Rumors

While the Lithuanians had hoop skills, they didn’t have enough money to compete as an independent nation four years later in Barcelona. To get his team into the Games, Sarunas Marčiulionis, who signed with the Golden State Warriors in 1989, began fundraising in the Bay Area with then-Warriors assistant Donnie Nelson (son of legendary head coach Don Nelson). The Grateful Dead — formed in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1965 by Weir, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann — saw an article about the fundraising efforts in the San Francisco Chronicle and decided to help. Through the band’s nonprofit, the Rex Foundation, they gave the Lithuanians $5,000 and a box of tie-dye T-shirts.

New York Times

Artūras Karnišovas, a forward who averaged 11.2 points per game during Lithuania’s bronze-medal run, called the 1992 Games “a truly special time in my life.” Karnišovas is now executive vice president of basketball operations for the Chicago Bulls. “The chance to represent Lithuania as an independent country after so many years made it even more meaningful,” Karnišovas told The Athletic. “What Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead did for us is something I will never forget, and we, both as a team and as a country, are incredibly grateful for their support. Without it, we probably wouldn’t have had the means to train, travel, or even qualify for the 1992 Olympics. At the time, I was just a college sophomore. Little did we know that this tie-dyed story and experience would grow into something so powerful and lasting for so many years.”

New York Times