Motivated by the review held at The last Dance about the team’s history and impact, it has been talked about Barcelona Dream Team 1992. A team that is second to none when it comes to the right names (and the game), with 11 future Hall of Famers, who completely dominated the Olympic arena from start to finish.
Nonetheless, Do you know exactly how and why this group was formed? What was it that led the United States to resort to the elements of the NBA?
The first thing to remember is that until the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the IOC technically did not allow professional players in their selectionsbetting on a supposed amateurish spirit.
Of course Most teams were far from respecting this rule and found different legal loopholes to be able to use their data. Without going further, superstars from the FIBA environment like the Soviet Arbydas Shampoo or Yugoslav Drazen Petrovic represented their respective teams in ’88.
The story with the United States was different. The North Americans used exclusively NCAA players, following IOC regulations to the letter.
Whether it was a decision influenced by morality or simply practicality, the truth is that until 1988 it never took their NBA to climb to the top of the podium: By Seoul, they had won nine gold medals in ten appearances, with the memorable and controversial collapse against the Soviet Union in Munich in 1972 the only false step..
successes for history
The problem was that by 1988 the landscape of international basketball had changed., with the sport progressing to many nations and consolidating into the usual powers that be, enjoyed some of the best scraps in its history. This, combined with a certain confidence or relaxation with which Americans could face such challenges, proved fatal.
After reaching the semifinals with a 6-0 record, the big blow came: the Soviet Union beat the United States 82-76surprising the strangers themselves, with an outstanding performance by three Lithuanians born in Kaunas between 1960 and 1964, as Curtain rhymes (28 points), Sarounas Marcioulionis (19 points) and Arbydas Shampoo (13 points and 13 rebounds).
good job by him David Robinson (19 points and 12 rebounds) and Dan Majerle (15 points and 7 rebounds) was not enough, on a team that had other players who would end up going through the NBA like e.g. Mitch Richmond, Charles Smith, Stacey Augmond, Danny Manning, JR Reid Y Willie Andersonincluding.
The blow to the ego TeamUSA It was huge and the 1990 World Cup in Argentina didn’t help: there not only did they have to settle for bronze again, but they did it by adding a couple of losses (Puerto Rico in the Group Stage and Yugoslavia in the semi-finals).
Alonzo Mourning, Kenny Anderson, Bryant Stith, Todd Day, Chris Gatling, Christian Laettner (two years later, a member of the Dream Team) and Billy Owenswere the biggest names since the last time the United States entered a major tournament with an all-NCAA team.
It was a fact: it was no longer enough with the junior university projects. Something had to change and that’s exactly what happened.
With Americans disappointed after these two failures (at least in his measure) and with the significant support of the FIBA Secretary General, Boris Stankovic, for Barcelona 1992 the ban on the use of professional players was liftedallowing the NBA to participate for the first time.
More | Did Isiah Thomas really deserve to be on the 1992 Olympic Dream Team?
Led by multi-champion Chuck Daly and co Michael Jordan, Larry Bird Y magic Johnson in the head, he armed himself list of names full of technical, athletic and physical talent, to regain his place at the top of world basketball. The rest is already known history…
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