2012 USA Basketball's Odds vs. Dream Team If Injured Stars Were Healthy
Let's be real: This whole debate raging over who would win a game between the 1992 Dream Team and the 2012 edition of Team USA, while highly entertaining for hoops heads everywhere, is complete and utter hypothetical nonsense. There's no way to know, with any certainty, how the game would play out because (as far as I know) the technology to bring those two squads together at the same time doesn't exist.
This ultimately gives both sides of the argument a stake with which to claim victory. Everybody wins, just like in peewee tee ball.
But as long as everyone's already up in arms over Kobe Bryant's measured response to what's become a rather inflammatory question among the national punditry, why not take the discussion a step further into the realm of absurdity and consider how the Dream Team would fare against a present-day USA Basketball squad with its full complement of players.
Let's Play GM
The pool of players from which Mike Krzyzewski and Jerry Colangelo filled their roster was already depleted by injuries before Blake Griffin was ruled out of the Olympics with a meniscus tear in his left knee on Thursday. Derrick Rose (torn ACL), Dwight Howard (back surgery), Chauncey Billups (Achilles) and LaMarcus Aldridge (hip surgery) were out of the running long before the Super Friends assembled in Las Vegas for final tryouts. Dwyane Wade (knee) and Chris Bosh (abdomen) recused themselves in order to recover from maladies picked up during the Miami Heat's run to the NBA title, while one-time Los Angeles Lakers teammates Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom opted against Olympic competition for other reasons.
Even so, Coach K and Colangelo managed to field a collection of talent that featured five members of the Redeem Team that won gold at the 2008 Beijing Games (Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Carmelo Anthony) and five more (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler and Andre Iguodala) who did the same at the 2010 FIBA World Championships.
Reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year James Harden and incoming rookie Anthony Davis are the only members of USA Basketball's senior squad who've never played in a major international tournament.
Still, supposing the likes of D-Rose and Superman were fully fit to play, it's practically guaranteed that every member of Team USA would be able to hang a gold medal around his neck. In all likelihood, Rose (the 2011 NBA MVP), Howard (the best big man on the planet), Wade (the leading scorer on the 2008 Olympic team) and Bosh (the most Jurassic basketball player around) would all be locks to play for Coach K, joining Kobe, LeBron, CP3 and Durant, at the very least, with D-Will likely to tag along.
That leaves three spots to fill and no fewer than seven players eligible to fill them. For the sake of this argument, let's assume that Odom and Bynum don't make the preliminary cut because neither was in the mix this time around to begin with; Odom played far too poorly with the Dallas Mavericks this past season, while Bynum has yet to show any interest in suiting up for his country.
An aging Chauncey Billups would likely follow them out the door, too.
It's safe to suggest that Love retains his title with Team USA, if for no other reason than the fact that he's put together two brilliant campaigns since he last wore the red, white and blue in Turkey. His versatility and ability to stretch opposing defense with his outside shot would also render his presence rather appealing.
Westbrook, Love's college teammate at UCLA, would be good enough to play, but with both backcourt spots more-than-adequately filled, he's left to wait his turn. Likewise, it'd be tough to imagine fellow hyper athlete Blake Griffin sneaking on ahead of the more skilled LaMarcus Aldridge or the more defensively-sound Tyson Chandler, especially when assembling a side built to beat the disciplined Dream Team.
The question then becomes, does Coach K save a place for jack-of-all-tradesman Andre Iguodala to help handle the likes of Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, Magic Johnson and Scottie Pippen on the wing? Or does he go big with Chandler or Aldridge, to combat the size and strength of Patrick Ewing and David Robinson?
Let's suppose Coach K goes with Chandler, the defensive specialist up front, to give himself a final roster that looks like this for his Make-Believe Team:
| Point Guard | Chris Paul | Derrick Rose | Deron Williams |
| Shooting Guard | Kobe Bryant | Dwyane Wade | |
| Small Forward | Carmelo Anthony | Kevin Durant | |
| Power Forward | LeBron James | Kevin Love | Chris Bosh |
| Center | Dwight Howard | Tyson Chandler |
Now, LeBron isn't a "power forward," per se, though he'd likely start at the 4 with this group. Durant could also just as easily get the nod over 'Melo, seeing as how the three-time scoring champ is already a superior player to the New York Knicks superstar.
In any case, this squad would be more experienced than the one on its way to London, in terms of both the NBA and the international game. Half of this team went the distance in 2008, while the other half followed suit in 2010, giving this hypothetical Team USA far more international experience—and, more importantly, more experience playing together—than the Dream Team.
That sort of preexisting chemistry and cohesion on the international stage would give the 2012 team something of a leg-up over the Dream Team, even if only a small one.
