The 1992 Dream Team is arguably the greatest assembled basketball team of all time. USA Basketball decided to send the best players in the country to represent them in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. That decision changed the NBA forever and how people perceived players from the association.
After that team, we saw more squads trying to replicate what they did, including the 2008 Redeem Team and the 2012 squad that featured a lot of big names in London. Team USA has had a lot of superstars on their roster in recent years but everything started in 1992, when Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, and more led a team to win it all in the Olympics without any problem.
MJ was always known for his competitiveness and that even transcended the Chicago Bulls and went to this team, with the 6x NBA champion not wanting USA Basketball to try to repeat their 1992 formula to have success in the competitions that came after that one. During a recent edition of The Dream Team Tapes, Jack McCallum talks with J.A. Adande about that mighty team. Adande revealed that His Airness wasn’t fond of seeing more Dream Teams, calling his the only one (21:08 mark).
“‘There’s only one Dream Team! The rest are duplicates,’ and he gave me that glare, the Michael Jordan glare, his eyes were raising. After that, I didn’t even say ‘Dream Team’ anymore because I was afraid that Michael Jordan would hunt me down,” Adande said.
That sounds a lot like Michael Jordan, to be honest, and it is not a surprise that he was so proud of his 1992 team. That squad marked a turning point in basketball history and almost 30 years later, their impact remains untouched. That team was really great, their competition was incredible, as Charles Barkley recently revealed. Even Coach K was asked about who would win between the 2008 Team and the original dream team and the legendary coach picked MJ’s squad.
There were other teams after that but there is nothing like the original version and Jordan was well aware of that.
*New episodes of “The Dream Team Tapes” drop every Tuesday*
