give them time, the group is young...who knows in about 10 years this group could have just as many hall of famers as the original dream team
I think that its amazing that no matter how many times the unthinkable happens or people are proved dead wrong by making absolute assertions based on the odds, or the likelihood, of a certain outcomes, people still insist on on saying "there will never be...," or "there is no way that...," etc... I think this is possibly one of the best basketball teams ever assembled. For the first time since 1992 almost all of the best American NBA players are in, and its exciting! As was alluded to before, the biggie difference is that the Dream Team was made up of peak, or immediately post peak players, where as we are yet to see Lebron's, Gilbert's, Carmelo's Wade's, or really any of these guys career peaks. Don't condemn these guys before they have had a chance to prove themselves just because they are the young guns, and not your fogey contemporaries...
Kobe should had been the MJ of this team, too bad he had that surgery.
It's a great team. An instant favorite. I still don't see enough shooters though. Lots of big time crunch players though. I think they've got a medal in them. Not sure what colour. Argentina is still wicked strong.
Are you guys even conscious when you write. The olympics arent played until 2008. The guys will be even more disgusting then they are now. Stop having a cow.
They have to be fairly good now, or else we risk not qualifying for the olympics, like what happened to Clemens' olympic dreams.
Are you guys even conscious when you write. The olympics arent played until 2008. You do realize that the World Championships are played every year. Are you even conscious of what we write?
(Actually, Weedy, they are played every four years, staggered in between Olympic Games. But your point is taken, nonetheless.)
"There will never be another "Dream Team". The NBA is too mixed now to have all of the dominant players be Americans" Yup, kidrayter2005. The Dream Team was as much about a point in time as it was about the players. Its sort of like hockey's first big international event. There will never be another 72 Team Canda or an event like that again no matter how hard they try and try to recreate it. I'm glad Canada actually managed to win the first big hockey event. It's allowed us to gloat ever since regardless of our sometimes only modest success at "our" sport since.
Once they compared Chris Paul to John Stockton, I stopped reading. Paul is a nice player and all, but this butt-munch is comparing court savvy and intelligence with youth and energy. Same with the Carmello vs. Chris Mullin comparison. Carmello may even be the better player, but his game is exactly the opposite of Mullin's. The Dream Team will be once: That one time it was a novelty, everybody wanted in, and everybody was just happy to be playing in a historic game.
There will never be another 72 Team Canda or an event like that again no matter how hard they try and try to recreate it. I'm glad Canada actually managed to win the first big hockey event. To be fair, I think the team from the 1987 Canada Cup was a better squad. As well, I think the games from 1987 Canada Cup finals were far more entertaining and exciting than the 1972 Summit Series. Obviously, I recognize the historical impact of the 72 Summit Series, but I wish people would stop declaring it the greatest team assembled. The fact that the WHA players were denied access to the team means it's not even close. As well, the 1987 Soviet team was chock full of all-stars/HOF'ers. To me, that's the primo hockey series every played. Regarding the USA basketball team: As a Raptor fan (by location only), I'd like to see Bosh make the squad. I've always figured the hype about him was strictly local, but this seems to validate that hype.
Here's how I see it: Dwayne Wade/MJ= c'mon. King James / Magic= They kinda look alike Amare doesn't have the caboose Barkley does. Chris Paul/Stockton= What are you smoking? Carmello / Mullin= Anthony has better hair Morrison / Bird= Oh wait, Adam didn't make the team Huh, whaddya know. I'm as helpful as ever.
"To be fair, I think the team from the 1987 Canada Cup was a better squad. As well, I think the games from 1987 Canada Cup finals were far more entertaining and exciting than the 1972 Summit Series." But, the point is that the first one, the 72 edition is that special nostalgic team everyone remembers because of the timing, not the players. '87 WAS great, I saw some of the games right here in Hamilton and it is fondly remember by hockey fans, but the 72 team is seen as part of our common culture, kind of like other countries remember their great military victories. (...hey, weren't we talking about basketball?...)
The comparison is pattently absurd. If you look at the NBA website you can see that 10 of 12 original Dream Teamers are listed as being not just HOF but among the 50 greatest ever to play the game. http://www.nba.com/history/
50greatest.html I think that the closest comparison in any sport, ever, would be MLB all-star games back in the 30's through the 50's and even there I think the numbers would fall way short. I think as an absolute best case scenario, then maybe this current squad could include Wade, Anthony and James among those elite ranks.
Seconding kyrilmitch_76's first paragraph. I can't believe this article was printed. Really, it's not much of a player-to-player comparison when you have to qualify the present-day Team USA player's summary with stuff like: "He doesn't quite have Ewing's offensive moves..." (well then, he ain't Ewing, is he?) "...not as good a defender as Stockton... but has the same mindset" (I play with Rec League players that have Stockton's mindset...For whatever the fuck that's worth...) That said, give a couple of these guys 10 years and the comparisons *might* be valid. I'm never buying Stoudamire as Barkley or Joe Johnson as Bird (give me a fucking break), but Wade could become Jordon and LeBron could evolve into Magic (but there's a long way to go in both of those cases). Unlikely at best though.
