Joke post right?
If not you should leave your cave from time to time.
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Was there ever a greater athletic team assembled than the 1992 Dream Team?
- Thread starter CountAntonio
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If not you should leave your cave from time to time.
It's between Pele and Maradona. Both are the only ones above Jordan worldwide. And Pele was huge in a time where TV and publicity exposure was way smaller, which is very impressive by itself. But those 3 are the most well known athletes overall, worldwide. Ali and Schumacher probably come next.
This is awesome, never saw this clip.
What I love about the 92 dream team is how seriously Daly took it. Like, they knew they had something to prove, instead of treating it like an All Star Game like most of the players of the last 20 years have. And, I don't blame those teams from the last 20 years, the '92 Olympic basketball tournament was more important than the Olympic tournaments today for American players. It's impossible for a modern team to live up to the status of that '92 team, and so they have less to strive for. And... ~74 year old billionaire coach K just doesn't care as much about winning a FIBA Tournament today than CHuck Daly did in 92.
Fucking Coach K is BRRUTAL in this video hahahaha "There are kids who believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, so I hate to burst their bubbles..."
I love Barkley in this ... "We... we pretty much beat 'em by 100"
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The great thing about the Dream Team wasn't wondering whether they'd win, but how much they'd win by. That was the thing everyone wanted to see and after one game in particular, people started wondering whether there was trouble in the team or were they holding back for some reason, just because they'd had their lowest point differential up to that time.
Hell, there were actually people who thought the team wasn't that great because that let the other teams score points. There really were people who were disappointed because they were expecting to basically see Harlem Globetrotter games.
I've personally never witnessed anything in sport equivalent to the Dream Team. Not just the assemblage of the greatest modern players of a particular sport, but a team so stacked with talent that winning a game isn't even in doubt. It's a foregone conclusion that they will not lose. They only question is how dominant they will be.
Hell, there were actually people who thought the team wasn't that great because that let the other teams score points. There really were people who were disappointed because they were expecting to basically see Harlem Globetrotter games.
I've personally never witnessed anything in sport equivalent to the Dream Team. Not just the assemblage of the greatest modern players of a particular sport, but a team so stacked with talent that winning a game isn't even in doubt. It's a foregone conclusion that they will not lose. They only question is how dominant they will be.
...he legally immigrated and IS a Us Citizen. He was on the 1996 US Olympic team -_-
I think that it's extremely hard to compare players now to then because
a) a lot of people playing now essentially learned from these guys by watching them
b) I suspect that players now are just plain stronger due to how serious and professional training has gotten over the years
c) the rules are a little different now so it's hard to know how they'd play in different eras
Yes, IMO it's by far the best collection of athletic talent ever assembled.
LeBron, Curry, Leonard, Durant, Davis, Harden, Irving, Lillard, Westbrook, George, Butler, maybe Draymond (or Zion)?
Basketball has changed and overall talent is much better, but I still have that '92 team.
The big difference is the International basketball talent is so much stronger now. Just last night, the NBA MVP was awarded to a Greek player, and 4 of the top 12 in MVP vote totals were international players. 4 of the last 7 #1 NBA Draft picks have been international players (not even counting Towns, who was born and raised in US but has represented the Dominican Republic). With the exception of Olajuwon, every one of the elite players in the world was on that '92 USA team.
LeBron, Curry, Leonard, Durant, Davis, Harden, Irving, Lillard, Westbrook, George, Butler, maybe Draymond (or Zion)?
Basketball has changed and overall talent is much better, but I still have that '92 team.
The big difference is the International basketball talent is so much stronger now. Just last night, the NBA MVP was awarded to a Greek player, and 4 of the top 12 in MVP vote totals were international players. 4 of the last 7 #1 NBA Draft picks have been international players (not even counting Towns, who was born and raised in US but has represented the Dominican Republic). With the exception of Olajuwon, every one of the elite players in the world was on that '92 USA team.
Coach K is nowhere near a billionaire.
He also turned US Basketball around and saved it after years of disappointment and lackluster performance. I don't really understand how/why you'd make the argument that he didn't care about winning when he was the head coach for Olympic basketball. It's the exact opposite, he actually found a way to get the pro players to start buying in again and taking pride in their country and winning.
I love and respect Coach K, though I'm not a Duke fan, but I think that the players and coaches of the '92 team felt that it was more important to play their best ability than the players and coaches do on the present-day Olympic teams. The '92 team felt like it had something to prove more so than the teams that followed, and the video that other person shared is a good example of that... of Daly intentionally losing that first closed-door scrimmage to try to get his players to take it seriously, with Coach K as one of his assistants. And I was just kidding about him being a billionaire, don't take it so seriously.
I would argue that the Redeem Team had just as much to prove (8 year Olympic gold drought, 16 year FIBA gold drought).
Other than that I guess I just misinterpreted your initial post a bit. You're right that there's not a single story/anecdote from recent teams that is equivalent to that scrimmage in terms of getting the players intensity and focus in line, although that also might be because the K-coaches teams haven't gotten as much media coverage yet in terms of "inside story" type interviews and retrospectives. Maybe we'll get some juicy nuggets for the 20th anniversary, assuming K is retired by then.
