THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 14 : Men’s Basketball : Gold for Soviets, the NBA?

SEOUL —  The Soviet system finally triumphed in men’s basketball. Surely, capitalists everywhere wept.

Not on your golden opportunity. They emerged from the stands, waving money.

Barely had the strains of the Soviet anthem faded and the players descended from the victory stand, when Stan Kasten, the general manager of the Atlanta Hawks, went to see guard Sharunas Marchulenis.

C’mere, kid, I’m going to make you a star . . . U.S.-style.

“This is possible,” said Coach Alexander Gomelsky after Friday’s 76-63 victory over Yugoslavia.

“I talk last night with this person (Kasten). This is not problem, federation Soviet Union. This is problem, federation Lithuania.

“If they give OK, Marchulenis like it. I like it too much, he go in United States.”

Lithuania is one of the republics of the U.S.S.R. and has the first say. Gomelsky said he would meet later with Kasten and a Lithuanian official to see what they could figure out.

“I’ve heard ‘no problem’ before,” Kasten said. “It’s a famous international expression.

“The first guy is going to be important, and he wants to go.”

If the first guy were the 7-3, 270-pound Arvydas Sabonis, a No. 1 pick of the Trail Blazers, he’d be important, indeed, but Gomelsky says the Lithuanians don’t want to let him go. Here, take this little guy first and we’ll see how it works.

That sigh you heard came from the Forum, because Sabonis was even better Friday than he was Wednesday against the U.S. team, scoring 20 points and taking 15 rebounds. His rebound total was half of what his team got, and 6 fewer than all the Yugoslavs.

For the big, young, talented Yugoslavs, it was business as usual, which is to say they blew a big lead against the Soviets.

The Yugoslavs led by 12 early in the game, before the Soviets went 19-2 on them--much of it with the proposed Boston Celtic, Stojan Vrankovic, in for Yugoslavia, and the starting center, Vlade Divac, on the bench.

What would the Yugoslavs do if they weren’t blowing leads?

They led the Soviets by 9 in the last minute of the ’86 World Championships and lost.

They led the Soviets by 15 in the second half of the European Olympic qualifying tournament this summer and lost.

They won their other three meetings with the Soviets this summer, including the opener here, but who cares? You could ask the Americans--this week was what counted.

“I tell you, I like it, lose first game, win last game,” Gomelsky said.

“Yugoslavia, very good start this game, but my boys give good character. This is Soviet character.

“Yugoslavia, this is great team, but every boy, 20, 22 years old. Today my team, nice defensive organization. Petrovic is Petrovic, but all boys good defense, contra-Kukoc, contra-Divac.”

You’ve got to give it to the contras. Divac (pronounced Dee-VATZ) is the 20-year-old Gypsy, a 6-11 do-it-all type who’s sure to show up on the NBA’s first round when he’s eligible in 1992. He was held to 11 points and 7 rebounds.

Toni Kukoc (Coo-KOCH) is Boney Toni, a 6-9 left-handed wraith who hit 11 of 13 3-pointers last summer when the Yugoslavs ripped Larry Brown’s American team in the world junior championships. He had 3 points, total, Friday.

Their time may be coming, but it wasn’t Friday.

“Does this team make you crazy?” Coach Dusan Ivkovic was asked after the pre-Olympic tournament.

“Is right,” Ivkovic said.

When the game ended, the Soviet players hugged and kissed each other.

A Soviet TV guy with a well-cut tan suit, paisley tie and lots of gray hair brought Sabonis over for a courtside interview.

The Soviets paraded out for the medal ceremony, with the Yugoslavs next and the Americans behind them. The Soviets smiled and waved, the Yugoslavs were noncommittal, and the Americans looked as if they were attending their own hanging.

Only a few of the U.S. players clapped for the other teams. When their turn came to climb the victory stand, the U.S. fans roared, but the players didn’t wave.

It had been a tough three days.

Some years you get the Bear, some years the Bear gets you.