Paging Dr. Freud

[Laurence Horn]

Just watching a tape from earlier in the day of the quarterfinal
match in the World Basketball Championships between the U.S. and
Russia.  The announcers, with 8 minutes left in the second quarter
(in case anyone else taped it and wants to check for yourself), are
reviewing the back-and-forth between the U.S. coach, Mike Kryzewski,
and the Russia team coach, whose name I think is David Blatt, about
comments the latter made indicating he thinks the officials made the
right call back at the 1972 Olympics when the USSR were determined to
have defeated the Americans in a very controversial ending. (The
Americans were too upset to accept the silver medal.)  Coach K said
essentially what do you expect, the guy's a Russian, Blatt pointed
out he's actually an American/Israeli, and it went on from there.
One announcer said it would all die down, much ado about nothing, and
"a lot of people here in Istanbul thought it was just
gamesmanshit...gamesmanship on the part of David Blatt, just wanting
to take a little pressure off his own team..."   He says
"gamesmanshit" quite clearly before correcting himself, quite an
elegant blend, and one ESPN2 chose to retain.

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org