Most NBA fans will tell you the greatest basketball team of all time was the 1992 Men's Olympic team, affectionately known as the"Dream Team". In those Olympics the Dream Team won all eight of its games by an average of 44 points. Ten of twelve players on the team are on the NBA's list of the "Fifty Greatest Players."
The only two not to make the fifty greatest player list are Chris Mullen, a five-time NBA all-star and Christian Laettner, the only college player on the team and a thirteen-year NBA veteran.
This was the team of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Majic Johnson. Except for the two centers, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson and forward Karl Malone, everyone was inter-changeable and could play both forward or guard. John Stockton was the only point guard on the team.
The other players were Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler and Scottie Pippen.
This team could play small when it wanted to press or play big when it wanted to dominate the boards. The Dream Team was amazing -- an incredible collection of NBA legends.
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT ANOTHER TEAM, in case you never heard of them or just forgot about them: The 1968 NBA Eastern Conference All-Star team. They didn't have a name like "Dream Team" or "Redeem Team"-- they were simply the greatest basketball team I've ever seen. As the Dream Team has ten of twelve on the "Greatest PLayer List", the '68 team has evelen of twelve on the list. Only Dick Barnett, shooting guard for the Knicks, didn't make it.
There was one problem with the '68 All-Star team.....not knowing who to start at center. You could start Bill Russell who won eleven championships, five MVP's and was a twelve time all-star or Wilt Chamberlain who went to thirteen all-star games, won four MVP's, was the only player to ever score 100 points in a game, and the only player to average better than fifty points in a season.
If you didn't like Russell or Chamberlain you could start Willis Reed. Reed was the guy who came out of the locker room with a torn leg muscle and led the Knicks to a championship in 1970.
The forwards on the '68' team were Dave Debusshere, John Havlicek, Gus Johnson and Jerry Lucas. The guards were Dave Bing, Hal Greer, Sam Jones, Barnett and Oscar Robertson. Robertson was known by fans as the "Big O" and is known by current Orlando Majic coach Stan Van Gundy as "the greatest player I ever saw." Van Gundy's been around a long time.
8 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Gaz V 11 months ago
The '92 team was the mostest gooderest team in the whole world. The were the bestest of the bestest!
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Taylor Gram 11 months ago
The only reason the '68 team doesn't get recognition is because their wasn't ESPN, and sports didn't play hardly as big of a role as it does today. Even saying that I'd have to go with the Dream Team. Woldn't it be great to see the "Redeem Team" against the Dream team? or the '68 team.
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Andrew Ungvari 11 months ago
I'm a fan of all the NBA's eras but the 1992 dream team would beat the living shit out of that team. Imagine all of the 1992 guys in their prime (and HIV-free). That 1968 Eastern Conference team played one game and it was against what could be considered the worst All-Star team of all time. Once you get past West, Baylor and Wilkens, who should I be impressed by? Rudy LaRusso? Archie Clark? Mahdi Abdul-Rahman?
I know that the '92 team beat up on Brazil, Angola and Australia but Havlicek or Jones couldn't guard Jordan together. The Dream Team's front-court would have been way too much for the East. Russell can only do too much.
If you're taking age into consideration then Magic and Bird wouldn't have been that effective. But the rest of the team was all in their respective primes. Everyone else on that team was drafted between 1983 and 1987 (except Laettner, of course).
I respect your opinion but I can't give and team from the 60s the edge over the athleticism of teams from the modern day.
Great job, nonetheless. Fun discussion.
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jeff kalafa 11 months ago
Andrew,
Here's my starting line up.....Center: Wilt Chamberlain
Power Forward: Willis Reed
Small Forward: John Halicek
Shooting Guard: Oscar Robertson
Point Guard: Sam Jones
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Andrew Ungvari 11 months ago
I could give you two lineups from that Dream Team that could have beat those guys in a 7-game series.
Magic
Jordan
Bird
Malone
Ewing
Stockton
Drexler
Pippen
Barkley
Robinson
It would have been great to see them play each other. We can only dream.
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Nick Colon 11 months ago
Haha, this is a fun discussion. I just did an Open Mic on this subject, and I picked the 1992 Dream Team as the best lineup ever assembled in any sport. I think you guys should take a look at it. It proves what alot of you are saying in this discussion. Here's the link:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/45729-open-mic-the-team-usa-all-time-lineup
Yes, the 62' team was good with those players, but 92' is the best ever. No question.
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Alan Bass 11 months ago
i think this is a kick ass team this year, if only all of them had heart
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Avinash Kunnath 11 months ago
Yeah, that would be great, except 60s basketball was so slow and methodical that it'd be hard for them to beat the defenses of the late 80s/early 90s. Pippen and Jordan were two of the fiercest off the ball defenders in the league, and the Dream Team would run out the fast break.
The question is how much could that 60s team control the pace of the game.
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