With a hard-fought win over France led by a flurry of long-range bombs from Stephen Curry, USA Basketball extended its streak of Olympic gold medals to five in a row. It has now won seven of the last nine golds dating back to the famous Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics.
With the growing plethora of talent in the NBA – and around the world – it’s inevitable that each new Olympic basketball team draws comparison to that first all-NBA player team from 1992.
This year was no different.
*Record scratch*
Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.
Let me explain.
The 1992 Dream Team
After failing to even reach the gold medal game for the second time in three years at the 1988 Olympics in a sport that was invented in America and historically dominated by Americans, FIBA (International Federation of Basketball) delegates voted by a margin of 56 to 13 to allow professional athletes to participate in its international events.
Up until that point, only amateur athletes were allowed to compete – in other words, Team USA was generally a college all-star team. The gold won by Team USA in 1984 consisted of future NBA stars like players like Michael Jordan, Chris Mullin and Patrick Ewing, along with a pair of Razorback legends in Alvin Robertson and Joe Kleine – the first Razorbacks selected for an Olympic basketball team.
Robertson was coming off of his third and final season at Arkansas in which he averaged 15.5 points, 6.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds. He had recently been drafted No. 7 overall in an absolutely loaded 1984 NBA draft that also included players like Jordan, Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon and John Stockton.
Kleine was also coming off his third collegiate season, though his first came at Notre Dame. He would return to Arkansas after winning Olympic gold for one final season in which he averaged 22.1 points and 8.4 rebounds, earning himself a spot as the No. 6 overall pick in the following draft in 1985.
When the change was made to allow professional basketball players to compete in FIBA events, the U.S. held back no punches. USA Basketball assembled the greatest team the world had ever seen to avenge its recent loss in the 1988 Olympics.
Composed of 11 future Hall of Famers – and led by three players widely considered to be among the 10 greatest players in basketball history in Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird – the newly dubbed “Dream Team” dominated every opponent on its way to a gold medal with an average margin of victory of 43.8 points per game.
A large part of this was their stellar defensive ability, often spearheaded by none other than Arkansas native and former UCA legend Scottie Pippen.
The long-time Chicago Bulls forward had only been in the league for five years at the time, but he had already accumulated two NBA Championships, two All-Star appearances and two All-Defensive team selections. He averaged 8.0 points, 6.2 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals during his 1992 Olympic run.
At the time, arguably the only comparable defender to Pippen was his teammate both in the NBA and on the Dream Team, Michael Jordan. These two wreaked havoc on the perimeter, while perhaps the two best defenders on the 2024 Team USA were former Kentucky Wildcats and John Calipari products – Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo.
The pure dominance of the Dream Team will likely never be seen again at any level of basketball. The legend of the team grew even further with the downfall of the Soviet Union – the same country that took home the previous gold medal in the 1988 Olympics while in the midst of a Cold War with the United States.
That original 1992 Dream Team became something of national superheroes as they destroyed everyone in their path while such a public and tense situation was still fresh on American minds.
The lore of this team may never be topped, and looking back it’s impossible to discount their greatness, dominance or social impact on both America and the basketball world as a whole.
2024 USA Basketball
Fast forward six golds – and one infamous bronze medal – later and the Americans might have somehow put together an even more talented team than the one that dominated the world 32 years ago.
The debate of Michael Jordan vs LeBron James as the greatest of all time will likely never end, and we’re not even going to attempt to make a case in either direction here. They are the two greatest of all time, and they led these respective teams well – though Jordan did struggle from the field at times and was only the fourth-highest scorer on the 1992 team.
James, on the other hand, led his team in both rebounds and assists while finishing only 0.6 points per game behind teammate – and the undisputed greatest shooter of all time – Stephen Curry.
Beyond these two, no NBA duo in the history of the game has much of an argument as a better scoring tandem than Curry and former Warrior Kevin Durant – both arguably top-20 players of all-time in their own right. Durant is arguably the most well rounded scorer in basketball history with his 7-foot frame, guard-like skillset and ability to sink shots from virtually anywhere on the court.
Toss in a recent MVP in Joel Embiid and rising stars near the peak of their powers in guys like Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker and recent NBA champion Jayson Tatum, and simply throwing out names for either team isn’t a sufficient argument in either direction.
This is especially true considering names like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson hold a lot of weight for the Dream Team despite both being at the end of their careers at the time – Bird never played in the NBA again while Magic played only 32 more games before retiring.
A few of these current NBA superstars – and potential Hall of Famers – who played for the modern 2024 team are the byproduct of new Arkansas coach John Calipari. Anthony Davis – the star of Calipari’s lone championship at Kentucky – along with Bam Adebayo and Devin Booker all played pivotal roles in Team USA’s gold medal run.
