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Rio de Janeiro
Nobody reasonably expected Brazil's Olympic Games to change everything in the culture of the country, but a miracle happened Monday.
Brazilians cheered for Argentina.
So maybe this was exactly not a case of the Olympic spirit bringing rivals together. No alternative existed. Brazil's basketball team required help to advance to the quarterfinals, and only Argentina could provide it by beating Spain.
Asked if he ever wanted to Argentina to win anything, Jazz guard Raul Neto shuddered. "No, never," he said. "It's a weird situation."
Argentina wouldn't cooperate, in any case. Spain's 92-73 victory eliminated Brazil from Group B's qualifiers.
Brazil's awkward position of needing a favor from a rival was its own fault, after the home team blew substantial leads in regulation and the first overtime Saturday in a double-overtime loss to Argentina.
Asking the Olympics to solve all of the country's problems was even more unreasonable. But that's like saying the Cavaliers' NBA championship should fix everything in Cleveland. Brazilians came together in this effort — even in basketball, not the country's most popular spot, lagging far behind soccer. And they made it exciting at Carioca Arena.
"You see all the people watching our games, you can't tell that our country is bad," Neto said after an 86-69 win over Nigeria that temporarily extended the team's hopes of advancing.
"Everybody's happy here, they are enjoying basketball," he continued. "We still have all the problems with the politics and everything, but we can forget about all those problems and just enjoy sports."
That's the purpose of this whole exercise, right? Neto loved witnessing the expression of Brazilian pride. His basketball team has been a big part of the Olympic experience in Rio, although soccer takes over this week. Brazil could play for gold medals in women's and men's soccer, creating wild atmospheres Friday and Saturday nights at the iconic Maracana Stadium.
Brazil's personnel was overmatched in this basketball tournament. Wow, though. The fans made watching the home team so much fun, and this environment will resonate with me more than anything else from Rio.
Jazz playoff games (remember those?) are good stuff, but the degree of fan involvement on every possession from start to finish is just not the same as Brazil's culture. Regardless of the opponent, and even with every game played in the early afternoon, the crowds were revved up for all of Brazil's appearances.
I've always said hockey is the best team sport in the Olympics, Winter or Summer. That view obviously is influenced by the recent Games in Vancouver and Sochi, where the Canadian and Russian hockey teams basically dictated the success or failure of the operation from the host country's perspective.
Hockey will feel much different in Korea in 2018 and China in 2022, that's for sure. Baseball might be fun in Tokyo in 2020, but it won't be quite like basketball in Brazil. Neto and his teammates performed in s soccer-style atmosphere, for as long as they lasted. The stage is now left to the Brazilian soccer teams themselves.
Twitter: @tribkurt