9/5/2023 0 Comments 1992 dream team roster![]() ![]() In fact, the Dream Team’s dominance – and the global audience of eyeballs it brought to the sport – is arguably the greatest legacy of the 1992 Olympic Games, period. “I don’t think Dirk or Yao or the world is inspired by basketball if it wasn’t for ,” veteran sports reporter Marc J. Many of the biggest names among foreign-born NBA players – some of whom would go on to play for Team USA in later Olympics – recalled watching the Dream Team dominate on the Barcelona hardwood. Some of those fans became professional basketballers themselves while the NBA season before the games featured just 23 players hailing from outside the United States, the 2022 season saw 120, coming from more than twice as many countries. The Barcelona games were broadcast in 69 countries, transforming viewers around the globe into basketball fanatics. Other players took pictures with the Dream Team before and after the games, human Olympians seizing their chance to immortalize their moment facing off against basketball’s pantheon of gods. ![]() During one game, an opposing player was caught gesturing for a teammate on the bench to snap a photo of himself guarding Johnson. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of their biggest fans were their Olympic competitors. Now Jordan’s jacket, signed by the shooting guard himself, is open for bidding at Sotheby’s through 28 June.īut the Dream Team didn’t just win (all six of its) games – it won hearts and minds. Surprising no one, on 5 July 1992, the Dream Team beat Venezuela by 47 points, mounted the podium clad in Reebok-crafted American flags and received their gold medals. “It was the most fun I ever had on a basketball court.” “Everybody asks me about that game,” Jordan told the magazine’s Jack McCallum. The most spirited competition that the squad faced was actually during practice Sports Illustrated dubbed a legendary scrimmage match three days before the Olympics as the “greatest game nobody ever saw.” ![]() They averaged 117.3 points per game, blowing away every team by double-digit margins and all but two (Croatia and Puerto Rico) by more than 40 points. It would be an insult to say that the Dream Team brought their game like a gun at a knife fight – in fact, the Americans dominated the court like a battle tank. In 1992, Jordan and the rest of the Dream Team were all grown up – ballplayers at the top of their game. Still, they were barely old enough to celebrate with champagne. (This loss reduced the American record in Olympic games to an embarrassing 84–2.) Jordan and Dream Teammates Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin had been to the Games before, back in 1984 while in college, where the team claimed gold after going undefeated in tournament play. In previous Olympiads, NBA players were forbidden from competing by the International Basketball Federation, but the rule was changed after the Soviet Union beat the Americans in 1988. Bidding for the jersey ends April 19.įor more information, please visit original Olympic Dream Team poses for a group photo in Barcelona, Spain. Interested bidders may participate in the online auction. Today, the success of the "Dream Team" is often credited with having had a drastic impact on the increasing popularity of basketball worldwide. The team dominated during the Olympics, easily winning the Gold Medal while defeating their opponents by an average margin of 44 points. In addition to Jordan, the 1992 team's roster included Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, and collegiate standout Christian Laettner. The jersey was last sold at a 2013 public auction for a staggering $53,325. ![]() This jersey was first purchased in September 1992 at a special gala charity auction conducted by The Michael Jordan Foundation and it is accompanied by a copy of the original auction invoice. Jordan even inscribed the jersey with a black Sharpie on the right breast "Best Wishes/Michael Jordan." The number "9" appears on both the front and reverse. The white mesh jersey reads "USA Basketball" on the front and "Jordan" on the reverse. Men's Basketball jersey worn by Michael Jordan as a member of the legendary "Dream Team" that won the Gold Medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics will be auctioned at Robert Edward Auctions. ![]()
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