Just four days before its start Barcelona Olympics 1992The Dream team of Chuck Daly completed his training in Monte Carlo. And it was that July 22, when a final training session took place that would end up going down in history.
“It was the best game I have ever played“, he would say years later Michael Jordanin relation to what happened that Wednesday in the Principality of Monaco.
What exactly happened? To complete the details for the Games, Daly intended to have a hard training session, in which he competed with the same intensity of an official meeting. For this he organized a 5 vs 5 duel, with a detail that would ensure competitiveness: Michael Jordan on one side, Magic Johnson on the other. The two campus leaders, facing each other.
And it’s clear that even with Magic already retired from the NBA after announcing he was HIV-positive just months earlier, the former Lakers point guard was still a dazzling figure. Ahead, a Jordan who was not only clearly the best player in the league, but also came off the back of winning his first two titles with Chicago.
The practice could have had 11 future Hall of Famers, but injuries John Stockton Y Clyde Drexler They were prevented from being part of the game. Instead, that number dropped to 9, with the university Christian Laettner being the only one who would not be a member of that select group immortalized in Springfield.
For him White team from Jordan logically his skier joined Scotty Pippenone Larry Bird who by then had already played his last game in the NBA and two super explosive trainees like Karl Malone Y Patrick Ewing.
For him Blue team by Magic an outstanding scorer also appeared as Chris Mullin, Christian Laettener and an inner twin full of power: Charles Barclay Y David Robinson.
The meeting was even more competitive than Daly expected, not only from the game, but from what was said about it. Magic, in particular, was unwilling to relinquish his position as the leader of this roster, even when facing a clearly superior player in MJ.
The Blue team took a quick lead, but in the long run, It was White who eventually won 40-36.
As it says in the book”Dream teamby Jack McCallum Jordan was the game’s leading scorer with 17 points., joined on his team by Malone (9) and Pippen (8). Blue’s best was Barkley (11), followed by Laettner (10).
Hours later, already in Barcelona, the American team would begin to change the history of international basketball forever, on their way to the gold medal. Nonetheless, for his team, the most demanding game was already behind in Monte Carlo.
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