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An oral history of the 1992 us olympic basketball dream team gq by ferujkll sdff
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An oral history of the 1992 us olympic basketball dream team gq |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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It was always a silly rule. According to international basketballguidelines in place for decades, professionals from leagues allover the world could compete for their countries at theOlympics—but NBA players could not. The effect was to balanceout America's towering advantage in the sport. You know, give the poor bastards a chance.
The rule was dropped in April 1989, though, after the UnitedStates finished a humiliating third at the previous summer'sOlympics in Seoul. Parity, everyone learned, wasn't nearly ascaptivating as dominance. And make no mistake: Dominating was asimportant as winning. The idea was to dazzle, to put on a displayof American might so awe-inspiring that the best our rivals couldhope for was a silver medal.
Or even better, Michael Jordan'sautograph. · · · PART I: Origins "The cast on this team—it was the best of the best." David Stern (NBA commissioner): The notion that the NBA wanted to redeem the 1988 loss? Patentlywrong. From our view, we were stuck with playing in the Olympics.We didn't see it becoming the phenomenon that it became. David Falk (agent for Michael Jordan): There was a growing recognition that we were putting collegeplayers out at a time when every other country was putting outpros.
And were we being naive to continue that, just becausethere's a history? Stern: We said to FIBA [the international basketball federation] that weweren't gung ho to play in the Olympics, but we would try to begood soldiers to support basketball. So they had a vote. The U.S.was against it, and the Russians were against it, too. But theoverwhelming vote was in favor. Russ Granik (NBA liaison to Team USA): The first tough decision was that it had to be an NBA coach, inorder for our owners and players to feel comfortable.
But ChuckDaly was a pretty easy choice: He was coming off back-to-backchampionships with the Detroit Pistons; he had a reputation forbeing able to deal with smart players; he was great with the media. Quinn Buckner (Team USA selection committee): The biggest thing was, you did not want to offend any of theseguys. Chuck had to be extra sensitive, a lot like at an all-stargame. Because with players of that quality, if you offend them,every time the Pistons saw that player, they were going to take itout on Chuck, on his team.
Granik: There was a lot of discussion about Larry Bird, because Larry hadstarted having back problems. He clearly wasn't anywhere near whathis peak had been, but if you were putting together such a historicteam, you couldn't leave him off. Magic Johnson (Team USA point guard): This was our final moment—the curtain was going to comedown. Larry's back was messed up. And I was already out, dealingwith HIV, so we had to make sure that we went out the right way.For me, it was also about showing the world that I could stillplay, even living with HIV.
Patrick Ewing (Team USA center): That was my second Olympics—mine, Michael [Jordan], andChris [Mullin]. We played in the '84 Olympics together, and we hada great team then. But the cast on this team—it was the bestof the best. I knew it was going to be something special.
Karl Malone (Team USA power forward): I had an opportunity my freshman year at Louisiana Tech to try outfor the Olympic team, and I didn't make it. Got cut. It was one ofthe first times playing basketball that a coach told me I wasn'tgood enough. That always stuck in the back of my mind. Granik: The last player, as I recall, was between Clyde Drexler and IsiahThomas, and you had two pretty great résumés there.
Idon't know what the final vote was—I never asked—butwhen they counted, it came out for Clyde. David DuPree (reporter for USA Today ): If they were selecting solely on ability and accomplishments,Isiah Thomas may have deserved it. But who are you going to leaveoff? Nobody was tougher than John Stockton; nobody was a betterpasser. John Stockton was a tough son of a bitch.
Jan Hubbard (NBA columnist for Newsday ): Stockton broke a bone in his leg, and it healed very quickly. Butinitially they were going to replace him, and it was going to beJoe Dumars. So Isiah wasn't even going to be the first substitute. Rod Thorn (Team USA selection committee): Charles Barkley was one of the last guys put on the team. Youwanted to make sure that everything went smoothly, that everybodyrepresented the way you wanted them to represent.
And there weresome who, frankly, were worried about Barkley. But then he ended upbeing the leading scorer. P.J. Carlesimo (Team USA assistant coach): People look back and go, "Look at these other guys—why wouldthey have a college guy?" People forget, Christian Laettner isarguably the best college player ever.
Show me somebody else whoaccomplished what he did in four years. Christian Laettner (Team USA power forward): I tell people all the time, my favorite year at Duke—eventhough I won championships my junior year and senior year—wasmy freshman year. Because that's when you're at the bottom of theladder and you're working your way up, and you gotta go one hundredmiles an hour all the time. So I never minded being in thatposition. I was lucky.
I was in awe every moment I was around them. Granik: One of the most difficult things was dealing with some of MichaelJordan's endorsement issues. He was in a class by himself, breakinga lot of ground, and a lot of that conflicted with what the U.S.Olympic Committee assumed they were entitled to do with all theirathletes. We really had long and difficult negotiations withMichael and with Nike. Falk: It wasn't anything adversarial.
We just had to sit down and workit out. Craig Miller (USA Basketball director of public relations): You'd see the list of names growing, and then it became apparentthat this was going to be a special team. I think probably the realturning point was the cover of Sports Illustrated. When you saw who was on that cover, you were like, "Wow." Next: PART II: Gods.
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