hear your explanation.

"I said I was sorry. I would never try to embarrass someone like that."

There was almost a palpable relief as Brown, who coached the Detroit Pistons to their unexpected NBA title over the Los Angeles Lakers in June before collecting the assortment of mostly young, inexperienced NBA players willing to represent U.S. basketball in these Olympics, responded to the short-lived international incident. It was much more pleasant discussing a questionable timeout than talking about a 19-point loss to Puerto Rico or a fourth-quarter collapse to Lithuania.

In what has been more like a trip to the dentist than another coronation as basketball king of the world, happy times had returned — for at least a day.

Going into the quarterfinals, it was the Spaniards with all the momentum. They won all five of their preliminary-round games to earn the top seed in the single-elimination medal-round tournament. America, by virtue of its 3-2 record in the prelims, earned the last seed, which meant starting off against No. 1. They were Alcorn State. Spain was Duke.