A once and for all breakdown of which Dream Team is the superior squad

Written by  //  July 13, 2012  //  Feature, NBA  //  8 Comments

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 I grew up in pure awe of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird as a very young child in the 80’s. That translated over into deeper appreciation for Michael Jordon as a teenager.

When my son was born and become fascinated with the game, I teased him that he missed the golden age of basketball.



I remember the 92 Olympic team and how they were athletic royalty that beat down the world to express our pure dominance of the sport.

Yes, it was the golden age of basketball.

Now as the 2012 team moves forward to carve out their own thing, sports fanatics do what sports fanatics do and that is debate.

The hottest debate of the moment is which “dream team” would beat the other team?

The answer is pretty obvious yet there are those that want to hang on to their feelings because they were born at a certain time and they feel a certain way.

I get it and I understand it but the truth is the truth and you can’t take away the truth.

To really size the argument up you can’t look at it the situation from a singular view. You have to look at it from the perspective of a best-of-seven series.

That is how basketball has settled all of it’s championship requests and this one is of the tallest order.

So before we really get started, take a moment to flush your mental toilet. Put your beliefs and agendas aside and allow yourself be open to anything.

The roster for the 92 team is below.

Christian Laettner (PF), David Robinson (C), Patrick Ewing (C), Larry Bird (SF), Scottie Pippen (SF), Michael Jordon (SG), Clyde Drexler (SG), Karl Malone (PF), John Stockton (PG), Chris Mullin (SF), Charles Barkley (PF), Magic Johnson (PG)

The roster for the 2012 team is below.

Tyson Chandler (C), Kevin Durant (F), LeBron James (F), Russell Westbrook (G), Deron Williams (G), Andre Iguodala (F), Kobe Bryant (G), Kevin Love (F), James Harden (G), Chris Paul (G), Anthony Davis (F), Carmelo Anthony (F)

Now let’s get it on. Every sport is a game of matchups but basketball is arguably the one where they count the most. For the sake of true analysis, we have to tweak this by positional head-to-head victories.

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Twitt

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About the Author

Adrian Glover is Players View's Editor-In-Chief. He has spent his days as a newspaper columnist,magazine editor, freelance writer and as somebody's father. ;) Follow him on Twitter at @playersview.

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  • Breyzh

    How the heck do you manage to screw up every single one of your articles ?
    That is NOT how basketball works. Matchups are important, but the best players matchups are much more important, and it isn’t the only thing that counts (see : team defense)

    Who gives a flying poo about Laettner ? The guy barely played, and with good reason : there were Malone, Barkley, Pippen, Bird and Mullin all playing more minutes than him at forward !

    You’re saying we have to forget any agenda, but you obviously didn’t : insisting heavily on Laettner while he would be a total non-factor is really dishonnest, as is arguing that Chandler, Davis or Love would even give a run for their money to either DRob or Ewing. Same goes for Love vs Barkley or anyone on the 2012 team trying to guard Malone consistently (yup, even James). Same with Pippen : he wouldn’t be as bothered by Durant’s lenght as you seem to think, since he had freakishly long arms and could guard some 4.

    The age argument is invalid aswell, as there were no youngsters except Laettner (in the vein of Harden, Davis, Westbrook) to trim down the average age of the 92 team. Bird and Magic were old already (they are the 2 who make the 92 team older), but they didn’t have that significant of a role anyway : the roster was spear-headed by Barkley, Jordan, Pippen and Malone. I think it’s you who has selective memory.

    I won’t argue point by point because, hey, I’m not a blogger, but you shouldn’t be either.

    Do you even proof-read ? There’s a typo in the 1st word of the article for the love of god !

    I won’t even get into the argument of which team is better (the 92 team has better bigs, better shooting, better passing, while the 2012 team is quicker and more athletic), I’m just pointing out the obvious holes in your arguments.

