Basketball - They Made The Game a Worldwide Game

why do people talk about dreams so much in sports dream seasons dream matchups dream opportunities they do it because so much of sports is about imagining what you want things to be like if only the setting were just right it was one of those times none of us will ever forget the characters just right i don't know anything about angola but angola's in trouble the timing just right 11 hall of famers i don't think you can ever do that again at no point in time if only it could all be the way you might have dreamed it up yourself training camp began on june 22 1992 in la jolla california and when the gym doors open no one was quite sure what to expect especially the players themselves it's a lot of egos in one gym and on one team everybody wanted their form to shine and showcase why they were a part of this team with all these stars on the team if it comes down to the last shot who's going to take the shot me everybody in the world has an ego the only difference between us we have a reason to have an ego every one of us felt like we was everybody and when practice started that first day every player seemed to be trying to prove just how great they were it was a very competitive practice and i'm thinking are we all on the same team patrick i won't play with dave don't play against him then you hear michael said i don't want to be on magic's team i want to play against him every evaluation of michael jordan at that time was he's good but he's never magic johnson in my competitive nature i want to use every little bit that i could gather so that i can gain an advantage carl malone he's the only guy would even compare to myself at the forward position so i want to prove that i was the best power forward in the world charles yeah he's a great talent do i think he's better be held off so let's do this by the time it's over with you're going to be thinking i'm damn good too the first practice barkley drives baseline and carl malone jumps up like this barkley just dunked on him so hard it was just an unbelievable play i felt like man i cannot believe that i'm part of this practice a few days later the team had a chance to acclimate themselves to playing on the same side chuck elliott scheduled the scrimmage against a select group of college players a group thrilled to be facing off against their idols i found out today i might be picking up magic a little bit full court so you know things are just happening for me it really really makes me happy a lot of those people that have looked up to barclay malone a lot of those people talk confidence and i think it's going to be a good matchup you know it's no advantage on either side for the college players it was a chance to see how they'd match up against the world's best for coach daley it was an opportunity to get his stars to grow into a single unit i think we're somewhere between the mentality of an all-star game and trying to come together as a team so we've got to continually work on this daily had been hired for his ability to manage personalities and egos and when the scrimmage began it became apparent that his players had left one of their biggest weapons those egos somewhere else the non-fan would think well they're going to go in there and they each going to want their own ball and jordan's going to be hogging the ball and you know magic's going to be dribbling all over the place point of fact it was exact opposite they overpassed it was like i don't want to start it off you know you do it and before you realize the select team was beating us by 10. we didn't know how to play with each other we didn't want to step on anybody's toes or hurt any egos and so these young kids they were killing us we were not into it and we paid for it chris webber was a man i thought boy that's the guy's coming this league i could get out of here bobby hurley was dominant i did have some success penetrating and collapsing the defense and our energy our excitement to play all those things played in our favor bobby hurley didn't play two seasons in the npa nevertheless it did expose the one weakness they could have had which is defending against quick guards they were playing great then i noticed that michael jordan is not playing i'm saying something chuck then he said we're all right you know we're all right daley watched as his players failed to make up the deficit and in their first taste of outside competition the dream team lost a story their coach didn't want the press to get their hands on the teams posed for a picture together both not sure what to make of what had just happened but the man in charge may have had the answer he's through the game you know chuck through the game if you look how much jordan played and how he sub guys in not picking up not making any adjustments he knew what he was it was legit it felt tremendous you know what we were doing that day you know they couldn't stop it there are kids who believe in santa claus too and in the the easter bunny and now that they've grown up i hate to burst their bubble but uh it was a game thrown not many people would have done it and he did it it was gratifying to chuck for us to get our butt speed like that because now we had to listen to it here the next day training camp ended with a rematch against the college kids and once play started everything made sense again the tables were turned drastically we showed them why like we are who we are we pretty much beat him by a hundred they couldn't score and by the way jordan played a lot more that next scrimmage before the dream team could play in the 1992 olympics they had to qualify the place to do that was portland oregon and the tournament of the americas it would be the public's first chance to see the nba stars together in a game especially jordan bird and magic daly had asked all three to be team captains but jordan had turned him down i knew how much it meant to both of those guys because they never had the opportunity to play on the olympics so i'd say you know what chuck don't worry about me you know let these old dogs do it magic and bird weren't just the team's oldest players they were also the most revered they had entered the league together in 1979 embarking on a rivalry that had redefined the nba and along the way their personal admiration for one another had grown maddie's just a great basketball player he's the best i've ever seen you know i unbelievable i don't know what to say in 1992 they'd be getting the chance to share the ball but the opportunity would be coming at the end of their careers bird had given his soul to the game but after so many years his body was