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The gulf that separated ”The Dream Team” and its helpless basketball competition at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics was encapsulated superbly by the actions of one opposition player. One man, while trying to guard Magic Johnson, was seen waving frantically to a teammate holding a camera on the bench, hoping he would take a picture of them together.
In 1992, for the first time in history, NBA stars turned out for the USA at the Olympics.
Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls champion widely considered the greatest male basketball player of all time, was on the team, as were 10 other NBA All-Stars: Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler and John Stockton. Christian Laettner, the best male college player of the 1991-92 season and a future NBA All-Star, rounded out the team. Ten of the 12 players on “The Dream Team” were named in 1996 among the 50 greatest players in NBA history, the official list of the greatest players of the league’s first 50 years.
Watch the video at the top of the page to see ‘The Dream Team’ take the Barcelona 1992 Olympics by storm!
“They knew they were playing the best in the world,” said coach Chuck Daly after the team beat Croatia to win gold.
“They’ll go home and for the rest of their lives be able to tell their kids, ‘I played against Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird’. And the more they play against our best players, the more confident they’re going to get.”
The team, co-captained by Johnson and Bird, defeated its opponents by an average of 44 points. The final was won 117-85.
As point guard, Johnson was spoilt for choice.
“I look to my right, there’s Michael Jordan,” said the LA Lakers megastar.
“I look to my left, there’s Charles Barkley or Larry Bird … I didn’t know who to throw the ball to!”
Jordan said before the tournament that the team should “massacre” its competition.
“It should never be close,” he said.
“We taught them the game of basketball … We’re talking about the greatest players that play the game now and the team is the best team that’s ever been put together.”
The impact of The Dream Team extended far beyond the basketball courts.
The sport has boomed in popularity worldwide since the Americans’ Barcelona heroics, and the number of international players competing in the NBA, the greatest basketball competition in the world, has surged dramatically.
“It was like Elvis and The Beatles put together,” Daly said.
“Travelling with The Dream Team was like travelling with 12 rockstars. That’s all I can compare it to.”