2008 Team USA vs 1992 Team USA?

Question

who would win in a game? and how would the old dream team react to better opponents around the world?

Answer 1

1992 dream team would be unbeatable.

Answer 2

they wouldnt be winning by a 40 point margin every game, thats for sure.

the rest of the worldis so much better now than in the early 90's

Answer 3

First off, Olajuwon was not on the 1992 team.  The centers were Ewing and Robinson.  Also, Reggie Miller was not on that team either... I don't know what krazy's talking about. Those guys weren't there.

Also, five first ballot HOFers (which is debatable) is NOT an "advantage" when you're talking about going against a team with 9 or 10 first ballot HOFers!  It's a DIS-advantage.  But in fact, the 2008 team does not have five first ballot HOFers.

The 1992 team would destroy the 2008 team, easily.

If Bosh and Howard get in foul trouble trying to guard Pau and Mark Gasol,  they'd have no chance against Ewing and Robinson.  (the lack of interior defense is one huge reason why Wilt Chamberlain would totally dominate the NBA today... fact is, our centers suck).

Who's gonna guard Magic?

Who's gonna guard Jordan?

Who's gonna guard Barkley?

I haven't even gotten to Larry Bird yet.

Pippen could lock down Carmelo Anthony easily.

Lebron might be a tough matchup, but no one on the 2008 team could handle Karl Malone either.

If the careers of every player on the 2008 team ended today, you'd have two hall of famers... Kobe and Jason Kidd.  Lebron would not be a HOFer if his career ended now...but let's count Lebron as a HOFer anyway, since he obviously will be.  That makes three.

Nine players on the 1992 team were already established HOFers at the time of the 1992 games,  Ewing, Robinson, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Drexler, Barkley, Stockton and Malone... I'm not even counting Pippen as an established HOFer because, imo, he didn't establish his HOF credentials until the late 1990s.

Plus, the 1992 team was much more focused.  This year's team gets sloppy when they go up by 20...  CP13 keeps driving to the hoop, getting fouled, but then he doesn't make his layups... Jordan, Magic, Drexler, Pippen, Barkley...forget it..you'd be looking at a 3 point play every time.    That also comes with maturity.  The average age of this year's team is about 24-25, while the 1992 team's average age was about 29 to 30 years old.

That 1992 team won by an average of 44 points/game... because they all had a killer instinct.   The 2008 team gets sloppy and loses all focus when they get a 20 point lead, and they coast.  They should have beaten Spain by 50 points at least.

The 1992 team was 40 years ahead of the rest of the world... meaning that they'd still be about 25 years ahead of the rest of the world today.

That team could score, they could hit 3 pointers (except for Jordan), they could defend, they could rebound, and they were focused and relentless for the entire game.

Here are the results of the 1992 games:

USA 116 Angola 48

USA 103 Croatia 70

USA 111 Germany 68

USA 127 Brazil 83

USA 122 Spain 81

USA 115 Puerto Rico 77

USA 127 Lithuania 76

USA 117 Croatia 85 (Gold Medal Game, this was as close as anyone got to them)

The other thing is, it didn't take the 1992 team THREE YEARS to learn how to play together. They simply knew how to play basketball...they didn't have to be taught ANYTHING, which is more than we can say for this year's team.

They were thrown together for the "Tournament of the Americas" just prior to the 1992 Olympics, (which they dominated even more so than the Olympics themselves) and then flew on over to Barcelona and destroyed all comers.

If the 2008 team was thrown together in the same way, they wouldn't win the gold.  It took them 3 years to learn how to play together.  There's a REASON it's taken 3 years to put this team together to get them to play like this.  The reason is, they're not as good.

Answer 4

Good question.

Let's see...1992 Dream Team

Charles Barkley

Larry Bird

Clyde Drexler

Patrick Ewing

Magic Johnson

Michael Jordan

Christian Laettner

Karl Malone

Chris Mullin

Scottie Pippen

David Robinson

John Stockton

2008 Redeem Team

Carmelo Anthony

Carlos Boozer

Chris Bosh

Kobe Bryant

Dwight Howard

LeBron James

Jason Kidd

Chris Paul

Tayshaun Prince

Michael Redd

Dwayne Wade

Deron Williams

Dream had Drexler and Jordan in their prime....

Redeem has Kobe, LeBron, & Wade in their prime

ADVANTAGE: Redeem Team

Dream had Barkley, Robinson, Ewing, & Malone for the inside presence...

Redeem team has Boozer, Bosh, Howard

ADVANTAGE: Dream Team

Dream had Stockton,Magic, & Bird as outside threats...

Redeem has Kidd, Paul, Redd, Williams, Kobe, LeBron, Wade as outside threats...

ADVANTAGE: Redeem Team

Dream had Pippen, Mullin, & Laettner as roll players...

Redeem has Redd, Prince, & Williams as roll players

ADVANTAGE: Dream Team

It's a toss up.  The game would go down to probably whoever has better conditioning, and while the Dream Team was fast back in 1992, the Redeem Team would probably run circles around them, so I would say that the Redeem team would win in a triple overtime thriller, with Kobe taking the final shot over Jordan at the buzzer for the Redeem Team victory, 183-182

Answer 5

The 2008 team is talented, but no team ever assembled anywhere could beat the original 1992 Dream Team. There's no question in my mind that the 1992 team would win.

The 1992 Dream team would win pretty easily even in today's olympics. These other countries are better now, but just look at this roster. Noone could beat this team..

Charles Barkley

Larry Bird

Clyde Drexler

Patrick Ewing

Magic Johnson

Michael Jordan

Christian Laettner

Karl Malone

Chris Mullin

Scottie Pippen

David Robinson

John Stockton

Answer 6

If you say the 2008 team you're an idiot. '92 team would crush the 2008 team.  

Answer 7

1992 USA Team Advantages

- 10 First ballot Hall of famers

- Centers of Olajuwon, Ewing, Robinson

- Shooters Reggie Miller, Larry Bird, Chris Mullin

- Magic at the point >>> any PG the current team can field.  The only person on the 2008 team that could guard Magic due to his size is Lebron IMO. But then who guards Barkley? Who guards Malone.  The size advantage is clearly with the Dream Team at every position.

- Averaged 117 pts/game shooting .578 from the field, .400 from 3.  Considering the world still can't stop any USA team.  This team is simply more explosive.

2008 USA Team advantages

- 5 First Ballot Hall of Famers

- Younger team all the way around than when the 92 team played in the olympics (although you could put this as a disadvantge)

- And ya that's about it.

I gave the 2008 team several pushes that could be argued (Jordan vs Kobe for one) however these are the glaring advantages that would allow the original dream team to beat these guys.

Answer 8

2008 usa team