betraying him had back problems it just gets the point where you just couldn't play i mean you couldn't couldn't think couldn't move couldn't run you know if you can't feel your feet it's hard to run larry was on the fence because of his back so i said man lb you got to play man you got to play this is our last chance to be together magic would be able to convince his old friend to play but at the start of the 1991-92 nba season he was forced to retire after learning he had the hiv virus doctors would eventually clear him to play in the olympics though that didn't stop fears from swirling there's a lot of players that really didn't want him to play they want to play with him against him because nobody knew what disease meant you know they said get a little blood on you you got hiv breathe on you you know um i never bought any of that you know i just you just keep going and that's what irving decided to do just keep pushing keep going magic had made a cameo in the 1992 all-star game and had focused his attention on the olympics hoping for an encore of a lifetime alongside his old rival our careers were really over and it was something i thought needed to happen for both of us their debut would take place at portland's rose garden with their team needing to meddle in the tournament of the americas to qualify for the olympics that seemed like a foregone conclusion to just about everyone including their first opponents who were completely in awe before the game even started the cuban team spontaneously like drops to its knees as if 12 popes had come by on easter sunday at that point the idea that this is merely a basketball game has been ripped asunder it was a surreal feeling she's like dude we're here to kick y'all behind and they want to take pictures with you then the game begins magic and larry come out together two guys that saved the league they wouldn't even play in this game without those two and magic pass the ball larry makes the first basket away i mean you know it just it just didn't get any better than that the u.s was off and running and the result was a thing of beauty and no one seemed more excited to be sharing the court than the co-captains opening night was a smashing success with the outcome never in doubt and late in the game fans in portland decided they wanted a curtain call from a three-time mvp the crowd started cheering larry larry there to the entrance of larry bird a standing ovation and as he'd done so many other times in his career larry bird rose to the occasion jordan yes you just knew that larry burt was not going to miss that shot it was a virtually flawless performance the final margin of victory was 77 points and magic inverted led the way for magic in particular after a year out of the game the victory had a special kind of meaning living with hiv never even thinking that i would ever have a chance to play basketball game and then basketball for the united states there was therapy for me and i needed that in the worst way and then there was the matter of making sure michael jordan knew he was back as well yeah you're here with the captain see the captain say sit down that's right have a seat if you're gonna fall oh that's gonna happen that's the seniority right now i know it with magic and michael there was that little extra something there you know and something kind of to prove to each other i took it upon myself to always shoot with michael okay mj free throws today he was the first one to fifty or we had little games who was the better shooter he didn't want to relinquish that control of the 80s in a sense even though we were going into the 90s don't touch the phone one hand don't touch it you know he just come off missing a whole year so it was who can win who's gonna have the bragging rights by the end of this trip you can't get too close to michael it's the file michael's always tried to let people know that he's a top dog and in whatever that's just his competitive mode while the winner of magic and michael's can you top this challenge remained in doubt when it came to facing the competition in the tournament of the americas the team stood united we took the court in portland which you know we're on home ground we wanted to showcase to the fans who will be representing them the lead is fertile steel jordan jordan there's been a message around the world today as y'all can give it up use foreigners can give it up for the steel stockton set them up perfectly the americans won their six games at the tournament by an average of 50 points all right larry your impressions of the nice game the gold medal was no surprise from what was unexpected was the team's interactions with their opponents who showered them with adulation before after and even during games patrick johnson and shaking hands after the shot the tournament of the americas had served its purpose the us had qualified for the barcelona games and given the world its first glimpse of what was coming later that just want to say this is summer a small step to what our goal really is to get to barcelona win the gold medal and bring it back where it's supposed to be they would hold several days of practice in monte carlo and play one more tune-up before heading to the olympics the luxurious setting on the mediterranean sea was fitting for what already may have been the world's most famous team monte carlo is one of those glamorous cities and here we were with the most glamorous team ever so it was kind of a rock star-ish kind of a thing the players were relaxed and confident and willing to admit there's more to the trip than just basketball i don't worry about playing basketball that comes naturally i just want to have fun david robinson passing your michael jordan this is like spring break in the ghetto chuck says okay this is what's gonna happen we're gonna play like a real game we're gonna play four quarters we had me scottie mullins bird and patrick and magic had his fight we weren't gonna change that team at no point in time you got your father i got my five we gave them the college guy you can have christian likener we don't want him you can have them he's just over there waiting to tag in but it was it was about about pride and the college kid couldn't help either one of the team michael jordan called clyde out and went adam tell him this is what i'm gonna do to you fall away jumper good what did i tell you so i said no clyde you better get him back you better get him back charles barkley said i want to take car home alone now so charles gets it by the way jumper good i said oh carl you got to get him back you better go down there and get him back i went right at him jump