The History of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team
There are very few teams in sports who can lay claim to the greatest team ever, but the 1992 Barcelona team can claim without any hyperbole that they are the greatest basketball team ever - and they'd be right. Teams don't just get called the Dream Team.
The 1992 Barcelona games saw, for the first time, NBA players and other professional basketball players from around the world. After their disappoint loss to the Soviet Union in 1988 the Americans were going to build a team to rival none.
There was some pushback from the organization that would become USA basketball about using professional players. But after the 1990 world cup where the US did not use professional players and the rest of the world did, and the US finished third, the US was for the first time in very real danger of not even making the Olympics.
Fans were abuzz about what 12 players would be selected to represent the Americans. Some wanted the 12 best players, some wanted the NBA champion, some wanted a mix of college and Professional players, and others advocated for using players from the CBA. Ultimately, it was decided that the NBA would pick the roster.
On September 21, 1991, the NBA announced the first 10 players on the roster. The World Champion Chicago Bulls got their two star players selected in Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. The Utah Jazz also had a pair of stars selected in Karl Malone and John Stockton. New Yorks Patrick Ewing, and San Antonio's David Robinson were added as the teams centers. Golden States' Chris Mullin, and Philadelphia's Charles Barkley were also added. The NBA also selected two elder statesment in Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
Johnson had retired months prior after his HIV diagnosis, and he and Karl Malone had a bit of a public feud as Malone was concerned about Johnson passing the virus, but by this time science had helped squash the feud. Chuck Daly was selected as the teams head coach.
In February 1992 Sports Illustrated first labeled the team as the "Dream Team", and the name was fitting. With the exception of Johnson and Bird, the team was made up of all players in their primes.
Excitement grew over who else would be added to the roster. The primary candidates were Portland's Clyde Drexler, Detroit's Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars or Dennis Rodman, LSU's Shaquille O'Neal, Cleveland's Larry Nance, Mark Price, or Brad Daugherty, Boston's Reggie Lewis, or Miami's Glen Rice. Some had even hoped maybe a retired legand such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
On May 12, 1992, Team USA shocked the world when it picked Drexler, and Duke forward Christian Laettner as the final two members. Many fans felt Thomas had been left off the roster due to his ongoing rivalry with Jordan and Jordan was rumored to have told Team USA he'd only play if Thomas was not on the roster. In 2020 Jordan and USA selection committee member Rod Thorn both denied the accusation. Other unnamed players reportedly said that nobody on team USA wanted to play with Thomas.
Laettner as the lone college pick was not all that controversial if the team was going to pick a college player. Laettner had a steller career at Duke and is one of the most accomplished NCAA players of all-time.
The Dream Team met for the first time in late June. The first practices went well, but Daly really wanted to push his guys. He scheduled a scrimmage between the US select team and the Dream Team. The US Select squad is a backup squad made up of younger players that USA basketball wants to acclimate to the program. Daly is said to have pretty much thrown the game vs the Select team, he made bizzare substitutions, sat Jordan for most the game and made it hard for the Dream Team to find any flow. The US Select team defeated the Dream Team 62-54. Daly is said to have told the team that they are not Invincible and could be beaten. The next day the two teams played again and the Dream Team crushed the college kids.
Because professional players were now being allowed to play, and the continetal and world championship tournmanets were given more weight, bids in the Olypics were changed. No longer were the top 3 finishers guaranteed a spot in the next Olympics. The only guaranteed bids where the host nation (Spain), the previous gold medal winner (USSR) and the world championships winners (Yugoslavia). The US was forced to play in the Tournament of the Americas tournmanet held in Portland, Oregon.
The United States had only ever participate once in the tournament of the Americas and that was a second place finish in 1989 just to make the world cup.
Fans packed the Rose Garden in downtown Portland to witness what they hoped would be a show, and if you love one team destorying another team to an embassing degree you were in luck.
The Dream Team's first game was on June 28, 1992 vs Cuba. The US scored the first 26 points and put on a show of dunks in a 136-57 route of the Cuban team. The Cuban coach said "You can't block the Sun with your finger" after the game. The 79 point route was the largest ever for an American team.
The next day the Dream Team faced Canada. The Canadians did a bit better, losing by only 44 points - 105-61. The American's did get some bad news in this game though, point guard John Stockton broke his leg and would miss the rest of the tournament but the injury was said to not be bad enough for him to miss the Olympics.
By the third game on June 30th, it was clear that nobody was going to stop the US. The US routed Panada 112-52.
The next game was Argentina was a bit closer, but the US won 128-87.
The penultimate game vs Puerto Rico was actually the closest game the Dream Team played, winning by only 38 points in a 119-81 route.
The event took a day off for Independence Day before resuming the gold medal game on July 5th. The US faced Venezuela and crushed them 127-80 to get the America's automatic bid for the Olympics.
The bids were rounding out for the 1992 games, as mentioned Spain was already in, but political turmoil had set the world on its head. Just six months before the Olympics the second great power in the world behind the US, the Soviet Union had collapsed and was now a series of various states. Additionally, civil war had broken out in Yugoslavia and members states had declared their independence had field new basketball clubs. Angola won the Africa bid, China the Asian bid, and Australia the Oceania bid. The US won the Americas bid and former Soviet state Lithuania won the European bid. Croatia, Germany, Venezuela, Brazil and Puerto Rico also got bids. The 12th bid was a Unified team of players from the fromer Soviet Union.
Like previously the 12 teams were arranged into two Groups, but now the top 4 teams advanced to the quarterfinals.
The US began play against Angola. This was the first time most the world would get to see the Dream Team, and basketball was a prime time event in the United States. The United States crushed Angola 116-48, and at one point went ona 48-1 run, the only Angolan point coming because of a Charles Barkley technical foul.
The next game was again Croatia, which was formerly part of Yugoslavia. The Chicago Bulls had drafted Croatia forward Toni Kukoc in the draft and he was getting a lot of press - this prompted Bulls stars Jordan and Pippen to intentionally shut him down. The US won easily 103-70
The American's next game was a 111-68 route of Germany. Germany was one of the few teams in the Olympics, other than the USA, to have international players. Detleft Schrempft was an all-star in the NBA.
Next the USA took on Brazil, who had the best international player in the world Oscar Scmidt. Schmidt was known to explode for huge point totals, but the US held him to just 24 points on inefficent shooting. The US won 127-83.
The Dream Team's last game of Group play was against the host nation Spain. Once again the Americans dominated winning 122-81.
The US finished a top Group A with a 5-0 record, Croatia finished second, Brazil third and Germany 4th. In Group B the Unified team finished first at 4-1 with Lithuania second also at 4-1 but had lost to the Unified team. Australia and Puerto Rico finished out the bracket.
The Dream Team faced the worst advancing Group B team, which was Puerto Rico. The US also got back guard John Stockton for the knockout stage. Like in the Tournament of the Americas, the US made light work of the island territory 115-77.
Next up for the US was Lithuania, who had looked like they might be able to actually put up a gain vs the US. But the game was never close at the US won 127-76 to move to the gold medal game.
The US once again faced Croatia in the gold medal game. The Croatians adapted their strategy for the second game, and actually lead the US 26-25 before the US shut them down and won the gold medal 117-85.
The USA took gold, Croatia silver, and Lithuania bronze.
The accolades for the Dream Team are unmatched by any team in sports history. There were six different players to win the NBA's Most Valuable Player award, accounting for 15 MVP's in total. Every NBA MVP award from 1984 until 1999 was won by a Dream Team member with the exception of Hakeem Olajuwon in 1994.
Collectively, the Dream Team members would appear in 37 NBA finals and win 22 NBA championships. Christian Laettner and Chris Mullin would be the only Dream Team member not take ever play in the NBA finals.
Individually, every member of the Dream Team, except Laettner, would be elected to the hall-of-fame, and collectively the Dream Team would be elected to the hall-of-fame.
The success of the Dream Team would start a new era of American dominace in the Olympics.
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