Friday, August 5th, 2011 at 9:00 am  |  279 responses

Magic Johnson: ’08 Redeem Team No Match for ’92 Dream Team


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

It’s a generally accepted fact that the 1992 Olympic USA basketball team was the greatest collection of hoops talent ever assembled. And members of that historic team aren’t afraid to remind everyone of this.

Magic Johnson, the Dream Team’s unofficial spokesman, says the 2008 “Redeem Team” wouldn’t stand a chance against his ’92 squad.

From the LA Times:

“When you think about the Olympics and the Dream Team, I have to throw it to you,” Johnson said. “Kobe [Bryant] and them won by 22 points. Ehh, 22 points? We won by an average of 44 points. So when they want to step up to that, you tell them we’ll be waiting on them.”

Johnson is actually selling the Dream Team short — it beat opponents by an average of 45.8 points. That included a 155-77 victory over Puerto Rico in the quarterfinal, a 127-76 pounding of Lithuania in the semifinals and a 117-85 win over Croatia in the gold-medal game. Meanwhile, the Redeem Team beat opponents by 27.9 points per game.

The margin of victory for both teams isn’t a true indicator of which side was truly better; after all, by the time the 2008 Team USA got to the Olympics, international competition had gotten much, much better.

The game will obviously never take place, but it’s not particularly difficult to imagine Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson and company beating a Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony-led team.

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  • John Starks

    I feel in a series the Dream Team would win, but it wouldnt be as big of a disparity some people are suggesting. And LMAO @ the people saying Kobe and Wade could guard Barkley

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    SLAM needs to post another top story now….

  • Heals

    Love discussions like these; just a good combo of different opinions, memories, viewpoints, age-groups and player allegiances colliding in one spot…

  • Someguy25

    To be honest aint none of deze guys touchin Vince Carter in the Sydney Olympics 2000, dude wuz fukin ungaurdable. He gave u everything u wanted to seen in the Olympics in a one man show, hands down the greatest show put on in Olympics history, Im talkin every single game he lead the team in scoring and had 2-3 dunks a game dat gave u da gas face…Thank U VC for teachin deze cats on da biggest stage eva, when 3 of the top players in the league today couldnt even get it done once upon a time…and it even took the Great Kobe to team up wit dem cats da second go round to get it done…..Just one of the many reasons why VC is one of the most super highly underrated ever.

  • http://slamonline.com AllDayEveryDay

    @Someguy25, are you saying that Kobe, Lebron, Wade, MJ cannot touch Vince in 2000? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

    MJ = best sg ever – KOBE = 2nd best – WADE = 4th best – Vince = Like 14th best after his cousin T-MAC

  • Conoro

    If any of you are legitimately arguing that Bryant had the majority of those big games scored directly against him, then you all need at least one or all of the following three things: 1) Eyes; 2) Brains; 3) Fond fantasies of Jordan bedding you for arguing in his favour to stop.

  • http://Slamonline.com Datkid

    Holdup..wade’s not overrated as a defender at all Jewk-i

  • non-sense

    i think itll be a close game if the two teams battle it out..but i guess that the dream team will have an advantage in the battle of the bigs..(chris bosh/ carlos boozer??) man like playing boys against man..they’ll get pounded inside..
    and when the game is close..where will both team go??
    dream team = all of them are battle tested
    redeem = ehem (probably not go to lebron) he will choke..haha
    it goes down to kobe vs jordan..
    and surely jordan will wint that battle..
    dream team wins!!!

  • seriousblack

    Well I agree that Wade most certainly is overrated. This year’s playoffs solidified it. It’s not that he doesn’t have the potential to be a consistent above average defender, it’s that he takes way too many possesions off on the defensive end. He’s like Kobe in that he can be a good defender when he really wants to be. That’s not often enough, so yea he’s an overrated defender.

  • http://www.kb24.com The Seed

    Kobe Haters, Every act like MJ never got scored on, you know why yall. Scottie guarded the best opponents players. Ask Magic. People act like MJ would not lose to MJ, but a pupil always becomes better than their teacher after playing each other enough. Everybody knows that. Kobe led 08 Dream Team wins, stop acting MJ always won and he did everything by himself. I keep saying Zeke and the Pistons proved Magic led, Bird led and MJ led teams can lose to them. BOOK IT!!

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    Scratch what I said earlier. I’m thinking redeem team would win 9 times outta ten with Chris Bosh scoring 45 on barkley

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    I’m gonna take JTaylor’s comment as sarcasm.

  • http://www.kb24.com The Seed

    Scratch what I said earlier. I’m thinking the Dream Team would win 4 games out of a 7 games series. BOOK IT!!!

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    I’m completely serious

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    Well boy, I completely agree to disagree on that one.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    You know I’m right

  • http://dsjfklfl.com Jukai

    I think The Seed just screws around with us.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe.l.brewer3 BlackPhantom

    Man, Chris Bosh would have to stay near the perimeter all game if he wanted to score 20, let alone 45.

