![]() ![]() SF: Larry Bird / Dominique Wilkins / James Worthy PF: Karl Malone / Charles Barkley / Kevin McHale SG: Mark Aguirre / Sidney Moncrief / Andrew Toney PF: Jack Sikma / Buck Williams / Terry Cummings There's even enough leftover talent from this era to make a stellar B-team. This may be the only team on the entire list that is better then or that could at least rivaled the 1992 team. The talent pool from 1984 might have been the deepest ever. There's enough depth at this position to keep Bernard King from making the 12-man roster. It was a golden era at the time for the high-scoring swingman, and this team would have included many from that era, such as Dantley, who was coming off his fourth straight season averaging more than 30 points per game. The second unit would have had a great floor general with Thomas and strong defense up front with Parish and McHale, as well as more than enough scoring off the bench. One has to wonder if Thomas would have tried to "freeze out" this rookie phenom like he did in the 1985 All-Star Game. Johnson and Bird were in their primes, and Jordan was about to unleash his dominance on the NBA hardwood. Kareem and Moses once again would form an unstoppable presence up front. It's not a quite a super-combination of the Celtics, Lakers and Sixers (BosAngelesDelphia?), but more than half the roster is made up of players from those teams, which had combined to win the last four NBA titles. Honorable Mentions: Bill Laimbeer, Jack Sikma, Patrick Ewing (college player), Terry Cummings, Tom Chambers, Buck WIlliams, Kiki Vandeweghe, Dominique Wilkins, James Worthy, Bobby Jones, Jim Paxson, Kelly Tripucka, Andrew Toney, Maurice Cheeks, Walter Davis, Mark Aguirre, Otis Birdsong Reserves: Ralph Sampson, Bernard King, Sidney Moncrief SG: Michael Jordan / Adrian Dantley / George Gervin And they’ll look back on the Dream Team as a landmark event in that process.SF: Larry Bird / Alex English / Julius Erving “Finally there will come a day - I’m not saying it will happen anytime soon, mind you, but it’s inevitable that it will happen - that they will be able to compete with us on even terms. “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. “They knew they were playing the best in the world,” reflected Daly after the team won the gold medal with a 117-85 win over Croatia on August 8, 1992. One player, while trying to guard Magic Johnson, was seen frantically waving to a camera-wielding teammate on the bench, signaling to make sure he got a picture of them together. Opponents didn’t have a chance, but they didn’t care. Complete the roster with Christian Laettner, the best college player of 1991-92 and a future NBA All-Star. Add the irrepressible Charles Barkley for a little spice, as well as seven more All-Stars: centers David Robinson and Patrick Ewing, power forward Karl Malone, swingmen Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin and Clyde Drexler and point guard John Stockton. Start with three of the game’s all-time greats: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. That’s all I can compare it to.”Īnd what a band it was. Traveling with the Dream Team was like traveling with 12 rock stars. “It was,” said Chuck Daly, coach of the 1992 team, “like Elvis and the Beatles put together. Much of that is due to the impact of the Dream Team, which attracted fans and followers wherever it went. Since 1992, basketball has exploded in popularity around the globe, rising to a place where it truly challenges soccer’s status as the world’s most popular sport. Olympic team to include NBA stars, gave fans a glimpse of basketball at its finest, and an entire world responded. ![]() ![]() What was important was that the Dream Team, the first U.S. It mattered not that it dominated the Olympic competition, beating its eight opponents by an average of 44 points. basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, was a phenomenon on and off the court. NBA.com takes a look back at the top moments that define the history of the NBA. Perhaps the greatest basketball team ever assembled, the Dream Team brought the U.S. ![]()
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