Imagine a basketball team with five MVPs, a roster that has 23 championship rings. A team with an entire roster, besides the bench warmer, that has brought their respective teams to the NBA finals. That is the true definition of a dream team.
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1992 was the first year they allowed NBA players to play in the Olympics. Those in charge of setting up the team were originally content with getting one or two NBA players. What they got was 11 of the 50 greatest players of all time.
Those 11 players all volunteered to dominate their competition. Not win, to dominate all challengers. They effortlessly did what they set out to do.
The average margin of victory in the qualifying tournament was 51.5 points. In the Olympics the average dropped to 43.8 points! The team averaged 117 points per game. The closest any team in that tournament came to defeating The Dream Team in the tournament lost by 32 points.
In the eight games of the 1992 Olympics, Charles Barkley averaged 87.5 percent from behind the arc, and 71 percent overall from the floor. The team’s overall field goal percentage was 58 percent compared to their opponents, who shot only 37 percent.
The 2012 Olympic team is full of amazing talent, but only four players on that team – LeBron, Kobe, Durant, and Love – would’ve made the dream team. The rest are outstanding talents, but would have only been considered.
Some might say that Chris Paul and Deron Williams are better point guards than Stockton. Those who say that don’t remember John Stockton. The man has more assists than any other player in NBA history. He’s fourth on the list of steals, and 38th on the list of top NBA scorers. Just look at his passing skills.
One thing that often gets overlooked when comparing the two teams is the defensive culture of the NBA in ’92. Since the NBA made it illegal to slow down players with hand checks, players like LeBron James and Russell Westbrook have been taking advantage of the rules by using their speed to dominate opponents.
The dream team had eight of the top 50 scorers of all time on one team. All of who were active during a time when it was harder to score. That being the case, if you were to put them in today’s league they would’ve scored with more ease and dominated to a greater extent. Do the same to the 2012 team and you’ll see their production drop severely.
Another crucial advantage the ’92 team had over the current one is their size and dominance at the Center position. Tyson Chandler is a great defender, but even if he were somehow magically able to do the impossible and shut down Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, or Karl Malone, as soon he sat down, Anthony Davis and Kevin Love would get dominated in the paint. Not saying they’re terrible defenders.
The 2012 Olympic team has a great team, and will likely go undefeated, and bring a gold medal back to the U.S. But, they will not dominate in the same fashion the Dream Team did. That’s the major difference that fans of this era don’t seem to grasp. In 2012, the U.S wins. In 1992, they dominated.
Garvey Ashhurst is a young up and coming poet, songwriter, and blogger. He is the reason that the system is afraid of a black man in a library. His aim is not to be Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, or Ghandi, but he hopes to make them proud by keeping their ideals alive through his lifestyle. He hopes that one day young brothers will one day say I want to be the next him.