  • jay

    lets compare apples to apples..i would say dream team vs redeem team would be close…the inside of malone, barkley, ewing, and robinson would kill redeem team! memo would hod his own. as for magic vs kidd i would go magic..as per perimeter play mj, pippen and dresler vs kobe, lebron, wade..it would be pretty tight but i would not bet against mj. redeem team would beat 96 team thou shaq would eat front court of redeem alive..i take the backcourt of kobe, bron and wade! kobe took care of biz both offensively and defensively in the gold metal game. if i remember correctly kobe was point guard down the stretch in that game. coach k must have been kicking himself with the fact he would have one more chip at duke if he had kob on that 99 squad vs ucoon!

  • http://Slamonline.com Datkid

    Look @seiousblack wade is not as good a defender as he used to be… But he’s not overrated by far. This year’s playoffs didn’t solidify anything about his defense are you out of your mind? The ONLY person in the NBA who can give d.wade buckets consistently is d.rose… D.wade is probably pound for pound one of the best shot blockers out there.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Dwight Howard’s on the ball defense is a bit overrated. Who has he had to guard that was anywhere near the level of Patrick Ewing or David Robinson? The closest we’ve seen is Yao Ming, who absolutely destroyed Dwight every time they matched up. Dwight anchors the middle like no one else we’ve seen… this era. The Admiral and Mr. Chewing don’t play around.

  • jimmer

    Never mind all the talk about perimeter play. It comes down to the paint, like most people are saying, and Robinson, Ewing, Barkley and Malone would’ve eaten those kids alive. You have to remember that in the whole of LBJ etc carriers, the ONLY player they have EVER seen who could hold a candle to these guys was a prime Tim Duncan. Shaq’s peak was about 2-3 years before they came in. ’03-04 the beginning of the end, as it were. The slash and drive NBA game is, surprisingly, not a result of some instant human evolution in leaping ability and dexterity, it is because the post has been unoccupied for half a generation. (I’m taking ‘generation’ as a career cycle of 12-13 years)

  • http://slamonline.com jeremy

    yeppp they gotta put this on 2k12 LOL

  • http://www.specialolympics.org/ Felix

    Michael Jordan was an elite defender, & I don’t know how anyone could disagree with this. For example, in 87-88 he averaged 3.2 steals and 1.6 blocks per game.(I don’t see any redeem guys putting up those types of d numbers, although numbers don’t tell the whole story)In 92 Jordan lead the league in steals at 2.8 per game and averaged .9 blocks ….
    …96 team has Shaq and Hakeem Olajuwon- those two guys are a mini dream team by themselves, so who guards them on 92? Hakeem famously destroyed the Admiral after he won the MVP and the only dude who could guard a young Shaq was Hakeem- although Ewing is a bad dude and he’s got a chance… Still think 92 team beats 96 or 2008 personally, but the teams are closely matched so the debate might come down to coaching- Coach K and staff versus Chuck Daly…is our hypothetical dream game a pickup game or do we have full coaching and training staffs? I feel this could make a difference… As for Earvin Magic Johnson, I for one, am grateful he made this comment and gave us all something to chat about this morning. Magic still has that competitor’s mindset, why does it bug some people that he would have confidence in his legacy? I feel like any competitive person says the same thing…

  • http://philosopher.view@blogspot.com The Philosopher

    Magic is the greatest player to ever play in the NBA.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    No Kobe Bryant far surpasses anyone in the NBA

  • dmoney

    Look the dream team causes too many match up issues for the redeem team at the point you are talking about a 6’9 magic johnson so even if d will and cp3 have a quicknewss advantage they won’t be able to stop one post up or pass everything will be over their heads also asking melo and those weak power forwards to play defense against karl malone and charles barkley and the turn around and play well offensively is a bit much. Then you place dwight howard and his sorry post game against david robinson and patrick ewing two very polished post players and you have all kinds of problems not to mention mjs will to win and. Chris mullins consistent shooting and you have a recipe for disaster for the redeem team.

  • Brian Greene

    The 1992 Barcelona Dream Team’s dominance was out of this Milky Way Galaxy. They’re the only team in a 75-year olympic basketball history to score over 100 points, shoot over 50%, and have a separation of over 30 points in all 8 games.

    In regards to 2008 Redeem Team beating the 1992 Barcelona Dream Team, one astounding thing comes to mind … 2008 team’s biggest margin of victory was 49 points; 1992 team’s biggest halftime lead was 48. No more needs to be said.

  • Mooney10

    The competition Internationally at that time aside, we are talking about names on the 92′ team that will never be touched. Stockton and Malone didn’t even start!!! I doubt anyone on the Redeem will pass Malone in ponts or Stockton in assists or Magic for that matter. There wouldn’t be a competition 20 point spread at least in favour of the Dream Team. The guys of today could never play D like the guys on the 92 team. I believe that the late 80-90′s play will never be duplicated and that is because they play both ends of the floor. Other than Dwight there is not one superior defender on the Redeem Team, ask Lebron and Wade how they faired agianst the Mavs LOL!!! who did they have again?? Nowitzki and old KIdd and Jason Terry, get off! now you guys are syain they could stop Bird, Magic, MJ with a FIBA 3 point line and tougher paint rules, there isn’t a way in hell! I am only 23 and I know better, you guys should not compare any tema to the Dream team, called “dream” for a reason!!

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