The lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics has been nothing short of incredible.
With all the LeBron James fourth-quarter takeovers, Stephen Curry logo three-pointers, and Anthony Davis’ block party, it’s easy to forget about all the legendary USA basketball moments throughout the years.
Throughout the next few weeks, The Lead will be looking back and celebrating every Team USA basketball team starting with the 1992 “Dream Team” to reflect on the highs, lows and everything in between.
Olympic Eligibility
In the summer of 1992, the best basketball players in the world assembled in Barcelona, not just to play the game, but to redefine the very essence of the sport itself.
Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, heck, John Stockton had to come off the bench. Everyone knows this roster because this team was the very definition of basketball inevitability, as they ripped through the competition in Barcelona with a perfect 8-0 record while also giving basketball its first real global introduction.
But the story of this team actually starts in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the final year in which professional players were ineligible to play in the tournament. Even before NBA stars were allowed to play, Team USA was the best team internationally with an 84-1 record. The only loss before 1988 had been a controversial one in the 1972 Olympic finals to the Soviet Union.
However, the USA would suffer its second loss to the Soviet Union, 82-76, in the semifinals in Seoul, with a team full of good, but not great high school and college players that lacked a true superstar. This was the final straw for FIBA, the international basketball governing body, as they voted on April 8, 1989 to change this rule, giving eligibility to NBA players and subsequently dropping the word amateur from its moniker.
General Boris Stankovic, the head of FIBA at time said, “We see this as our triumphant entry into the 21st century.”
Assembling the Legends
While Stankovic believed the 21st century had arrived, many NBA players didn’t get the memo.
Only 63% of NBA players actually favored this FIBA ruling and only 58% said they would want to play in the upcoming 1992 Olympics. The United States also opposed the ruling and actually voted against it at the FIBA World Congress in 1989.
In fact, Bird, Jordan and Johnson all nearly didn’t participate. Magic was dealing with a medical diagnosis that had led to his unexpected retirement in 1991, leading many to speculate he may not join the roster. Bird, aged 35 and coming off a severe back injury, felt the Olympics were for younger players.
Jordan was also initially uneasy about playing in the Olympics. His Chicago Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen had asked him in 1991 if he would participate, and he responded, “Why would I?” Jordan hadn’t enjoyed his previous Olympic experience in 1984 under Bobby Knight and was reportedly noncommittal on his first call with selection committee member Rod Thorn.
Still, a roster had to be constructed and for that purpose the first ever USA basketball selection committee was established. The committee was headed by CM Newton, an assistant at the 1984 Olympic games and the Athletic Director at the University of Kentucky at the time. He was joined by NBA executives such as Rod Thorn, Jack McCloskey and Charles Grantham along with college coaches Mike Krzyzewski and PJ Carlesimo, both of whom would become assistants in Barcelona.
There were to be no tryouts for the first time in USA basketball history, as there was more game film on NBA players than there was on amateur athletes and additionally, because tryouts had led to some interesting roster decisions in the past (namely Bobby Knight leaving Charles Barkley off the 1984 Olympic Team).
All of the dominoes started to fall once Magic agreed he would play, with both Jordan and Bird reportedly agreeing to play on the Olympic team soon afterward.
The first 10 men were announced on NBC in a special Selection Show on September 21st, 1991 and included:
- Magic Johnson – 5-time NBA Champion, 3-time MVP
- Larry Bird – 3-time NBA Champion, 3-time MVP
- Michael Jordan – 6-time NBA Champion, 5-time MVP, 1988 Defensive Player of the Year
- Chris Mullen– 5-time NBA All-Star, one of the best shooters of all time
- Scottie Pippen – 6-time NBA Champion, 7-time All-Star
- Charles Barkley – 11-time NBA All-Star, 1993 MVP
- Karl Malone – 14-time NBA All-Star, 2-time MVP
- John Stockton – 10-time NBA All-Star, NBA all-time assists leader
- David Robinson – 2-time NBA Champion, 1995 NBA MVP
Two months later, the final two players were announced:
- Clyde Drexler – 10-time NBA All-Star, 1995 NBA Champion
- Christian Laettner – the only collegiate athlete selected, 2x NCAA National Champion, National Player of the Year at Duke
That list is of course selling these legends’ achievements short, as all but Laettner would make the Basketball Hall of Fame and Jordan, Magic and Bird specifically are remembered as the amongst the best to ever play the game.
While Magic and Bird are famously remembered as co-captains of the team, Jordan was offered this honor, but turned it down.
Isiah Thomas’ Exclusion
The most famous and controversial omission from the “Dream Team” roster was Hall-of-Fame point guard Isiah Thomas, who was just two years removed from back-to-back NBA Finals wins with the Detroit Pistons.
