Friday, December 30th, 2011 at 4:30 pm  |  96 responses

Jerry Colangelo: 2012 Olympic Team ‘Fair Comparison’ to Dream Team


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

It’s apparently never too early to start the hype machine for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Just ask USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo.

Colangelo is excited about what the star-studded hoops team can accomplish next summer, and he claims that people will be forced to draw comparisons between this squad and the legendary Dream Team that destroyed everyone in their path during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

Fox Sports reports:

“I think it will be a fair comparison with the Dream Team,” the USA Basketball chairman said. “Look at the progress our players have made since (winning Olympic gold in) 2008. We have some of the greatest players of all time.

“You’re hearing Kobe (Bryant) right up there with the greatest of all time. Dwayne Wade and LeBron (James) are right up there. You’ve got to add up the names, and you look at the young guys like (Kevin) Durant as an example and (Derrick) Rose as an example. There’s so many. There’s only been one Dream Team, and that’s the way I think it should be. But there’s no question our team will be much stronger than we had in 2008. They’re more mature, more experienced and we’ve got more talent.”

For any true comparison to take place between the two teams, we’ll have to wait for the games to be played. But for what it’s worth, Magic Johnson has already said that the 2008 USA Olympic basketball team couldn’t hold a candle to his ’92 squad.

Jerry Colangelo says that he and coach Mike Krzyzewski will be evaluating 18-20 NBA stars, with the 12-man roster getting finalized on June 20th.

  • Add a Comment
  • Share
  • RSS

Tags: , ,

Newer Comments →
  • billg

    The 2012 simply won’t have enough chemistry together.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    It all depends on the roster but if guys like Bron/Wade/DHow/CP/KD/KB/Melo are on there, I gotta agree with Colangelo. By ’92 Magic/Bird were past their prime and only Kobe will be on the 2012 team.

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    I’ma take some ish for this one. He’s right. Not saying they are better, but they have a argument for being as good.

  • http://dsjkflf.com Jukai

    2008 wouldn’t hold a candle to the 92 dream team.
    2012 might…
    Lebron, Bosh, and Wade are going to be used to playing with each other. Lebron and Howard are going to be that much better, Durant is gonna be there…
    what are we looking at, CP3/Deron/Rose, Kobe/Wade/Durant, Lebron/Melo, Bosh/Amare, Howard/Love?? Yeah, I’d say that’s damn close.

  • http://www.pisforprops.com jarrett

    nba2k13 make it happen

  • AQWORD

    billg said it : It will come down to Chemistry & whether they win or not. :-) But yeah, you can say it. Nothin more though. Coz M.J & co. would have whooped dat a$$. :-)

  • http://www.slamonline.com Tarzan Cooper

    It will be a great team.

  • bull22

    NOT EVEN CLOSE! that is the dumbest comment ever made by jerry angelo… all
    of those guys on dream team 1992 led their respective teams and were not crying about playing with other all-stars to try and gain a title… only derrick rose,kevin durant and dirk notwikzi deserved to be mentioned in the breathes of the 1992 team. CRYING BUMS like lebron james,dwayne wade,chris bosh,dwight howard,kobe bryant,carmelo anthony,deron williams and chris paul
    would not be worthy of wearing the 1992 team’s drawers.. hahahahahahahhahahahahahahha

  • http://www.blogspot.com LLC#12

    cosign Jarrett, 2K should definitely feature at least SOME fiba competitions, be it the olympics or world championships I don’t care! The olympics is tough featuring only 12 teams though, some good teams are going to miss out..

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Ewing, Robinson, Malone, & Barkley would probably be too much size. Especially with Pippen Jordan and Magic on the court. But idk 2012 can be more athletic and have more shooters at the same time, there’s potentially a good argument to be made.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd16MTKpH5k ab40

    He’s wrong. It’s not just that the 92 team was better, they were better than anyone else by a large margin. Dream team 2 and 3 were also very dominant. I think they’ll be on dream team 3 level with those players. Problem is the rest of the world is a lot better at the game nowadays and there are a lot of guys who want to be the alpha dog. I can’t wait to find out and if I get the cash right in time I might go watch a game in London.

