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Was there ever a greater athletic team assembled than the 1992 Dream Team?

CountAntonio

CountAntonio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,722
The 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the "Dream Team", was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team has been described by American journalists as the greatest sports team ever assembled. At the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, the team defeated its opponents by an average of 44 points en route to the gold medal against Croatia.

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Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and John Stockton. 11 Hall of Famers and one college player(slot was reserved for an amateur).

This documentary popped up and while watching it I learned a lot of things I never really thought about. Like why Isiah Thomas was snubbed(Some of the players hated the way he played and didn't want him on the team) and why Christian Laettner was even on the team at all(reserved slot for an amateur). 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. It must have been incredible to be at one of those games.
 

Hazzuh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,166
Basketball isn't the most popular sport in any major country as far as I can tell. Seems pretty unlikely that the best sports team ever was a basketball team.
 
Rvaan

Rvaan

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Oct 25, 2017
13,734
I'm a UNC fan so I cannot believe I have to defend Laettner here but you sold him short there. He's in the HoF too! Granted everyone else is there individually as well as being inducted as a member of the dream team but still.
 
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CountAntonio

CountAntonio

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Oct 25, 2017
21,722
Rvaan said:
I'm a UNC fan so I cannot believe I have to defend Laettner here but you sold him short there. He's in the HoF too! Granted everyone else is there individually as well as being inducted as a member of the dream team but still.
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He was a great college player. Not putting him down but he wouldn't have been on the team if it wasn't for the amateur slot.
 
Hoodbury

Hoodbury

Member
Oct 27, 2017
658
Rvaan said:
I'm a UNC fan so I cannot believe I have to defend Laettner here but you sold him short there. He's in the HoF too! Granted everyone else is there individually as well as being inducted as a member of the dream team but still.
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I forget all the history of the 92 Dream team but wasn't there controversy over Laettner getting picked over Shaq?
 
bwahhhhh

bwahhhhh

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
3,162
For those who weren't around back then, this was allll over the news. Dream Team fever.

The announcement of all these players uniting to play against foreign nations was like announcing that we have a bunch of lions about to form a real life Voltron.
 
amar212

amar212

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
58
Yes. Croatian team that played finals against that very Dream Team in 1992.

USA were aliens, but Croatian team were the best human species ever to confront aliens.

Petrovic, Kukoc, Radja, Vrankovic, Komazec, Arapovic, Naglic, Tabak, Perasovic..

Probably the best overall team ever, when you took into account the moment in time and historical circumstances.
 
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CountAntonio

CountAntonio

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Oct 25, 2017
21,722
Hazzuh said:
Basketball isn't the most popular sport in any major country as far as I can tell. Seems pretty unlikely that the best sports team ever was a basketball team.
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I don't think that really matters. I'm saying has there ever been a team olympic or otherwise in any sport that was made up of what eventually became the greatest players to ever play that sport. That's what happened here. These weren't just all stars these are some of the best to ever play the game all together on one team.
 
Fevaweva

Fevaweva

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Oct 30, 2017
6,490
Bumrush said:
If 7-10 of the 25 best footballers ever were on that '03-'04 Arsenal team then sure
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Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry are certainly some of the greatest french players of all time.

If anything, not having the best players in the world at the time and yet winning the premier league without losing a game is very impressive. Again, I find that much more impressive than the very best professional players America, at a time where Basketball probably wasn't as popular worldwide as it is now, can offer beating other countries in the Olympics.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

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Oct 25, 2017
39,038
I fucking love watching the 1992 Dream Team v. Angola

WIth professional sports run by an organization, usually there are rules in place (salary cap, profit sharing, free agency, etc) to try to keep the teams on a balanced playing field. That doesn't really exist in Olympic competition aside from basic rules banning performance enhancing drugs, doping, etc, and so you get an opportunity for truly dominant imbalances.

There probably could be another team that's more dominant, like who knows, maybe the 1994 Canadian Curling team or the 1992 Chinese Table Tennis team or osmething, but for prolific, dominant single teams... the '92 dream team was insane, the accumulation of talent and the effort they put into it to prove that they could destroy the world's best.

Hazzuh said:
Basketball isn't the most popular sport in any major country as far as I can tell. Seems pretty unlikely that the best sports team ever was a basketball team.
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This is probably one of the reasons why the '92 dream team would be the most dominant/talented sijngle team. Basketball was popular enough internationally to be an olympic sport, with a professional presence in just about every Olympic-participating country, but it's not ubiquitous enough where you have real competition internationally for a dominant team. For instance, with football/soccer, its ubiquity makes it tough for one country to truly be as dominant because there's a level of elite competition in a dozen or so countries.

Also weird fun fact, basketball was played in the 1904 summer Olympics. Wouldn't have thought that!
 
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Deleted member 225

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Hazzuh said:
Basketball isn't the most popular sport in any major country as far as I can tell. Seems pretty unlikely that the best sports team ever was a basketball team.
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It isn't the number one sport in a lot of countries but you're are really selling short just how popular it is globally, let alone in the US.
 