The original dream team was my favorite out of all of them. It's when I actually gave a fuck about basketball too.
Great team of players but their competition was zero. If they actually had to play people that could compete against them then I would respect the team more.
I wanted to say the 2016 golden state warriors
But 3-1 happened and that's all she wrote.
Steph was godlike that season though.
But 3-1 happened and that's all she wrote.
Steph was godlike that season though.
Yep, and when you take U.S. out of the formula...
It would probably help if you explained 1) what we're looking at and 2) why you believe it's relevant as a single metric to measure...whatever you're measuring (requires an answer to #1)
I'm assuming that's Google search result frequency map, or something. I'm not sure how much that really tells us on its own because 1) it leaves out the massive market that is China, and 2) if people have to look someone up on Google, doesn't that mean it's more likely that they don't know who that person is? 🤔
It's Google Trends, sorry, forgot to copy the link: https://trends.google.es/trends/explore?q=/m/01jz6d,/m/02xt6q
China is represented, but searches are low.
You seriously saying that the 2016 Warriors, who didn't even win the title, are better or somewhere on the same level as the 1992 Dream Team ........? Basically every star in the NBA from the golden age of professional basketball (... and Christian Laettner)
I would put Sachin Tendulkar over maybe Maradona, or at least 3rd. A billion Indians (plus other cricketing nations) can't be wrong.
I'm sorry but the the Steph-Klay-Draymond version of the Warriors have a losing record in the Finals, now having lost to both Cleveland and Toronto without KD.
They would get waxed by the 80s Lakers, 90s Bulls, Shaq-Kobe Lakers, among several other teams in a 7 game series let alone the 92 Dream Team, who would probably sweep them.
I don't care that they had one great regular season. Any version of the Warriors with KD is better than that 2016 team.
Basketball isn't the most popular sport in any country in the world
If everyone from this era plays in the 2020 Olympics. They would beat the Dream Team. The Starting five would be:
Stephen Curry
James Harden
Lebron James
Kevin Durant/Kawhi Leonard
Anthony Davis
I would take that team.
The 92 Dream Team was actually supposed to have Shaq on it, they only put Laettner on as a marketing gimmick, if he's on it, they beat anyone IMO.
They didn't put together the best actual team, several of the choices were for various reasons.
Right, but as of now that team doesn't exist
Also I don't know if I would take Steph Curry for that team. He's not a bad defender but pretty much everyone on the dream team would roll over him.
The answer is yes, but its probably worth pointing out that Bird and Magic weren't in their prime in 92. That takes a little luster off the collection of athletic talent.
Then you look at The Dream not being on there (when he schooled Ewing and David Robinson), Isaiah being snubbed, and Shaq being left in the states, and you realize the team could have been even better.
Then you look at The Dream not being on there (when he schooled Ewing and David Robinson), Isaiah being snubbed, and Shaq being left in the states, and you realize the team could have been even better.
That's kind of the point. No other sport could put together a team of that caliber at a single point in time and utterly, undeniably dominate against the rest of the world. And as pointed out, if it wasn't for politicking the team could have been even better. This thread isn't saying that basketball is the best sport, the most important sport, or the most globally relevant sport, it's saying that at no point in time has a team been composed of nearly all the best players of that sport in one time.
"The team has been described by American journalists as the greatest sports team ever assembled."
"But just seeing those names now I don't think it will ever be possible to have that much talent from any sport together on one team at once"
Those are the criteria. Brazil 1970 is maybe the only team mentioned that belongs in the conversation.
This kind of shit was OK in the 80's and 90's. USA is trash now. People think America and Americans are utter garbage.
What? Guarantee most people in the US know Lebron before Messi or Zlatan. Ronaldo, I'll give you.
John Stockton was on that team. Curry is the greatest shooter ever. I don't think there's anybody on the original team that could guard him.
lol MJ probably wouldn't even let Steph get a shot up if he were guarding him
Jordan ain't guarding Curry. In that situation, he's guarding either Lebron or Harden. I love Jordan, but Harden would give him trouble with the step backs. And Lebron is too strong for him.
Spud Webb would be all over Curry. It'd be a contest for the ages.
Edit: Spud Webb is in all my NBA Dream Team scenarios. Reality be damned, he was the Slam Dunk winner.
It's the second or third most popular sport in the world only behind soccer and slightly behind cricket. The NBA and its players also dominate social media.
I don't see why it matters for it to be number 1 in any country with how great its reach is.
While consuming American media on American technology with an American social media platform.
Pele won 3 WC with Brazil, 2 time champion of the world with Santos (plus 2 Libertadores) and many more national and regional championships, scored over 1000 goals (way over). There is no comparison. Maradona played later, much easier to be famous around the world but the numbers speak for themselves.
Messi and CR have been dominating for over 10 years, but football is way different, CL is arguably more important than a WC but it is also easier to win (it happens every year). Its hard to compare different eras.
I'm fairly confident Pippen could shut down Curry. Probably the best defender on that team.