shot you ain't nothing you ain't nothing barkley so then i came down his energy is real high he feels like he's in an opportunity to prove himself showcase that hey look i'm still magic johnson we should i still dominate this game magic was saying you ain't the guy and you got other players in this in this gym don't be cheating on me it doesn't take much to get michael going just a little something to tweak him and it's on he never liked to lose mike always got that look when you see that look then you know just getting the damn ball and get out the way as much as it was five on five we could see in monte carlo that it was gravitating towards okay michael and magic magic was hesitant to surrender his place on the mountaintop and michael being michael he needed to say no i'm on the top of the mountain now max was saying look mba is not yours yet you know i'm still here michael's like no it's over this is this is mine and the funny thing was larry was he was sitting on his side he going it's his chuck realized the competition aspect was getting a little bit too high killing everybody on our squad he wanted to end practice but magic didn't want to end because he wanted to keep playing because we just kicked his ass how you like that ass kick when we gave you no no no no come on now well y'all got the first first quarter by the time practice was over even magic had to acknowledge basketball's landscape had been changed forever larry and i were talking and michael walks in and he says it's a new sheriff in town just moments ago the dream team boarded the bus outside their hotel along the rhombus they're heading for their first matchup in barcelona with the angolans i can remember the first game the real game came out of the locker room and stepped on the court and i finally said to myself was i can't believe this i'm here at that point we were in serious olympic mode this actually may be the biggest mismatch of the entire olympics largely off of beautiful it was just a tremendous atmosphere because there was an appreciation for how great the us players were after the first half barkley's pregame prediction appeared dead on but in the second charles found some trouble hey the players in angola they play against south barclay they told has there's no key the fat boy is a is many aggressive in the pain rebound well charles getting a bit aggressive i thought they were playing dirty and i told old boy i don't i don't even know if he understood my hey man he's up on the elbow partly from pippin i let it go twice you can see the frustration and the next time i just cracked it and a technical foul has been called on bartlett through his dying day charles claims the guy elbowed him three times people always say turn the other cheek if you turn that cheek i'm gonna get you another cheek too i thought what are you doing john the guy is half your size but you know charles is an equal opportunity abuser erlander kodimbra did not think it was a friendly elbow that's the same guy just asked for an autograph charles i mean you think he's not intimidated the united states of 116 to 48. the game may have ended in a round but afterwards the result was overshadowed by the controversy well stood the elbow well he hit me i hit him that's the way it is charles made you look like the ugly americans which we were trying not to do we said the child's look man you're a reflection of all of us so if you do it they're not going to write the article that charles barkley did they're going to say the dream team barkley had stained a dream debut for the americans but in their next game against croatia scottie pippen and michael jordan grab the spotlight with the focus on their match-up with one of europe's best players tony cucoch the major storyline that carries into this game involves tony cucoch second round pick of the chicago bulls back in 1989 the bulls have made a strong push to sign him last season at that time general managers in the league were trying to come up with gems you know make their discoveries overseas and krause thought this guy could play in the nba while jordan and pippin had been winning back-to-back titles chicago gm jerry krause had been publicly willing coach to join the bulls krause was recruiting this guy and talking how great he was you know that's like a father who has all his kids and now he sees another kid that he loves more than he loves his own so we were not playing against tony two coach we were playing against jerry krause in a croatian uniform but unfortunately for the real tony kuch he was now the target of the world's two best defensive players we knew the world was going to be watching we knew everyone wanted to see what tony cu coach was like and we were going to give him the worst experience he ever had on the basketball court pippin drew the initial assignment of shadowing cuckoos and harassed the croatian from the opening whistle it was hard to run across the half court without a ball and with the ball it was just here somebody else get it tony definitely wasn't getting the shot up and he wasn't going to score for four and he's contributed nothing we wanted to go guard him on the bench for the offensive foul and the pressure continued and after pipping more couples down it was jordan's turn here's i had questions from my teammates during the game like what is going on what they did do you not see that they're really trying to get you off the court and we're like so what i guess that's that's how nba game is played pippen jordan and the americans cruised to another victory this one by 38 points but the domination had its detractors irvin there's been some comments that the dream team is getting all the attention and there seems to be some resentment about it have you heard about it and do you have any feelings about it uh basically you know we haven't heard about it we're just here to do our job the media may have been looking for signs of a backlash but in barcelona and in the world beyond the embrace of the dream team was universal you're gonna stand out rude against picasso i mean i mean out seriously they rooted for genius at work i kept thinking that the attention would dissipate they're gonna play the first game they're gonna win by 60. people are going to go back and watch trek jordan in transition to give team usa a 60-point lead it didn't it kept building and building and building workers were trying to get autographs the security people are trying to get autographs all the athletes were standing alongside like a parade people perceived us as being superheroes the guy on the bench is taking pictures and i said wow we are having an effect over here wrap