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February 23, 2004
• Havana, Cuba •
Photo
Gallery
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| Lisa Leslie and the rest
of the USA squad was greeted by members of the Cuban National Team
upon arrival in Havana. |
Arriving in Havana on Monday afternoon after
four days of battling one another in practice in Florida, the U.S. squad
was met by a large media contingent inside the airport. Fielding questions
while standing in line to get through immigration and waiting for the bags
to appear, the USA players were then pleasantly surprised by what else awaited
them outside the terminal. Six members of the Cuban squad waited patiently
for the North Americans to emerge from customs and presented each member,
coach and team staff with a bouquet of flowers to welcome the visitors to
their fine island nation. USA Basketball.com caught up with some of the
USA team members following practice later that evening to find out what
they thought about the Cuban welcome, as well as what they think about the
first game Tuesday night.
What did you think about the welcoming committee
at the airport today?
VAN CHANCELLOR: I thought that was
incredible. I'm not used to getting flowers when I come into an airport.
It was really nice of their players to meet our players. We've been treated
very, very nice here so far. It surprised me a little bit at the airport
with everyone who was there, but it was a pleasant surprise.
SUE BIRD: It was pretty cool. I have
a lot of respect for their players from playing against them (at the 2002
FIBA World Championship). I know some of our older players have a little
bit of a history with them and know them pretty well. It was great of
them to give us the welcome that they did and bring flowers. It made coming
here even more fun.
LISA LESLIE: I thought it was a nice
welcome. Their players have always been very nice to the Americans and
they really showed their friendship today. But tomorrow it'll be more
about basketball.
SHERYL SWOOPES: As far as the team,
I'm not really surprised. I think they're very excited about us being
here. Every time we've ever played against them in any competition around
the world, they've always been very kind, very nice and easy to get along
with. I was probably a little surprised at all the media that were there,
there were a lot considering how small Cuba is.
TINA THOMPSON: I thought it was really
cool. It shows how excited everyone is about us being here. It was a little
bit of trouble for us to get over here, getting the visas and everything,
and the fact that we were greeted in such a welcoming fashion once we
got here was a really good feeling.
When did the rapport you have with Cuba start?
SHERYL SWOOPES: For me, it was
probably about five years ago. But I think it all started with Teresa
Edwards and Katrina McClain, they've been around USA Basketball for a
long time. They kind of got the friendship started and ever since then,
we've tried to keep up the good faith with them. Just hanging out and
having a good time with them at different tournaments. But obviously when
we step out on the basketball court, we're not trying to be friendly.
It's all about business. But once the game's over with, we forget about
what happened on the basketball court. I'm not very fluent in Spanish,
but it's always good to go to another country, you can put your differences
aside. You can find other things to talk about besides basketball. Cuba's
point guard, at the World Championships (in 2002), and I were talking.
She was asking me about my son and I found out she has a child, so we
had the little mother and child conversation. It's just nice to be able
to go somewhere and know you have a lot of things in common with the different
players.
TINA THOMPSON: It's been a long time
since I've played against Cuba, but some of these players have played
against (Cuba) so many different times, whether it was in the World Championships
or Olympics, or just preparing for those events. I've seen the games,
but I didn't know they actually had friendships with the players like
this. It is really good to see.
What do you think the crowd will be like?
SHERYL SWOOPES: I think we're
going to have a nice crowd while we're here to come watch us play. Competition-wise,
I definitely think it's going to be tough to come over here and get three
wins on their home court, but I'm looking forward to having a great time
in Cuba outside of basketball. Not many people get this opportunity and
I want to make the most of it while we're here.
Are you looking forward to playing your first
game instead of going up against each other?
VAN CHANCELLOR: The players
are tired of practicing. We've worked out five days in a row without taking
a break. It's time to take a break from practicing. Let's go play.
SUE BIRD: Yeah, everyone's pretty
sick of beating each other up (laughs). We're pretty good foulers these
days and we're banging each other up so we're all looking forward to the
game.
TINA THOMPSON: Oh, I'm very excited
about actually playing against someone else. We've kind of beat each other
up a little bit over the last few days in practice, but it's been really
competitive. It's been a lot of competitive fun. It's not often that you
get together with so many players of this caliber playing together. It's
awesome. Usually we have something close to this in (WNBA) All-Star Games
and stuff like that. I'm really excited to see how we're going to fare
together, playing against someone else.
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