For Sarunas Jasikevicius and his basketball-playing buddies in Lithuania in 1992, the Dream Team participating in the Olympics wasn't necessarily the fabled collection of NBA all-stars led by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The players they really looked up to were on the Lithuanian Olympic team, the first that the country could field since it was taken over by Russia in 1940.

Today, Jasikevicius and his teammates on the current Lithuanian national team paid homage to their predecessors in the best way they knew how.

The team that had become the joy of the European basketball championship because of its unselfish play and collection of deadly shooters defeated favored Spain, 93-84, in the final, setting off an emotional celebration among thousands of Lithuanian fans who made their way across the Baltic.

They sang, they honked air horns and more than a few wept as Jasikevicius and his teammates joined in the celebration, waving Lithuanian flags and greeting hundreds of supporters personally. An hour later at a news conference, Jasikevicius, draped in his country's flag and sporting a cap that said "Danger! Lithuanians," was still moved by all that transpired.

"We looked up to guys like Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Marciulionis and Rimas Kurtinaitis so much," said Jasikevicius, who has become a top point guard in Europe since graduating from Maryland in 1998. "They made a lot more people in Lithuania play basketball and rediscover the country's basketball heritage. I'm just glad we did something for our generation the way those guys did for theirs."

By gaining the final, Lithuania earned a place in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, as did Spain. In the bronze-medal game today, Italy grabbed the last bid by shocking a loaded French team, 69-67, only a week after losing by 33 points to them in pool play.