  • NATTY DREAD38

    bull 22 is rigt GO BULLS
    ! GO DROSE! GO BULLS

  • Stroshow

    rose, paul, deron williams, kobe, wade, Durant, LeBron, Carmelo and Howard are definitely there. I think the other bigs will be up in the air. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tyson Chandler makes it and Bosh probably will too. That leaves the last spot as a fight probably between Amare, Love, Aldridge and Griffin.

  • sierratango

    This is all clearly mental masturbation and hyping up the event. The 1992 Dream Team never called a single time out during the entire Olympics en route to an average margin of victory of 40+ ppg…and the gold medal. International competition has improved tremendously since then. And so has the NBA. Go USA!

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    *”bull 22 is rigt GO BULLS
    ! GO DROSE! GO BULLS”*

    Comment of the year.

  • http://www.t-mac.com/tmac/index unf*ckwitable

    Strshow Bosh is definately there.

  • DDB

    No chance. CP3 and Dwight Howard have been non factors in international play. Chris Paul is terrible in those settings where defense is allowed to be played. He is not physical enough. Leave CP3 home and take Rose and Deron. Melo, Kobe, and Durant will be the the biggest players in 2012 as they have a more well rounded, pure scoring ability. Wade and Lebron are dangerous when they get in the passing lanes but don’t score too much in the halfcourt. The Dream Team would still smash this team because they knew how to play and could adapt better to international play because the NBA rules at the time allowed for a physical game, which they do not allow now.

  • Slamguy

    bull22 nowitzki is not american idiot

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    I hate Bulls fans…

  • AQWORD

    not all of them are complete tossers like the one above, login in as someone else + there was also this other guy Brain Crawfish or somethin like dat, but he wasn’t that bad i guess. :-)

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    *dying…*

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

    NATTY DREAD38 giving Bulls fans a bad name…

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    *doa*

  • http://nbasobrietystrike.blogspot.com/ CoolWhip

    Christian Laettner is rolling in his grave

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    To be fair, Phantom, he/she certainly doesn’t seem nearly as bad as that Brain Crawfish fella.
    Hope I never cross paths with that guy…

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

    lol “Brian Crawfish”

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    Oh no, sir.
    It’s Brain Crawfish. Not Brian.

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

    Man, that sounds like the name of some wack ’80s grarage-punk band that never made it.

  • AQWORD

    where is he at these days anyways ? Oh $*it ! up in the sky ! is it a bird ?!? is it a plane ?!?! it’s !! it’s !!!! …. ah well false alarm.

  • vin terranova

    Colangelo should know better than make that comparision…there will never be another Dream Team….Just add the championships of Magic, Bird and Jordan….Lebron, Bosh, Rose never would have made that team!!!!

  • http://shinefluid@aol.com yada

    you have to admit this will ve a very very very talented team!!! dream team has size advantage but this team has so much speed and athleticism. lets not forget as great as the dream team was the international basketball scene wasnt nearly as good as it is now. i mean that team did get beat by college kids in a scrimmage

  • AQWORD

    … or a bikini bottom special guest character.

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    Bet Lamar Odom would listen to then since he’s shellfish.

  • http://slamonline.com LakeShow

    Crawfish Brain is one of my favorite sushi delicacies.

  • AQWORD

    ^^ha ha^^

  • Do Work

    It’s fair to say that the 2012 team is close in talent to the Dream Team. Put all bias’ aside and if you just look at the players it’s hard to not say that they couldn’t compete with the Dream Team. The 92 team would have better big men though with robinson, ewing and malone against howard, amare and love.

  • Do Work

    I mean it’s hard to say that they couldn’t compete

  • AQWORD

    only way we’l know is if they make it in nba2k13 like Jarret said.