At the time (and since), it was heavily rumored that Jordan had influenced this decision, something which he denied to Marv Albert on NBC in 1991. Jordan and Thomas were fierce rivals, but to add insult to injury, Thomas had famously walked off the court with 7.9 seconds left in Game 4 of the Bulls-Pistons Eastern Conference Finals series a year prior.
Jack McCallum, a reporter for Sports Illustrated during that time, noted that he had heard Jordan told Rod Thorn of the selection committee that he would not play if Thomas was on the team. This claim was denied by both Thorn and Jordan.
It’s also important to note that Jordan wasn’t the only star who did not want Thomas on the team. In the 2009 book, When the Game was Ours written by Magic and Bird, Magic wrote, “Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him.”
The Final Piece
A legendary roster deserves a legendary coach and Chuck Daly was the most obvious choice.
He was the longest-tenured NBA head coach at the time and led the aforementioned “Bad Boy” Pistons to their 1989 and 1990 NBA Finals victories. He was known for being able to manage big egos, but even he was starstruck going into Barcelona with the “Dream Team”, stating in 2019 that the team “was like Elvis and the Beatles put together.”
Still, he demonstrated just how well he could manage this team in their first scrimmage against some of the best college players in the US, like Grant Hill, Chris Webber and Penny Hardaway. Daly limited Jordan’s minutes and made untimely substitutions on purpose to throw his squad off their game. They would lose 62-54 to the amateurs, but they would never lose again.
Destroying the Competition
The ”Dream Team” started their exhibition in the Tournament of the Americas, beating Cuba 136-57.
They would proceed to win their first six exhibition games in the Tournament of the Americas by an average margin of 51.5 points, capped off by a 47-point win against Venezuela.
When they arrived to Barcelona, the “Dream Team” was placed in Group A with Germany, Croatia and Angola. Angola had to suffer the wrath of the US in their first game as they lost by 68 points, with the US going on a 46-1 run during the game.
On top of that, the Angolans had to deal with the menace that was Charles Barkley, who elbowed a player in the chest, claimed he got hit first, and then proceeded to score 24 points. He preceded this legendary performance by stating, “I don’t know anything about Angola, but Angola’s in trouble.” Barkley would be the highest scorer of the Olympic team, setting a then-Olympic record against Brazil by scoring 30 points.
The Dream Team would dominate all of the competition that they played in the tournament, winning by an average of 43.8 points. In fact, Coach Daly never once called a timeout. One could probably imagine the unimaginable awe and fear they must have struck in the hearts of all of their opponents. The team followed up its win against Angola by dominating Croatia by 33 points, beating Germany by 43, beating Brazil by 44 and Spain by 41 to finish out the group stage. It was a formality to play the knockout rounds at this point.
Poor Puerto Rico would score just 77 points to the United States’ 115. Even though this was a complete domination, Puerto Rico was one of two teams to hold the margin of victory to under 40 points. Lithuania got crushed in the semifinals, scoring 76 points, but the US would score 127, winning by 51.
The Gold Medal Match against Croatia was remembered as a Jordan and Pippen revenge game. There had been much talk the summer before about Toni Kukoc joining the Chicago Bulls and replacing Pippen by late Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause. Both Jordan and Pippen took this opportunity to embarrass Kukoc, with the US winning by 33 points. Jordan would later state that he didn’t want to “let this guy do anything against us.”
Impact and Legacy
Before 1992, there was little interest in Olympic or international basketball worldwide.
US Assistant Coach Krzyzewski referred to the Dream Team when stating, “basketball was about to explode and the dynamite stick to explode it was the Dream Team.” The number of international players in the NBA soared after Barcelona, while global interest in basketball climbed to new heights. International players like Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo all became league MVPs and champions, many of them inspired by the Dream Team’s performance against their home countries.
Another incredibly important impact was that the NBA game began to shift from an ugly, pound-the-paint style to a more fluid, spread-the-floor, three-point shooting style due to the international influence of the “Dream Team.”
The NBA and basketball as a whole started to see international coverage to a new level. NBA China, NBA Africa, even NBA India have spawned since this event, because Barcelona showed just how important NBA stars were to growing the sport globally. Basketball stars went from American heroes to international phenomena in 1992 and that tradition has remained to this day.
While you may only know NASCAR drivers if you are a true fan, everyone knows the name LeBron James or Michael Jordan, and the 1992 team is one of the main reasons.
The game has changed significantly since the inception of the Dream Team, but their legacy remains strong even to this day. People are still comparing the 2024 Paris Olympics roster to the 1992 squad. The long-lasting impact of this team cannot be overstated.
Legendary broadcaster Marv Albert said it best, “I don’t think there was another team in any sport with that high level of athletes playing together.”
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