2024 Olympics: Remembering the original 1992 Team USA basketball 'Dream Team'

Team USA's men's basketball juggernauts made the perfect start to their Olympic campaign on the 28^th of July, beating Serbia 110-84 thanks to Kevin Durant's 23 and LeBron James's 21 points.

The 2024 Olympics team is one of the best ever assembled, with James, Durant, and Steph Curry leading a team of young superstars that include Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, and Tyrese Haliburton.

However, let's not forget about the players who laid the foundation for Team USA to have an elite basketball team at the Games over 30 years ago.

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The 1992 USA basketball team will possibly go down as the greatest Olympic team to ever grace the games despite the level of the 2024 team.

It was the first Olympics to house NBA players after previous games ruled that Team USA could only field college or amateur players in basketball games.

At the 1988 Olympics, Team USA had their worse finish in basketball, finishing with a bronze medal after losing to the USSR.

At the back end of the 1988 games, FIBA ruled that NBA players would be eligible for the next Olympic games. The vote was 56-13 in favor of a change.

NBA players were initially not keen on joining the Olympic team. At the start of 1991, Sports Illustrated labeled the team the 'Dream Team' in its February issue.

The team included the best players from the game from the past and the present. The standouts included Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley.

It was reported that Isiah Thomas was left off the team because Michael Jordan wasn't going to play if he had. The reason for this was that Jordan thought Thomas was the ringleader of the 'bad boy' Pistons who targeted Jordan in the playoffs.

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The teams' first games prior to the Americas games were against a team of college kids which included future stars like Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, and Chris Webber.

The dream team met the college players in a match in California. After underestimating the college players, the team lost its opening game 62-54, which was frowned upon by the American public.

After winning a rematch against the college team, Team USA played at the Tournament of the Americas to qualify for the Olympics in 1992.

Team USA dominated the Americas tournament winning all their games by astounding margins. Famous announcer Marv Albert said, 'It was as if the Americans were playing high school teams.'

Before heading to the Olympics, the team trained at a practice facility in Monaco, and housed the game dubbed by Sports Illustrated as 'the greatest game nobody saw.'

The game was renowned at the time Michael Jordan became the main man in the NBA after his 'white' team beat Magic's 'blue' team 40-36 in the scrimmage.

Heading into the games, the USA was the overwhelming favorite to win the gold medal. The team asserted its dominance over the teams by averaging a winning margin of 43 points a game.

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Speaking after his side's 116-48 loss against the USA, Angola's Herlander Coimbra said, "those guys were on another level, a galaxy far far away."

The team faced a newly independent Croatia team in the final, who they had previously played and beat in the group stages of the games 103-70.

The Croatians were the toughest team to face in the Olympics with the team having the likes of Hall of Famer Tony Kukoc playing. After being down two in the first half, the Americans overwhelmed the Croatians at the end, winning 117-85.

The legacy most known to be created by Team USA's success in 1992 is the rise of the European players reaching the NBA level in the years after the games.

In 1991 there were 23 international players from 18 different countries in the NBA. By the 2011 season, there were 74 international players from 35 different countries around the world.

The international success of the 'dream team' will go down as the major contributing factor as to why basketball is so widely played in today's world.

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