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Forums - Sports Discussion - The 1992 United States Basketball Olympic "Dream Team"

sethnintendo on 03 August 2012
PDF said:
The fanboy in me will go with Dream Team everytime but in reality 2012 team could give them a run for their money.

If 08 was the Redeem team, what is 2012 team?

Doomsday team



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Kasz216 on 03 August 2012
amp316 said:
Kasz216 said:
amp316 said:
AdventWolf said:
chris212223 said:
MontanaHatchet said:
Is there any team on earth more dominant than the U.S. Men's National Basketball team?

Yes, the U.S. Women's National Basketball Team. lol


Was going to say this, the point spread is even greater.

I wasn't old enough to watch the Dream Team play but many people overrate the team, they were playing very very weak competition. The International basketball scene is much tougher now than it was in 1992. It was probably the equivalent of playing a weak college team for the dream team. Now you have international teams that have multiple NBA calibur players.

I think the Dream Team would beat the current team but for some reason I am thinking the current team would obliterate the 1992 interational teams even more.

The bolded pretty much explains the rest of your post.

Trust me when I tell you that the players from the 1992 team were much, much better on a whole than the current team.  Besides for Kevin Durant and Lebron James, I don't see anyone on the current team giving the 1992 team matchup problems.  I know that I'm not mentioning Kobe Bryant, but that's because he would be up against some guy named Michael Jordan...

I was old enough to watch the dream team play... I mean, if you pay attention to the opposition it shows just how bad that was.

The gap between the oppositions were far greater then the gap between the players.

The current team totally would of oblitereated 1992 international teams even more... if you watch the games... the international teams main weakness was athelteicism... and the 2012 team is undeniably more atehletic.

Another issue that really hurts the Dream Team is the intangibles.

The Dream Team didn't really prepare that much.    The NBA Dream team... pretty much was just playing pickup basketball and running people out of the gym.   The current team has prepaired like crazy, actually have sets and moves, and a are familiar playing with each other.



Individual strength is great, but basketball is a team game, which is why we don't have EVERY gold medal since 1992.


I understand what you are saying about the much weaker competiton and agree with it.  I also agree with you saying that the 1992 wasn't nearly as prepared as this one, but if they were to go up against other and prepared for each other than the 1992 would definitely win.  Jordan, Barkley , Malone, Johnson, Bird, etc. were on the team.  I didn't even get into the huge disparity at center.  Ewing and David Robinson against who?   Exactly.  

I'm not saying that the team now isn't great.  They are, but the entire 1992 team was more than great.  Every one of them are legends and rightfully so. 


Oh, I agree the 1992 team would win.

I just don't see it as a blowout...  92 probably pulls away in crunch time as the offensive rebounds pile up.

and I think if  you took the 92 team and the 2012 team out of time before their first game and had them play each other for one game...

I'd call it a coin flip... though only because the 2012 team took their prep more seriously.

The US/Jamacia game I think was a good example of what the 2012 team would do vs "1992 level" competition.

I think a lot of that has to do with the Dream Team.  I feel like they probably sparked other countries interest in basketball to a new level and upped the game.



bugrimmar on 12 August 2012

The way that 2012 had such trouble with Spain in the gold medal match shows that they would be absolutely dismantled by 1992. Marc and Pau Gasol were really dominating in the paint. 2012 simply lacks size to defend the post. Imagine if they were David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley. It wouldn't even be close.



selnor on 12 August 2012

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.