around past direction another easy victory in this their fifth game of the olympics it was as if the president of the united states was uh in the midst of a caravan that was going through the streets just like the beatles where there's thousands and thousands of people waiting all the time that's the most exhilarating 15 seconds of my life for the players surreal experiences have become the norm but even more memorable with the unlikely friendships developing behind the curtain it was a unique mix you know larry bird and patrick young became like best friends i got a white guy from indiana and i got a brother from jamaica patrick said i could pick his mind it took me three minutes now he gets a chance to come back and start picking on mine so he won we were probably the two of the most unlikely people you thought that would be friends but if you look not only larry and i got to be great friends but all of those guys got to be much better friends we all enjoyed each other we all enjoyed the ride and we got a sense of each other as men then when we got to the court it made it even better the dream team's chemistry turned out to be the hallmark of their success as the players closed in on what they came for their big margins of victory may have been a testament to their dominance but numbers couldn't capture what made watching them so unforgettable guys played the best basketball you've ever seen in your life it was literally like great poetry or great art at times you feel you're watching a performance in concert rather than a basketball competition this was fun this was like i saw basketball supposed to be and at the center of the fun was the team's biggest star would come to barcelona at the peak of his powers and shown how much his popularity had exploded i will say there's one thing about michael jordan i've been around other celebrities in my life i've never seen people react like they do to him people go crazy when they see him in every corner of the world there was someone who just wanted to see him no one had the sort of pull the gravity that michael jordan had the dream team squared off against croatia again in the gold medal game offering the world one more lasting impression of their supremacy with the lead from team usa came to send a message tonight we wanted to win we wanted to dominate but how we did it sharing the ball including everybody we did it as a true team 117 to 85 here in barcelona there was never really any doubt the dream team would win gold in but as they walked back onto the court to get their medals the moment still overwhelm them you saw a lot of tears from players it was a very proud moment for me because anytime you represent your country you know that's a prideful thing man send chills down my spine it was a reward that i had never felt like that i would ever achieve to do it on that stage with those group of guys it's a memory i'll never forget nothing in my life has ever felt like standing on that podium i was getting goosebumps every single time i heard the national anthem after that had a different significant to me i knew what it really meant you know as a young kid growing up i used to watch olympics on tv with my father and all he talked about was the star spangled banner and the gold medal made him feel proud to be american being up on that podium that night and receiving it my father you've been pretty proud all those emotions just overcame me i got to be one of the guys one more time for my country i said man i never forget this moment you know if this is the end this is how i wanted to go out this group may well be the greatest team ever assembled in the history of team sports but when the medal ceremony was over another realization began to settle in when i walked off i remember thinking that whole dream has come to an end the next season every olympian except magic johnson and larry bird would return to the nba michael jordan and scottie pippen would win their third title against charles barkley and the phoenix suns on the way to six championships overall the last three with tony cucoch eventually other members of the team would also win titles each nba player on the dream team would reach the hall of fame still it's what they did together that summer that had the biggest impact on the game an impact that continues to grow today it really lifted basketball and it gave birth to international stars who had nothing to do with those games in 92 but who took so much from it we made the game a worldwide game you know i talked to tony parker i talked to ginobili i talked to dirk nowitzki those guys say their first love of basketball started with the dream team and i'm really proud of that the world can change a lot in 20 years but there are moments in time you never forget no matter how long it's been no matter how much else has changed in your life since 20 years later they've all kept ties to the game in one way or another and they all talked about the summer of 92 as if it happened just yesterday an experience still unlike any other in their remarkable basketball lives i've never had more fun being around anybody everybody got along there was no ego we had fun you know clearly everybody reminds me i never won a championship so that to me was like winning the championship winning the gold medal and hanging out with these guys the reward itself is really only a small part of the story it's what the gold medal represents that will always tie these men together this is like this is that's pretty awesome i don't think you're ever going to be able to get 11 hall of famers to play all at once you know um on one team that's that's unheard of we go on the bus we come back walk out the hotel wave wave outside your window i can't believe it changed sport as we know it they showed the world how to play basketball one of the team can say that i don't think we'll ever see anything like it again it's an insult to compare anybody else to that team take a good look perhaps we'll never see a team this great again no team will ever have that happen hasn't had that happen and that's the dream you

Channel: ShaWiffle

Views: 1,572,747

Keywords: Michael Jordan (Celebrity), Magic Johnson (Basketball Player), Larry Bird (Basketball Player), Charles Barkley (Basketball Player), John Stockton (Basketball Player), Karl Malone (Basketball Player), Scottie Pippen (Basketball Player), David Robinson (Basketball Player), Patrick Ewing (Basketball Player), Clyde Drexler (Basketball Player), Chris Mullin (Basketball Player), Chuck Daly (Basketball Coach)

Id: guBkL4ei5aw

Length: 37min 10sec (2230 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 09 2013