In early 1991, Sports Illustrated labeled the forthcoming American roster as the "Dream Team" on the cover of its February 18 issue. USA Basketball asked the NBA to supply players for its 1992 roster the league was initially unenthusiastic about this idea. Selections Michael Jordan was offered a co-captainship but he deferred to Bird and Johnson The vote was 56–13 in favor of the change the Amateur Basketball Association of the United States of America (ABAUSA, renamed USA Basketball after the vote) voted against it due to "colleges and high schools that make up most of constituency it." The Soviet proposal to limit the national teams to only two NBA players for the first few years was then unanimously rejected. In 1989, FIBA voted to change the rule and allow NBA players to participate. In the 1988 Summer Olympics, the Americans lost to the USSR and settled for bronze, their worst finish in the history of the tournament. Other countries used their best players from their domestic professional leagues. Olympic teams, which were composed of collegiate and, at times (especially in the 1950s), AAU players. Prior to the 1992 Olympics, FIBA rules specifically prevented NBA players from participating in Olympic tournaments, and only amateurs were eligible for the U.S. In addition to the team induction, 11 players and three coaches have also been inducted individually into the Naismith Hall of Fame. The Naismith Hall of Fame calls the team "the greatest collection of basketball talent on the planet". Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, and the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017. The team was collectively inducted into the U.S. Īt the 1992 Summer Olympics held in Barcelona, the team defeated its opponents by an average of 44 points en route to the gold medal against Croatia. The team has often been described as the greatest sports team ever assembled. OlympicTalk is on Apple News.The 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the " Dream Team", was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association (NBA). MORE: LeBron, Curry lead finalists for U.S. “I think he acted like a bully, but maybe it’s his personality.”Īngola, though it has zero Olympic medals in any sport, actually qualified for five straight Olympic men’s basketball tournaments in the 1990s and 2000s and won games in 19. “Other players in Angola play against Charles Barkley, and they told us there’s like a kid, a fat boy who is very aggressive in the paint,” Coimbra said in the 2012 NBA TV documentary. He was one of four Dream Teamers to return for the 1996 Atlanta Games, winning another gold medal that he’s now planning to sell. He was also traded from the flailing Philadelphia 76ers to the Phoenix Suns that summer, then went on to win NBA MVP and reach the Finals, where the Jordan Bulls stopped him in six games. Olympic Committee officials briefly considered sending Barkley home, according to Jack McCallum‘s book, “Dream Team.” They let Barkley stay in Barcelona, where he mingled regularly along Las Ramblas.īarkley went on to lead the Dream Team in scoring as part of the greatest year of his career. To Barkley’s credit, he obliged to take a picture with Coimbra after the game, according to The New York Times, which reported that Angola had three gymnasiums in the entire country. So he did it a couple more times, and I clocked him.” “I said hey, dude, if you do that any more, I’m going to clock you. “That team played dirty,” Barkley, who had a 75-pound edge over Coimbra, said in the NBC film. Barkley continued to claim that the Angolan, 24-year-old economics student Herlander Coimbra, elbowed him three times before the Round Mound of Rebound had enough. They of course did, steamrolling to gold to spark a new era for Olympic basketball.īut Barkley’s gesture endured, highlighted in Dream Team documentaries on NBA TV and NBC in 2012.
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