The 1992 United States Basketball Olympic "Dream Team"

[selnor]

2012 team IMO is pretty average. And haven't played very well.

Kobe imo is very overated. Kobe is often compared to Jordan. But he is missing some key tings imo that made Jordan the best Ive come to know.

These days the NBA imo has less big hitters than the late 80s through to the late 90's.

Kobe lacks the ability to lead a team the way MJ did. When the bulls won the triple both the first and 2nd time, the team wasn't particularly amazing individually aside from obviously MJ and SP. But MJ had tis ability to turn the rest of the team into fighters.

I remember Jordan and the bulls falling to the Tomas and the pistons 2 years running. Realizing he couldn't do it alone, he spent the 91/92 season encouraging his teammates and involving them a great deal. Leading them in this way they beat the Pistons and won the championship that season. Then went on to winning the next 2 consecutive seasons upto his first retirement.

Then after 18 months Jordan comes back with 1/3 of the season left 95/96 and they fell to the Magic in the playoffs. He spent all off season training like crazy to get back to his former self, then went onto win te next 3 seasons again with a different team than the first triple.

To me this is the best display by an athlete Ive ever seen.

Michael Jordan was for me the best athlete ever, not just the best Basketball player.
People remember him mainly for his scoring and athletic ability. But he also won several defensive player of the year awards. Couple together with that ability to lead any team in his prime makes him a true basketball genius.

I remember reading in the UK in 2001 NBA magazine that 90% of players from the 80's 90's and what was then today chose Michael Jordan as the clear best player ever to touch a basketball.

God I miss the days of Jordan, Stockton, Kemp, Barkley, Hardaway, Shaq, David Robinson, Olajuwan, Malone, Ewing, Starks, Drexler etc.

Basketball was about winning with the love of the game. Nowadays players don't seem to play as hard, and the magic is just not there anymore.