Team USA has always been one of the most dominant teams when it comes to playing basketball at the international level. But prior to the 1992 Olympics, NBA players were not allowed to represent Team USA.
Quite frankly, the national team never needed NBA players to be part of it before the 1992 Olympics. It was the aftermath of Team USA’s failure to win the gold medal in the 1988 Olympics. As a result, a need arose to prove that the best basketball players were still playing in America.
This led to the formation of arguably the best ever national team put together. It was labeled as ‘The Dream Team,’ due to some of the best players in the history of the league were part of it.
The 1992 Dream Team had the likes of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and many other legends of the game.
Mike Krzyzewski Mentions How The 1992 Dream Team Wasn’t At Its Full Strength
The Dream Team utterly dominated the 1992 Olympics as they won eight games by a huge margin and easily brought the gold medal back to USA. But legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski recently mentioned in an interview that The Dream Team could have been ever better.
Via Esquire:
“It was beautiful. Those guys, still all of the guys are friends. And there were eras there. There was the Magic era, the Jordan era. They combined a lot of years and successes to make that team. The amount of talent, it wasn’t as current, all the guys, in their careers. In other words, Magic had been out, Bird was injured. When you’re talking about Pippen, Drexler, Ewing, those guys were in their prime, or even still getting better. Then you had a few guys who were at the end of their careers. All those guys, they were unbelievable to watch. If they were all in their prime? Forget it.”
Coach K didn’t take a shot at The 1992 Dream Team by any means. Instead, he meant that Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were simply towards the end of their respective careers when the team was formed. Had they been in their prime as well, Team USA would have dominated by an even bigger margin in the 1992 Olympics.
