Steve Luhm of the Salt Lake Tribune takes a stroll down Memory Lane with the Dream Team:
Springfield, Mass. - The Dream Team’s first step toward Olympic domination and Friday night’s induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was a nightmare.
Losing to a bunch of college kids?
Inexplicably, it happened.
Before the Dream Team, NBA players were ineligible for the Olympics. But that changed when FIBA, basketball’s world governing body, changed its rules and permitted professionals to participate at Barcelona in 1992. It was a time of wonderment and great excitement, as fans had never before seen the sport’s greatest players together on one team.
Four years after the United States settled for the bronze medal, USA Basketball used the rule change to put together an Olympic team featuring more stars than the Milky Way. The roster included Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen and Patrick Ewing, as well as the Utah Jazz’s John Stockton and Karl Malone.
Croatia, Brazil, Spain, Italy and the rest of the world didn’t have a chance.
Or did they?
Read on in the SLT:
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