Position By Position
Positionally speaking, though, the Dream Team still gets the nod at center with Patrick Ewing and David Robinson. Adding Dwight Howard to the mix helps to mitigate the current imaginary deficit of the 2012 edition, with Chandler alone in the middle, next to the one that won gold in Barcelona in 1992. However, Tyson still pales in comparison to either of his Hall of Fame counterparts on both ends of the floor.
(Nothing against Chandler—he's a terrific player who knows how to maximize his particular talents—but Ewing and The Admiral were on another level in the early '90s.)
As far as resumes are concerned, there's no comparing those that the Dream Team had at point guard (Magic Johnson and John Stockton) to the perennial All-Stars that populate the Make-Believe Team.
But we're not comparing accumulated greatness here. Rather, the goal is to surmise how the players themselves might've actually performed against one another on the court.
In that case, this year's point guards score the hypothetical advantage. Paul (27), Rose (23) and Williams (28) are all younger, more athletic and more attuned to playing together than the 32-year-old Magic and the 30-year-old Stockton.
To be sure, Magic could still play, even though the end of his prime was hastened by an early, HIV-induced retirement. Stockton, too, was a terrific and durable player on both ends of the floor, but could he have held up against the quickness of Paul, the breathtaking athleticism of Rose or the bull-like strength of D-Will?
The discussion is a bit more interesting once the other three positions come into play. The Dream Team had two players in their prime at the 4 (Charles Barkley and Karl Malone) along with a severely hobbled Larry Bird and Christian Laettner, who went on to be complete busts in the NBA.
Meanwhile, the Make-Believe Team features the best 4 on the planet (Love) and another (Bosh) who, for all the guff he gets, is a tremendously versatile player who's currently in his prime.
If LeBron's in the mix, then the two sides are more or less even, with plenty of skill and shooting ability to make up for the perceived lack of sheer manliness on the boards that Barkley and The Mailman bring to the table.
Otherwise, the edge goes to the Dream Team.
The wing, though, is where the screaming, shouting and flailing of arms comes out in earnest, if only because MJ, Kobe and LeBron all factor into the equation. A 33-year-old Kobe isn't about to keep up with a 29-year-old Jordan or a 29-year-old Clyde the Glide, though he's still crafty enough to get his shot off against anyone and could reasonably defend, say, a 29-year-old Chris Mullin.
D-Wade might be a tad too old (30) and too small (6'4") to defend any of the Dream Team's wings one-on-one, but he understands fully well how to be a pest in the team scheme. Don't count on 'Melo to contribute much on the defensive end at all, though he might be able to get himself a few buckets against a 26-year-old Scottie Pippen, if he's lucky.
As for LBJ and MJ, both would be at the height of their respective powers at this point. Hence, there wouldn't be much hope of either superstar being slowed down (much less stopped) by the other side, nor would they likely go head-to-head anyway.
But, on a unit-to-unit level, the Dream Team wins out on the wing, with youth and talent working in its favor.
Dreams and Schemes
So, if the Dream Team takes the cake at every spot except the point, does that mean that the Make-Believe Team would be doomed?
Not necessarily, though it likely depends on where and when, in the space-time continuum, their paths cross. If the game were staged in the present day, using the current rules that favor perimeter play and make life more difficult for men in the middle (i.e. the hand-check rule), then the Make-Believe team would creep closer to the top. After all, today's players are more comfortable with today's rules than those of 20 years ago would be. Plug today's players into the confines of yesteryear, and the advantage flips.
The Make-Believe Team can make its mark is by trotting out unconventional lineups and capitalizing on its superior versatility. Coach K might choose to neutralize the size of Robinson and Ewing by moving LeBron to center and playing "Small Ball" with perhaps CP3 and Wade in the backcourt and Kobe and 'Melo/Durant on the wings.
Or, he could put together a lineup comprised entirely of similarly sized players—LeBron, Durant, Love, Carmelo and Kobe—that would be able to switch every screen without giving up much in terms of height and length. The possibilities would be endless.
That being said, the Dream Team's combination of size, skill, shooting ability, athleticism and sheer talent would be difficult to overcome in any setting, even for a squad as immaculately constructed (if I may say so myself) as the Make-Believe Team.
Not that the '92 team would necessarily dominate its new-age counterpart. A hard-fought, back-and-forth affair would be an apt result between these two sides.
Then again, there's no way to ever know, since a third of the Make-Believe Team isn't even fit to play at present and every member of the Dream Team has long since retired from the game.
Fun as the concept may be, it's still entirely impossible to pull off. Even Kobe knows that.
