The U.S. women's basketball gold medal over Brazil at the Pan Am Games was a celebration of youth and the bright future ahead for USA Basketball, and it was also the end of an era as it marked the retirement of Brazilian and WNBA great Janeth Arcain.
The U.S. squad, made up of some the top women’s college players, was the youngest at the Games. Still, they captured U.S. gold for the first time since 1987 with the 79-66 win over Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Rutgers star Matee Ajavon led all scorers with 27 and a U.S. record for most field goals in a game, with 11-of-18 shooting.
They U.S. had trailed for most of the game in an emotional night for Brazil. Regardless of the outcome, Arcain, known simply as Janeth in her native country, was playing her last game in a 21-year career.
But where one career was winding down, many others are just beginning. Ajavon had her national coming-out in the NCAA tournament and thereafter as her Rutgers squad went on an unlikely run to the national championship, won by Tennessee. The ensuing Don Imus-fueled controversy brought greater attention to her and her teammates for all the wrong reasons, but they managed to shine. Ajavon was joined on the U.S. squad by Tennessee’s Nicky Anosike, of Staten Island, and Alexis Hornbuckle. Others on the team are Connecticut’s Mel Thomas and Charde Houston, Stanford’s Candice Wiggins and Jayne Appel, Georgia’s Tasha Humprhey, Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry, North Carolina’s Erlana Larkins and George Washington’s Emily Fox.
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Dawn Staley coached the team. The Temple University coach also played with Arcain for one season with the Houston Comets.
“This feels terrific. We came down here as the youngest team in the tournament, but they also came out here with the biggest hearts,” Staley said. “I thought we had a shot of winning it because they all bought into the USA Basketball system which is a no-star system. Everybody played their roles to the fullest and that’s why we won. If it was any other way I think we could have come up short today (Tuesday).”
Arcain did come up short in her final game. She scored 14 points in the losing effort.
The crowd chanted her name throughout the game, and some held banners saying "Don't go Janeth" and "Thank You Janeth." She left the court crying when the game ended.
"It's sad to leave with the silver instead of the gold," Janeth said. "But this doesn't erase all the good memories I've had in the sport."
She was the last member of a Brazil women’s team considered the country’s best ever. She was 17 when she joined stars Paula and Hortencia to lead Brazil to titles in the 1991 Pan Am Games and the 1994 world championships, and the bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta. After the two stars retired in the late 1990s, Arcain took over the team and led it to a bronze in the 2000 Olympics and fourth place in 2004.
Arcain was one of the first Brazilians to play in the WNBA and was an often unsung but integral part of the dominating Comets when they won four straight titles from 1997-2000.
"That was a very important time in my career," she was quoted in the International Herald Tribune. "It wasn't easy to adapt myself to a new country, being there all by myself. But I was able to do it, and that opened several doors for other Brazilians to play there, I'm proud of that."
Staley said her former teammate left her mark.
"The entire game of basketball is losing a tremendous player, not only Brazil," Staley said. "When the game was on the line, you always knew you could count on her."
Staley also tipped her cap her young team.
"This is my first USA Basketball team and I think your first ones are always pretty special," said Staley. "It's been fun just getting to know them. I recruited most of them to come to Temple, and all of them turned me down. You know it is an opportunity for me to feel like a part of coaching them and guiding them to becoming Olympians through this experience. And, it's wonderful. It's all about giving back and trying to get them to understand what it takes to become an Olympian, because it's one of the best feelings you can ever have in your life."