BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 6 : OLYMPICS ARE MORE THAN GAMES TO THEM

The first thing the U.S. women’s basketball team hears after “Good morning, how are you?” is “Do you resent the attention the Dream Team gets?”

Not exactly.

“This is the year for us,” former USC guard Cynthia Cooper said. “Although we’re two-time defending world champions and Olympic gold medalists, this is a big year for women’s basketball.

“It’s something we don’t like to talk about, but it’s a fact. . . . If we want to get a professional league in the States, we have to show ‘em. We have to show ‘em what we’re all about.

“The attention the men get doesn’t bother me. The only thing that bothers me is when people come up to you and say, ‘Where are you ranked?’ They don’t even know about us.”

* This a daily roundup of Olympic-related items from reporters in Barcelona from the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Baltimore Sun and Hartford Courant, all Times-Mirror newspapers.