Dream Teams Collide

            With the London 2012 Summer Olympics quickly approaching, USA basketball prepares to either assert our dominance of the sport or suffer a terrible disaster in the event that we lose a single game. Being an overwhelming favorite to win is both a gift and a curse. Our chances are much greater than any other country, but the pressure is immeasurable and anything short of gold would be a huge disappointment. Their standards are now so high that their most talked about competition lately is a fictional game between our current USA men’s basketball team and the legendary Dream Team of 1992. Kobe Bryant first stirred the pot by picking the 2012 team to win this game when asked about the hypothetical matchup. Since then, Chris Paul has taken his side and likes their chances as well. The responses were mostly in favor of the original Dream Team, most notably Charles Barkley’s open belief that outside of Kobe, Lebron and Durant, no one from the 2012 team would even make the Dream Team roster. Whether or not this is true at all, it is certain that the Dream Team is most likely the greatest team ever assembled in basketball, and possibly any sport. However, if there was ever a team to give Michael Jordan and company a run for their money, it would be the USA’s best of this summer. So in honor of all the interesting speculation between these two teams, let us analyze the greatest best of seven series to never happen.

            The best way to start this is simply listing the rosters of each elite group of players. Once you get over how ridiculously awesome this series would be, we can move on. For the 1992 Dream Team, take a look at the starting five and bench: PG-Magic Johnson SG-Michael Jordan SF-Larry Bird PF-Charles Barkley C-Patrick Ewing. Bench: Karl Malone, David Robinson, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin, and Christian Laettner. Among these are two top-three scorers of all time, two top-four in assists, and five of the top-ten in steals. Also, these players have a stunning total of 107 all-star appearances and 23 championship rings. In fairness to the 2012 team, their careers are far from over and by the time they all retire they may have comparable resumes. For the challenging team, we have the 2012 version of a USA Dream Team. Their starting five and the who starts/sits is purely speculation of course, but here they are. PG-Chris Paul SG-Kobe Bryant SF-Kevin Durant PF-Lebron James C-Tyson Chandler. Bench: Deron Williams, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Andre Iguodala, and James Harden. Again, their careers are not over, but they currently accumulate 45 all-star appearances and 7 championship rings. Realistically, I think these numbers may double by the time the 2012 USA players all leave the NBA, but even then 90 and 14 fall well short of the competition. The original Dream Team has the edge when it comes to championship DNA; outside of Kobe the current team only has two rings between eleven players. The game is not won by career accomplishments, but we have to scrap for evidence to predict the outcome of a series that cannot happen.

            Like any other, basketball is a game of individual matchups that add up to form a collective verdict. To start from the bottom up, I think the Dream Team wins the point guard matchup. Paul and Williams are obviously excellent, but Magic provides a height mismatch at 6’9” and Stockton leads NBA history in assists by a healthy margin. All time stats, however, are clearly not fair to players that have not yet retired. Looking at assists per game, Magic and Stockton are still first and second, respectively. Paul and Williams stand at third and sixth in that statistic so they do make a strong case, but still fall slightly short in comparison to the greatest passing duo of all time. At shooting guard we have a classic debate that will end in the confirmation that Michael Jordan is the greatest player of all time. Kobe is great but picked a rough matchup for this series, and MJ would be that little bit better than his Laker reincarnation. Kobe’s backups are Harden and Westbrook, who is more of a shooting guard on this team than his traditional point guard role. MJ’s backup is Drexler, who is one of the most electrifying players and dynamic scorers of all time. In case you think Kobe is better than MJ, Drexler still takes the shooting guard matchup for the real Dream Team.

            The 1992 team completes a clean sweep of the backcourt, but the matchups between the forwards may get more interesting. I know many who appreciate basketball history may not agree, but I feel even the great Larry Legend would be overwhelmed by the athleticism of Kevin Durant. They are both among the all-time best jump-shot scorers, but Durant’s additional ability to drive and dominate in all areas of the floor would eventually defeat a Larry Bird who, during the 1992 Dream Team run, did not actually play very well. Scottie Pippen makes this interesting, who can defend either Durant or Melo off the bench, but I do not think he would be enough to take out both throughout the course of an entire series. Iguodala would keep Mullin from shooting the 2012 team to death and would severely limit his damage. Overall, the small forward position narrowly goes to our modern team, in my opinion. At power forward, who wouldn’t love watching Lebron and Barkley go at it. You know Chuck would love to squeeze into his old body and take on a player he clearly resents for doing what he never could, win a championship, by taking the easy way out and joining his supremely talented friends. Barkley would out-man Lebron, but neither he nor Malone can compete with Lebron’s athleticism or Kevin Love’s shooting ability on the perimeter. Between that and Blake Griffin dunking over Laettner, I also see the power forward battle going to the 2012 team. We are appropriately tied up going into the final position. I only wish a more competitive matchup would decide this one, because the Dream Team is going to win the center spot by a landslide.

Tyson Chandler is no match for the combined force of Ewing and Robinson who, individually, are each exponentially better than him. This comes off as disrespectful to Chandler, my Knicks MVP last season, who is an elite defender and overcomes a lack of offensive production. He did quietly lead the league in field goal percentage last season but, being realistic, Tyson Chandler is simply not a good scorer. Ewing and Robinson rival his defensive presence in the paint and bring an offensive game that he would not even recognize from anything he has ever done. These two centers would not only give the Dream Team three of the five positions, which is a small majority, but would also dictate the tone of the entire series. For those of you who had the pleasure of watching the Dream team, you know they played through the big men. MJ and the other guards knew to defer to the biggest mismatches, which would definitely be the case here. Center is a dying position…When Andrew Bynum has one good year and immediately becomes the second best in the NBA, you know things are not the way they used to be. Most of the debates on the previous positions could go either way, but not this one.

When I first thought about this series I felt that the modern day athleticism would surprise people who were inclined to believe that the legends of the 90s would be unbeatable. I referenced it in the Durant over Bird claim, but I realize that on a team level there is actually no clear advantage in terms of athleticism. Jordan and Drexler showed as great a display of speed and midair prowess back when there was really a dunk contest, and Ewing had a forward’s athleticism in a center’s body. Overall, our team now may win the relay races, but not by nearly as big a margin as people may expect from today’s game. One decisive factor is the rebounding. If you look at the starting lineups and just substitute Pippen in for Bird, I cannot see how the 2012 team gets a single rebound. The Dream Team would dominate the glass in this matchup and, I believe, are better at three of the five positions. One final blow is the immeasurable factor of having the best player on the floor. Michael Jordan has Lebron’s dominance, Kobe’s competitiveness, Durant’s clutch gene, and is as good a quarterback as Chris Paul. He could also defend any of those players. MJ and Kobe are eerily similar, but Jordan would always have that one step on him. Lebron’s one weakness is his mentality when shaken by trash-talking or applied pressure, and Jordan would leave him in a psych ward. CP3 struggles against bigger guards who are fast enough to stay with him, and the 6’6” frame of MJ could handle this task as well. Durant has no clear weakness with the ball but will not demand the ball if he is not open, and I am sure MJ is capable of denying him the right to that ball. I don’t mean to overstate the importance of one guy, but this is the one case in which that is not possible. If this series did come down to clutch shots, Jordan would have the last laugh. He really has every base covered. The 2012 USA team would be the only one to push the Dream team to game seven but, if it even came down to that, the heroes I just missed out on watching would triumph over the ones I have watched throughout the past decade. It has been fun comparing the two, but the 1992 USA Dream Team really is the greatest team ever assembled.