On Sep. 21 in 1991, USA Basketball announced 10 of the eventual 12 players on the ‘Dream Team’ for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
The 10 announced were Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, and John Stockton. The late Chuck Daly, then the head coach of the Detroit Pistons who had NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, was named the head coach of the national team.
This was the first time professional players from the NBA were named to Team USA’s Olympic squad.
That decision came off the back of FIBA voting 56-13 in favour of allowing professionals to participate in the Olympics by dropping the word “Amateur” from their name
The duo of Christian Laettner and Clyde Drexler were added to the team later on May 12, 1992. With that, the final Dream Team included 11 professional athletes from the NBA and the one college star in Laettner.
Crossing the 100-point mark in every game, they went undefeated and helped Team USA re-capture the gold medal. Head coach Chuck Daly never called a timeout as the team won their games by an average winning margin of 44 points.
The ‘Dream Team’ was the spark. Team USA went from not winning the gold medal in three of the five Olympics before 1992 to winning seven of the eight since. The team not only elevated USA Basketball to the top once again but was also an inspiration for future European NBA greats like Pau Gasol and Tony Parker.
The 1992 squad was elected as a unit to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and to the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017.
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