  • Breyzh

    Oh, I’ll also be shocked if the 2012 team gets 11 of its players in the HoF… Chandler and Iggy won’t make it, and Davis, Harden, Love and Westbrook are far from shoe-ins at this point in their career (because they are still not in their prime, which was the case of 9 of the 12 players (save for Magic, Bird and Laettner) on the 92 roster). I’m not even sure ‘Melo will make it tbh.

    That means the 2012 team has 4 (future) HoFers in their prime (James, Paul, Durant and Williams) against 9 for the 2012 team. Even if you consider Kobe to be in his prime or ‘Melo as a sure-fire HoFer, there’s still a clear advantage to the 92 team.

    You could argue that with the better training nowadays would helép the 2012 team, but you didnt…

  • Adam

    I definitly thought you wee idding once you started bringing up christian laetner. Then I kept reading and realized you were serious and just started to laugh. You must be about 17 years old and clearly not have ever seen any of the 92 team with your own eyes because if you did you would know how silly you sound.

  • Ian

    You failed to analyze the most important element of great teams- passing. Literally every player on the dream team was a great passer. That compared to about a third of today’s team. Dream team would slIce them up my man.

  • TK

    If you look at matchs up as a whole you will see where your argument is way off. C-Robinson, Ewing over Chandler, Davis…all day. PF-Malone, Barkley over Griffin(healthy), Love. SF-Pippen,Mullin ok its close but lets go Lebron,Iggy. SG-Jordan,Drexler over Kobe, Anthony. PG-Stockon,Magic tie Westbrook, Paul. Yes I left out Bird, and Latner, as they were non factors, and Harden. Fact is they wouldn’t go 10-12 deep. They wouldn’t need to. The most important part is being missed, mental toughness and will to win. Yes 2012 is young and athletic but the 19992 is far from over the hill. How would you want taking a last shot? Anyone on the ’12 team over Jordan, Magic? Doubt it. Also, each position wouldn’t get equal minutes, or touches. If I take my starting 5 of Stockon, Jordan, Pippen, Malone, Ewing. You have two sets of players who knew each other inside and out. Add my bench of Magic,Drexler,Mullins,Barkley,Robinson (all in their prime minus Magic) vs. Your starting 5 of Paul,Kobe,Durant,Lebron,Chandler you are playing offense 4 vs. 5. Then bench of Williams,Westbrook,Anthony,Love,Davis…I will give the willy old vets the edge…starters and bench. Yes I will give you that 11th and 12th man of Harden and Iggy would get the best of Bird(at his age) and Lattner, but truth is they would never see the floor in a game, in a series, unless it was a blow out. I could go on and on analysing but here is the bottom line, you surround the G.O.A.T. (MJ) with 10 H.O.F’s and you don’t lose. Period.

  • Jimmy James

    This is quite possibly the worst “analysis” I’ve ever read. There is just so much baseless assumption, logically flawed points and lack of understanding of how basketball is played, I’d be embarrassed to put my name on this. This kind of work isn’t going to cut it anywhere.

  • KP

    This is laughable. 92 would dump the ball inside to Ewing and force 12 to double-team the post allowing 92 to PASS the basketball to get easy shots… Did you think of any of scenario like this before you wrote? You must have been too intrigued by who would abuse Christian Laettner in the 2 minutes of garbage time he would be on the floor. Of course that would be when 92 was up by 20 in the 4th because they could play team basketball, too, instead of just one on one basketball.

  • http://www.playersview.net Hurricane-PV

    Thank you all for your comments. As expected, this analysis and its eventual outcome did spark passionate results.

    We have immortalized the 92 squad so much that they are now placed on a pedestal that renders them unbeatable.

    The match-ups are they key but that is my take on it.

    For those that question my abilities as a writer, please keep in mind I have made a living in this profession for two decades at various newspapers, magazines and digital publications.

    With that being said, I appreciate everybody’s opinion on this topic.That’s what we do best as sports people…debate.

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