The 1992 USA Dream Team --- a Look Inside the Greatness

It was the first time that a team like this had ever been put together, and when they arrived in Barcelona, it was like Beatle's were coming to town. Everyone was in awe of this team, and it wasn't a surprise, as the amount of talent being placed on the floor was like nothing the USA had ever tried to do before. As Magic Johnson put it, "we wanted to show everybody that a collection of all star players could come together and play as a team."

Before the 1992 Summer Olympics, the USA had always sent college players to represent the United States team, and while they also had some successes in the past, they couldn't really compare to the talent that was in the National Basketball Association. With that in mind, the U.S. decided to go in a different direction in 1992, and put together a "Dream Team" of the best that the NBA had to offer. The intent was to bring back the gold medal to the United States, and really show the world exactly what they had to offer.

The team that they put together consisted of the following players:

· Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns
· Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics
· Clyde Drexler of the Portland Trail Blazers
· Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks
· Earvin "Magic" Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers
· Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls
· Christian Laettner of Duke University
· Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz
· Chris Mullin of the Golden State Warriors
· Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls
· David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs
· John Stockton of the Utah Jazz

The coach of the Detroit Pistons, Chuck Daly, was brought on to coach the Dream Team, and with it, he brought the knowledge of several championship runs that his Pistons had performed. The inclusion of Christian Laettner on the team was right after his post-season heroics for Duke in the NCAA Tournament, and he consisted of the lone college player who would be on the roster. He didn't end up getting all that much playing time, but with the other players on the roster, 10 of which are Hall of Famers now, it was to be expected.

After running through the qualifying round for the tournament with a 6-0 record, and having really separated themselves from the competition, USA moved on to face Angola in the first game of the Olympics. Right away the United States was off and running, and the end result was a 116-48 blow-out that really set the tone for the rest of the Olympics. Before the game, Charles Barkley had been asked what he knew about Angola, and his simple response was, "I don't know much about Angola, but I do know they are in trouble." It got a couple of laughs, but nobody knew just how right he would be.

The winning continued when they took out Germany, Brazil, and Spain by 30 plus points in each game, setting them up as an undefeated team heading into the single elimination part of the tournament. They took out Puerto Rico in the quarter finals, Lithuania in the semi-finals (where 9 players scored in double figures), and finished off their gold medal run with a 32 point win over Croatia. The Croatian team would feature 5 guys that would later play in the NBA, but they didn't prove to be enough to take down this juggernaut of a team.

The 1992 Dream Team set the standard that every team has been trying to match since then, but they did something far more important than that. Rather than take the beatings, the world looked on and learned from what the U.S. team did at these Olympics. Fans, players, and kids watched in awe, but learned valuable lessons about basketball, and very soon the world started catching up. Now most of the teams in the NBA have international players on them, and it is just common knowledge that other countries have good teams as well. There will never be a team like the first Dream Team again, which had 10 Hall of Famers in the rotation, but looking back, it is simply amazing how selflessly all of those players had to be to work together, and those who saw the games were treated by some of the best basketball the U.S. has seen.