In light of the first-ever absence of their team from the Olympic Games, Americans had to settle for watching national sports. Luckily there was something to watch. Most notably, the beginning of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird's NBA careers. In Brazil thousands flocked to the Amazon in one of the largest modern day gold rushes. Meanwhile, the absence of many western athletes led the way to a gold rush of their own for Soviet and East German athletes. Contemporary political differences may have seemed minute from the view of Voyager-2, orbiting Saturn for the first time. However, back on planet earth the wall between East and West was still evident. The decision by several western nations not to attend the Olympics was in the words of Pink Floyd's hit, ''another brick in the wall.''