Carthago Delenda Est

Carthago Delenda Est

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Oct 28, 2017
6,119
Fevaweva said:
Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry are certainly some of the greatest french players of all time.

If anything, not having the best players in the world at the time and yet winning the premier league without losing a game is very impressive. Again, I find that much more impressive than the very best professional players America, at a time where Basketball probably wasn't as popular worldwide as it is now, can offer beating other countries in the Olympics.
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It's not about what's more impressive. It's not about whether it's fair. This team was by far and away better than any other team in the sport it played in (Olympic basketball). That's the metric we're measuring against.
 
Hopfrog

Hopfrog

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Oct 27, 2017
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Hard to argue against. That's a team with Jordan, Magic, and Bird starting. That is three players who are legitimately in the conversation of top five players of all time, and the Dream Team had three of them in their starting lineup.
 
Temp_User

Temp_User

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Oct 30, 2017
4,702
1960 >> 1992. Naturally assembled teams are just plain better, imo.

The greatest AMATEUR US Olympic Basketball team is greater than any pro-composed team that NBA marketing assembled for the Olympics.
 
Fevaweva

Fevaweva

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Oct 30, 2017
6,490
Carthago Delenda Est said:
It's not about what's more impressive. It's not about whether it's fair. This team was by far and away better than any other team in the sport it played in (Olympic basketball). That's the metric we're measuring against.
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Professional players who played for the most well funded and biggest Basketball league against countries who didn't have that and is lauded as "the greatest" is ridiculous.
 
perfectchaos007

perfectchaos007

It's Happening
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Oct 25, 2017
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amar212 said:
Yes. Croatian team that played finals against that very Dream Team in 1992.

USA were aliens, but Croatian team were the best human species ever to confront aliens.

Petrovic, Kukoc, Radja, Vrankovic, Komazec, Arapovic, Naglic, Tabak, Perasovic..

Probably the best overall team ever, when you took into account the moment in time and historical circumstances.
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To be considered for GOAT team at the very least you need to win the championship.
 
T8SC

T8SC

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Oct 28, 2017
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UK
A pro team from a country that loves Basketball, playing against a bunch of amatuers from countries who dont care about Basketball.... Ok.


The correct answer is Manchester United - 1999.
 
Elfotografoalocado

Elfotografoalocado

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Oct 27, 2017
5,618
Spain
Not to be partial, but I'd say Spain's national team side that dominated the game from 2008 to 2014, winning two Eurocups and a World Cup, and counting with some of the best players ever like:

Iniesta
Xavi Hernández
Xabi Alonso
Carles Pujol
Sergio Ramos
Gérard Piqué
Iker Casillas
David Silva
Sergio Busquets
 
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CountAntonio

CountAntonio

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Oct 25, 2017
21,722
T8SC said:
A pro team from a country that loves Basketball, playing against a bunch of amatuers from countries who dont care about Basketball.... Ok.


The correct answer is Manchester United - 1999.
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They weren't amateurs.

The Olympic Games were originally intended only for amateur players. As a result, the United States could only use college players and had to build a national team from scratch every four years, as all American players turned pro after the Games and thus were no longer available for selection. On the other hand, the Communist countries (mainly the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) used full-time professionals who were given phantom jobs to circumvent the amateur rules. Unlike the Americans, the Soviets fielded experienced veterans who played together for years. This culminated in the 1988 Summer Olympics, where the Americans lost to the USSR and settled for bronze, their worst finish eve. FIBA, international basketball's governing body, believed that the rules were unfair and changed them, allowing USA Basketball to field teams with National Basketball Association players, over Soviet votes against the proposal. FIBA Secretary General Borislav Stanković advocated for this for years.
 

MeaningOfKarma

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Oct 30, 2017
707
Fevaweva said:
Professional players who played for the most well funded and biggest Basketball league against countries who didn't have that and is lauded as "the greatest" is ridiculous.
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The dream team would utterly annihilate every other professional NBA team ever assembled and it wouldn't even be close

The KD era Warriors are one of the most dominant teams in history and the dream team would savage them
 
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Planx

Planx

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Oct 27, 2017
1,717
The 1927 "Murderer's Row" Yankees are about the closest in terms of dominance and names, and they still lost 44 games.

T8SC said:
A pro team from a country that loves Basketball, playing against a bunch of amatuers from countries who dont care about Basketball.... Ok.


The correct answer is Manchester United - 1999.
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The '27 Yankees were a bigger powerhouse than '99 Man U not a doubt in my mind
 
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CountAntonio

CountAntonio

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Oct 25, 2017
21,722
Planx said:
The 1927 "Murderer's Row" Yankees are about the closest in terms of dominance and names, and they still lost 44 games.


The '27 Yankees were a bigger powerhouse than '99 Man U not a doubt in my mind
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nitewulf said:
Plenty:

1974 Holland:

1970 Brazil:

2008-9 Barcelona:
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I'm gonna look these up. This kind of stuff is fascinating. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
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