After being beaten in 1988 in the Olympics it was clear that the United States sending its college players against the best players from the rest of the world was no longer working. The rest of the world was getting better at basketball.  So send in the professionals, the NBA players. This team that the United States sent in 1992 has been called the greatest team ever assembled in any sport. Looking at the 12 players on the team it is hard to argue. 11 of the 12 are either in the Basketball Hall of Fame or will be. The only one who won’t be is Christian Laettner the only college player chosen {he was picked over Shaq O’Neill} The 11 NBA greats who went to Barcelona were- Charles Barkley who would be the leading scorer on the them, Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen, John Stockton, Karl ‘The Mailman” Malone, Chris Mullen, Magic Johnson, Larry Joe Bird, Pat Ewing , Clyde Drexler and David Robinson. The big omission was Isaah Thomas, it came down to Drexler or Thomas and Drexler got the nod.

They breezed through the tournament. Their closest game was in the gold medal game against Croatia which they won by a score of 117-85. Their Olympic record was 8-0. The recent comments by Kobe Bryant that the current 2012 team would beat the 92 team is laughable. He should be committed for insanity. The only two players from the current team that could play with that bunch are Kobe and Lebron James. I don’t think they will ever have a team again like this one. If the 92 team played the 12 team they would beat them by 20.

The 1992 may also have been the most influential team ever also. A lot of young people thoughout the world were inspired by seeing this team play. The standard of play in the world has improved a great deal in the last 20 years. The NBA is litered with foreign players these days. It is a world sport. I laugh when Roger Goddell talks about having US football in the Olympics. I don’t know how that would work. That is a North American sport.  Bad idea Roger.