Davis and Adebayo came off the bench to form a defensive duo in the paint that had some social media users drawing comparisons to the defensive capabilities of a young Tim Duncan and original Dream Team member, David Robinson. Obviously, neither Davis nor Adebayo are Duncan or Robinson, but their combined defense was more than enough to warrant a comparison.
Booker started most games throughout the Olympics and settled into a reduced, but defined, role alongside the other NBA superstars on the court with him. While the initial reports of the 2024 lineup started forming in late 2023, one twitter user posed the question, “Anybody (among the stars interested in playing) can be nice with the ball in their hands, but can you be cool with defending and going to the corner for a few possessions?”
Booker’s response was simple: “I’ll do it.”
That’s almost exactly what Booker did during this Olympic run, and he played his role to perfection, even drawing high praise from USA Basketball head coach Steve Kerr, who called Booker the team’s “unsung MVP.”
The offensive firepower of the 2024 Team USA at an individual player level is unlike anything seen before on the same basketball team – not even the Dream Team compares when considering the versatility and overall shot-making ability of the modern squad.
Olympic Team Comparison
Before even getting into the specifics of each player and how the teams might match up, it’s important to consider a few things. First, athletes of every sport get better over time. World Records are set annually in nearly every sport because training, medicine, technique and understanding of respective sports naturally grows over time. This is an indisputable fact.
Secondly, the growth of the 3-point shot and analytics in today’s basketball world has changed the game so much that it can often be more difficult to even compare across decades and eras – but that doesn’t make the debates any less enjoyable.
Now let’s get into it.
A reminder that the history, dominance and social impact of the Dream Team reigns supreme. These things have not – and likely will not – ever be topped.
However, the stats don’t like when comparing the rosters at an individual level. At the time of their respective Olympic runs, 2024 Team USA had accumulated more championships, more All-Star Appearances, and more All-Defensive team selections despite the fair argument that the Dream Team was a better defensive squad.
Below is a full comparison of key stats and accolades between the players on the two teams. To be fair to the Dream Team that featured Christian Laettner, who had yet to play an NBA game, this comparison was also made without the player with the fewest minutes on the 2024 Team USA squad, Tyrese Haliburton. These numbers appear in parenthesis beside the stat that includes all 12 members.
The 2024 Team USA squad has more defensive accolades and a higher points-per-game average while also boasting a better Effective Field Goal percentage (which takes into account 3-point attempts).
Sure, some of these counting stats can be attributed to James, Durant and Curry being toward the end of their NBA careers while some of the Dream Team were early in their careers with many more accolades still to come. However, the pair of veterans on the Dream Team would combine to play only 32 more games total in their NBA careers.
The 2024 trio is likely to put up even more stats and accolades before they finish – not to mention the never-ending potential of the young superstars on the team like Jayson Tatum and Anthony Edwards. The same could be said for the young stars of the Dream Team like Michael Jordan, who would go on to win four more championships, or Charles Barkley or Karl Malone who would win NBA MVPs following their gold medal.
The other factor in the debate is the level of competition between the two teams. In 1992, only 9 NBA players were active on a team other than Team USA in the Olympic games. In 2024, that number ballooned to 60-plus.
Ironically, the Dream Team’s international popularity during the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 was the biggest spark for the growth of modern international basketball, inspiring a generation of players like Tony Parker – who led the French national team for multiple decades that now boasts Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama, who took the 2024 Team USA down to the wire in the gold medal game, losing 98-87 – and Manu Ginobili – who led Argentina to a gold medal in 2004 – to lead the way to what is now a truly modern game.
It is worth remembering, though, that the Dream Team dismantled a Croatian team with three NBA All-Star caliber players in Toni Kukoc, Drazen Petrovic and Dino Radja.
Truth be told, there is no definitive answer to this debate of which team is greater, because it boils down to a hypothetical situation based largely on opinion, but there should be no doubt that a debate is warranted and not out of the question.
If the two teams were to match up in a playoff-style best-of-7 series, which rules these teams play by would likely make a difference. In general, though, the 2024 Team USA squad would have too much firepower and long-range shooting that the members of the Dream Team aren’t used to defending, regardless of their high defensive pedigree.
If these teams opted to play under NBA instead of FIBA rules, and those catered closer to those of the ‘90s, however, the physicality and size of the Dream Team would certainly give the 2024 team issues. But it helps the that the modern guys can hold their own in Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis, not to mention the freight train that is LeBron James and a 7-foot tall scoring machine in Kevin Durant.
Give me the 2024 USA Basketball squad in a hard-fought seven games. The offensive firepower would be too much to handle, regardless of era.
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Some simulations, however, have a different idea:
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