30 Years Ago Today The Greatest Basketball Team Ever Won Gold – The Dream Team
CHICAGO – AUGUST 12: Members of the 1992 U.S. Mens Basketball Team attend the 2009 U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at McCormick Place on August 12, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for USOC)
30 years ago today The Dream Team won the gold at the Barcelona Olympics, beating Croatia, 117-85. In case you didn't know, that was the men's basketball team...The 1992 men's Olympic basketball team was quite unique because it was the first time that an American Olympic team featured current professional players from the NBA. They averaged beating their opponents by 44 points. Yes that's right, a 44 point average margin of victory. Absolutely sick! More on these numbers later on Shemon and Sheppard
The first ten players for the team were selected on September 21, 1991: Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen of the Chicago Bulls, John Stockton and Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz, Magic Johnson of the LA Lakers, Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics, Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks, Chris Mullen of the Golden State Warriors, David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs, and Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76rs. On May 12, 1992, Clyde Drexler of the Portland Trailblazers was chosen over Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons for the final professional roster spot. Duke University's Christian Laettner was also added on May 12, 1992 as an acknowledgment to the previous amateur system.
Here are the results of all the romps!
| 1 | June 28, 1992 | 136 | 57 |  Cuba | 79 |
| 2 | June 29, 1992 | 105 | 61 |  Canada | 44 |
| 3 | June 30, 1992 | 112 | 52 |  Panama | 60 |
| 4 | July 1, 1992 | 128 | 87 |  Argentina | 41 |
| 5 | July 3, 1992 | 119 | 81 |  Puerto Rico | 38 |
| 6 | July 5, 1992 | 127 | 80 |  Venezuela(Gold medal game) | 47 |
Charles Barkley ended up being the highest scorer on the team with an 18 point average. Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing both averaged 5.3 rebounds a game. Scottie Pippen was the assist leader on The Dream Team with 5.9 assists. The head coach of the team was the Detroit Piston's Chuck Daly. Sports Illustrated later stated that the Dream Team was "arguably the most dominant squad ever assembled in any sport". I don't think there is any doubt about that. Nothing has come even close to that team in any sport over the past 30 years. Part of me still wishes the colleges kids were playing but since the rest of the world was basically using all pro players for their respective teams, well, fair is fair. Here are some highlights from those teams:
