The 1992 Dream Team is without any hesitation the greatest basketball team ever assembled. It featured some of the greatest players ever, but it wasn’t free of controversy. Of course, when you talk about that team, it’s mandatory to mention Isiah Thomas and his snub from the team.
That conversation was brought up to the light once again after Michael Jordan reflected on his rivalry with Thomas and his ‘Bad Boys’ Detroit Pistons in ‘The Last Dance’ documentary. Besides Thomas, more players didn’t get the call for the Dream Team, including Shaquille O’Neal and Dennis Rodman.
Talking about the pros, Thomas and Rodman, it looks like the reason why they didn’t attend the 1992 Summer Olympics is their rivalry with the rest of the league playing with the Pistons. Thomas had a rivalry with Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and more. Rodman was part of that team and given all the talent they already had on the roster, it didn’t look like they needed Dennis’ defense in Barcelona.
The team needed a college player and they picked Christian Laettner from Duke to fill the last spot on the roster. Laettner beat the likes of Alonzo Mourning, Jim Jackson and Shaquille O’Neal to go to Spain that summer. Shaq was believed to be the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA Draft, but the selection committee decided to go with Laettner, a prolific player during his college career.
During aninterview with Slam in 2012, Shaq revealed he was upset with the fact that he wasn’t invited to that team, but eventually, he understood everything.
“I was pissed off. I was jealous. But then I had to come to the realization that I was a more explosive, more powerful player, but Christian Laettner was a little bit more fundamentally sound than I was. Plus he stayed all four years and graduated. … I just think it helped me grow as a player.’”
Laettner’s participation with the team was little. It looks like his inclusion was more to keep the tradition of taking college players to the Olympics while helping the committee snub players like Thomas and Rodman.