Participants:
Sarunas Marciulionis -- Lithuanian National/Sacramento Kings star
Donn Nelson -- Phoenix Suns and Lithuanian Olympic assistant coach
Bob Weir -- former Grateful Dead guitarist
Mickey Hart -- former Grateful Dead drummer
Bill Walton -- former NBA star/noted Deadhead
Chris Mullin -- Golden State Warriors star
Dennis McNally -- Grateful Dead spokesperson
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Briefly, in 1992, we ended up wearing the tie-dye t-shirts on the medal stand, in a way of saying thank you to the Grateful Dead, because really, nobody knew anything about Lithuania. It's a tiny little runaway republic that was under Soviet occupation for years and years. It's about the size of Switzerland, with a population of under four million. And the Grateful Dead looked at us with kind eyes in '92. Like I said, they sent us a check that helped us get to the Olympics, and without their help we never would have made it. So on the medal stand, when we stood next to Chris Mullin and the Dream Team, the original Dream Team, we wore Grateful Dead tie-dye t-shirts, in a way of saying thank you to them for believing in us when we were nobodies. And that experience was magical. After that event, we ended up coming back to the Bay Area, marketing the t-shirts, and as Dennis said, the t-shirts absolutely took off, exploded. This time around -- and all of those monies were sent back to Lithuania, to the Lithuanian Children's Fund, which is basically a children's miracle network. The Olympics were over, we had no need for money, so those funds went to the children's miracle network, which is the Lithuanian Children's Fund.
This time around -- again, the country's in a state of depression, the banks shut down not six months ago. It's a lot like it was here in the United States in the '30s. That's what we're experiencing right now. So we need all the help we can get. And that's again what the Grateful Dead is stepping forward here today in this press conference, and we're trying to market these t-shirts, and as a result, it'll fund our way to the Atlanta Olympics. There's also some -- we're going to go through a brief jersey-raising ceremony. I don't know if we want to do that now, Dennis.
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The Lithuanian basketball team, these aren't homeless people, this isn't a soup kitchen, but at the same time, here's something that can do a lotta good for a lotta people. That whole country of Lithuania can have a spirit of national identity, and these people can go to the Olympics. And it seemed pretty irresistible to us to go ahead and fund it, plus it was our friend Donnie who brought it to us. And you know, friendship means a lot to us as well. Well, then, after we went ahead and helped out with the funding of the team, the team went to the Olympics and kicked butt. And it sort of exploded in everybody's faces. It was wonderful. Everybody got a little of this wonderful stuff all over them. And here were the tie-dye jerseys on TV, and there was -- I gotta say, I was immensely proud watching these guys doin' their thing on TV. And then after that, the excitement that all that generated turned into jersey sales, t-shirt sales. It actually started making money for the Rex Foundation, which I don't have to tell you, I shouldn't have to tell you, it's not real often that a foundation -- whoever they are benefiting actually turns around and starts kicking back, in spades. So it worked out real well for all of us, and I'm just hoping that we can turn that bronze to silver, or better, this year. Thank you.
Bill and I were speaking earlier -- we're proud to be a part of this, because it's such a great story. I mean, it really is, if you look at the whole thing, it's just a wonderful -- it's a great victory. And it's the power of the group mind and how people can work together for the good. And it's about freedom, it's about all that good kinda stuff. So I'm very proud to be a part of it, and Rex, like my associate points out, is an unusual instrument, able to reach into the cracks and the crevices, and be able to do these kind of things. Rex doesn't fund big things that can get funded other places. It looks for the stuff that's really needy and, you know, we can do hands-on kind of work, where boom! They turned it into some kind of victory, some kind of wonderful story. So they're really the story behind it. We were just there, at that moment, with a few dollars, and maybe a vision and a little thought, and then they just took it the rest of the way, and then your imagination took it the rest of the way. And that's what really happened. It is a marvelous story, and it's not over. And that's the best part of this story, because this story is yet to be written. The page has not been turned on this. And I can't wait to see how this story turns out, this year. And so, I'll be there, yes, I will be at the Olympics, but I will certainly be watching this performance, I'll tell you that. Again, I'm very proud to be part of this.
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And then 10 years later, when I was privileged to see, in the early '80s, Sabonis play as a 19 year old player, a 7'3'' version of Larry Bird, with creativity and fluidity and expression, and dreamlike aspirations and goals. And then when it all came together, in the beauty of the '88 Olympic games when the Soviet Union, then keyed and led by Sarunas and Sabonis, just destroyed the United States team. They came out and they played with a vision of basketball, a dream of basketball. They played a more appealing style of basketball than the United States team did, and when Sabonis was just tearin' apart David Robinson, it made me feel so proud, because I've known the struggles and the sacrifices that these players, these people have made to get to this point. And that single day, when the Soviet Union, with Sabonis and Marciulionis, beat the United States, that is what forced the opening up of basketball in this country to join the Olympic and the international movement.
And now it's come full circle, as we see Sarunas and Sabonis become full-fledged NBA stars. And that is the ultimate accomplishment, the ultimate reward for their sacrifices. Now, the sacrifices that Bob Weir and Mickey Hart and Donn Nelson and Chris Mullin have made in their lives, in their professions to get to where they are, reminds me of when I was a player, and then the nicest thing anybody ever said about me as an individual basketball player was that I made my teammates better. And then I learned at an early age, from hanging out with guys like Mickey and Bob, in the family of the Grateful Dead, that the ultimate skill of the true star of the team is to make everybody else in the family the real stars. Now, I've learned on this long, strange trip that we've all been on through all these years, that this big circle of life -- the wheel of life, if you will, that represents the Grateful Dead and the joy and the happiness, is now presenting ourselves with an opportunity to give something back, to make other people's lives better. Not just the lives of the players, not just Marciulionis and Sabonis and the other players on the team, but the people in Lithuania, the people who now have joy, who now have hope, who now have dreams, and who now have visions. Visions spurred on, inspired, motivated, by the sacrifice of the people here at this table, by the people who have given us all the greatest lives. Because it's that interrelationship between basketball players, basketball teams, musicians, and the fans, that makes everything so special and I know has pushed these men to the greatest heights that they've ever been able to achieve, but also the basketball people as well. And I am proud and privileged to be here today to be part of this, because this Lithuanian team, these Lithuanian people, they really need our help, and they're most grateful for it. Thank you very much.
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