This is the Real Dream Team
Beijing squad brings USA hoops back on top
by: Gregory Gethard
It may be heresy to say what I'm about to say, but the 1992 Dream Team is NOT the greatest basketball team of all time.
Because the greatest team of all time is the 2008 Olympic team and everyone should be completely honored to watch them play basketball.
The so-called "Redeem Team" has absolutely no regard for its competition. They simply want to come out and let the world know immediately that they aren't just better, but they will dominate in unthinkable ways. They'll kill you on defense, run out on a fast break and then come up with a highlight-reel play that makes opponents want to retire.
The scary thing is that they're doing it against teams loaded with absolute stars. Yao Ming is arguably the best center in the world. He was destroyed. Spain's national team would probably win 60 games in the NBA. They looked like St. Francis of New York taking on the Celtics. The U.S. crushed Germany by 49 points, a team led by the MVP of the NBA from two seasons ago.
The original Dream Team played against approximately 2.5 NBA players. Toni Kukoc was on Croatia. The permanently underrated Detlef Schrempf played on Germany. The only other non-US international player of that Olympics I ever heard of was Zan Tabak, and that's solely because of his highly-entertaining name.
Also, people overrate the talent level of the original Dream Team. Everyone remembers Michael, Larry and Magic on the same court at the same time on the same team. But what people forget is that Magic and Bird were already winding down their pro careers.
Michael Jordan provides a huge advantage to the '92s, obviously. The front-court foursome of Patrick Ewing/David Robinson/Charles Barkley/Karl Malone was the best quartet since The Who. But the rest of the rosters match up really well for the '08 team. After Jordan, the next best four players are Kobe, LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul. Honestly, those four players are better than anyone else on the original Dream Team, including Scottie Pippen, whom I hate more than any athlete (and possibly person) ever.
If we could go back in time via a Quantum Leap-style vortex and watch these teams play, I think it would be a fairly close game. But I think the '08 team would win in the end, after Pippen had to leave the game suffering from migraine headaches. God, I still hate that guy.
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