Dream Team
The Dream Team was the unofficial title of the United States men's basketball team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. New rules allowing professional athletes to play at the Olympics made it possible for the millionaires of professional basketball to compete. They qualified for the Olympics after having a 6-0 record in the Men's Tournament of the Americas.
| Table of contents |
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2 Coaching Staff 3 Results of the 1992 Men's Tournament of the Americas 4 Final Standings 5 Results at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona 6 Final Standings |
Line-Up
The team featured Michael Jordan, and a number of others among those who are considered the best basketballers in history:
- Charles Barkley, of the Phoenix Suns
- Larry Bird, of the Boston Celtics
- Clyde Drexler, of the Portland Trail Blazers
- Patrick Ewing, of the New York Knicks
- Magic Johnson, of the Los Angeles Lakers
- Michael Jordan, of the Chicago Bulls
- Christian Laettner, of Duke University
- Karl Malone, of the Utah Jazz
- Chris Mullin, of the Golden State Warriors
- Scottie Pippen, of the Chicago Bulls
- David Robinson, of the San Antonio Spurs
- John Stockton, of the Utah Jazz
Unfortunately, this extraordinary team was kept from the upper limit of its potential greatness by the addition of Laettner, the only amateur, rather than more qualified players, such as Isiah Thomas, or Dominique Wilkins. Laettner was an excellent player in college, but has had a disappointing professional career, and was indisputably the weak link of the Dream Team.
The team won all of its games by huge margins, beating Croatia in the gold medal game by 32 points. Whilst the opportunity to see the game's greats playing together was appreciated, the team's occasionally belittling attitude to opponents was not.
Interestingly, Stockton was the only Dream Team member to wear his normal number in the Olympics (12). In fact, he was the only Dream Team member who could wear his normal number. In international tournaments, player numbers are restricted to those between 4 and 15; all other Dream Team members normally wore numbers outside the allowable range.
Coaching Staff
Results of the 1992 Men's Tournament of the Americas
Final Standings
Results at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona
Final Standings
Subsequent United States teams have had the "Dream Team" moniker attached, but they now typically feature middle-of-the-road NBA players, rather than an all-star team of the game's greats. This has led to increasingly less extraordinary performances (nearly losing to Lithuania at the 2000 Sydney Games, and being embarrassed into sixth place at the 2002 World Championships), so many regard such a moniker as no longer appropriate.
| 1992 Olympic Champions Men's Basketball - "Dream Team" |
| Charles Barkley | Larry Bird | Clyde Drexler | Patrick Ewing | Magic Johnson | Michael Jordan | Christian Laettner | Karl Malone | Chris Mullin | Scottie Pippen | David Robinson | John Stockton |
| Coach Chuck Daly |
Dream Team is also the title of a British drama series about a soccer team, commissioned and broadcast by Sky One from the late 1990s.