  • http://cnbc.com JTaylor21

    Who doesn’t like brain with a side of crawfish.

  • RedRum

    Forget Bird and Magic, both past their prime. But combine a frontcourt of Robinson, Malone, Ewing, Barclay with MJ, Pip, Stock and Drexler and there is no way any current team beats the 92 one

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    Hell, who diesn’t like brain?
    Zombies and billions of men can’t be wrong.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Tarzan Cooper

    That’s it aqword, you need to go to the clink

  • http://nyill.wordpress.com Enigmatic

    *doesn’t

  • http://twitter.com/yo_mister Jesse

    Let’s break this down [list of potential 2012 USA Team stolen from Grantland.com]

    1992 PGs — John Stockton, Magic Johnson
    2012 PGs — Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Deron Williams

    PG Winner: 1992. 2012 USA Team will be stacked at PG but you can’t go against the all-time leader in steals and assists in Stockton and a 5x NBA Champion HOFer Magic. I feel confident saying that Paul, Rose, and DWill won’t combine for 5 NBA titles in their careers.

    1992 SGs — Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, Chris Mullin
    2012 SGs— Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade

    SG Winner: Surprisingly considering Jordan is the GOAT I’ll go with 2012. Kobe and Wade get the edge. I think they end up going down in history as the 2nd and 3rd greatest SGs of all time.

    1992 SFs — Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird
    2012 SFs — LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant

    SF Winner: 1992. LeBron makes this close, but Pippen and Bird are much more complete players than these guys especially Melo who can’t play defense and Durant who couldn’t take me into the low post and I’m about 160lbs soaking wet.

    1992 PFs — Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Christian Laettner
    2012 PFs — Amar’e Stoudemire, Blake Griffin, Kevin Love

    PF Winner – 1992. This one isn’t even close. Amar’e had 2 rebounds last night against the Lakers front court. Do I need to say anything else?

    1992 Cs — Patrick Ewing, David Robinson
    2012 C — Dwight Howard

    C Winner – Draw. I can see Howard ending up in the same second tier class as these guys in terms of the greatest centers of all time. Howard will either never get a ring [Ewing] or get one at the tail-end of his career alongside a young stud [Robinson]

    Winner – The one and only Dream Team.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Robinson has 2 rings. Bird was not really a factor on the 92 team. 1 SG is theoretically on the court at a time, and Jordan would always be the best on the court. I don’t think saying the edge at SG goes to 2012 makes much sense in this scenario. Especially if your going to say Dwight Howard equals out 2 Centers. Who were better than him in a stronger era.

  • http://www.nba.com VanCityBBall

    so lets say: M23, Stockton, Magic, Larry and Barkely… 2011/12 equivelent( ?): Kobe, Rose/ Deron, Lebron, Durant and Howard… that is it the golden ages had a deeper team aside from ^^^^^

  • http://twitter.com/yo_mister Jesse

    I know Bird wasn’t a factor. I was judging each position based on the totality of the careers of each player at the given position. Obviously that his difficult since many of the 2012 players have unfinished legacies, but I think its a fun endeavor/conversation regardless. I wasn’t judging it based on who would win a 5 on 5 game in their primes although if I were I would still take the 1992 team.

  • honest1

    please stop trying to compare players from the past to the ones in the present its a different game its faster and softer thats why the other countries can whoop todays dream teams with fundamentals and team play. There is no hype when you have to play other countries in the olympics the U.S. has been exposed it use to be we would send our college kids to go handle the olympics but now we send our pros how far have we fallen off pretty far these over seas cats just want it more don’t get it twisted there are some good players around the world but c’mon man better than the U.S. i guess so we’ll see if the so called 2012 dream team can live up to the HYPE!!!!

  • Do Work

    @ jesse i’d say the 92 team has the edge at sg but 2012 has the edge at sf, good breakdown though

  • EdyP10

    they have fair comparison. keep hating u sh!t kunts

Newer Comments →
Advertisement