ATHENS, Greece - Svetlana Khorkina has been the world's best female gymnast over the last decade, and quite a character, too. While winning boxes full of medals, she's found time to pose for the Russian edition of Playboy and to start her next career as an actress.

About the only thing she hasn't done is win the Olympic all-around title.

It's a shame her third and final try comes Thursday, because U.S. men's basketball coach Larry Brown sure could use her.

Think about it: Having endured devastating disappointments in Atlanta and Sydney, Khorkina would be the perfect person to warn Brown's wayward group of NBA players that coming to Athens considered the best at what they do doesn't guarantee going home with gold around their necks; they must be disciplined and focused or suffer the consequences.

OK, so maybe it wouldn't work. But if Brown sent the Russian diva into the locker room, at least he would finally get his players' attention.

Brown will have to find another way to try getting his team in gear for Thursday's game against Australia, a surprisingly crucial matchup between two teams fighting to stay away from the bottom of their preliminary group.

Motivation won't be a problem for Khorkina. Besides adding the biggest prize missing from her resume, and the chance to become the oldest Olympic champion in this event since 1968, the 25-year-old knows she must hold off upstarts such as 16-year-old American Carly Patterson.

The basketball game will be shown live back home at 7 a.m. on USA; the gymnastics will air during NBC's prime-time show.

There probably will be cutaways to the pool, but even a compelling race - like Michael Phelps swimming the 200 individual medley, seeking his fourth gold of these games - takes less than two minutes. Then it'll back to the gym for an event so telegenic that it's one of the main reasons NBC spends hundreds of millions for Olympic broadcasting rights.

The team all-around Tuesday night was a good appetizer, especially with Patterson leading the United States to silver and Khorkina taking Russia to bronze. Daniela Sofronie, a key to Romania's team victory, also will be considered a favorite.

Competing for themselves instead of their countries, this showdown can be billed as a heavyweight battle along the lines of Monday night's 200-meter freestyle swimming final between Phelps, Ian Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband.

Khorkina is the starlet who would stand out even if it weren't for her flamboyant personality because she's taller (5-foot-5) and older than most of her foes.

Patterson is the upstart who nearly beat Khorkina at last year's world championships. Sofronie finished ahead of Khorkina earlier this year at the European championships, coming in second in her first major international event.

Khorkina had an excuse for coming in fourth. She was hurt, competing with a heavy bandage on her left foot, and it showed when she came off the vault, landed on her knees and nearly planted her face into the mat. It also provided another of the dramatic flourishes she's known for, win or lose.

"She loves the attention," former Olympic champion Bart Conner said. "Somehow, it always works to her advantage. She's always on stage."

The scripts from her previous all-around Olympic finals read like something from Dostoevsky: She fell off the bars, her specialty, to blow the all-around in Atlanta, then in Sydney endured the humiliation of doing it again - twice - and botching a vault. Offered another vault after it was determined the horse was set too low, she refused, still upset by her bars blunder.

If disaster strikes her again, expect someone like Patterson or Sofronie to continue the lineage of teenage champions that began with 19-year-old Lyudmila Turishcheva in 1972 and also includes Nadia Comaneci in '76 and Mary Lou Retton in '84.

The U.S. men's basketball team had an even longer run of dominance. Until these Olympics.

A lopsided loss to Puerto Rico in the opener ripped away whatever was left of their "Dream Team" aura. Scrapping by Greece on Tuesday night did little to repair their image. If anything, it probably gave the rest of the world another glimpse of how vulnerable the Americans are.

"There are no easy games," said Lamar Odom, who blocked a shot with 18 seconds left, preventing Greece from getting within two points. "My team is consisted of superstars, but this doesn't mean that we don't have to do the little things."

That sounds just like something Khorkina might've told them.