Kobe Bryant thinks current U.S team can defeat the 1992 Dream Team, Charles Barkley thinks otherwise – NBA News
As the U.S team trains in Las Vegas for the 2012 London Olympics, people are already comparing this team with the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team”.
The NBA celebrated 20 years of the Dream Team a few months ago by airing a documentary on their success. And many people argue that the 1992 team was the best ever compiled in U.S basketball history.
However, Kobe Bryant seems to think otherwise. The 2008 Olympic gold medallist is currently training in Las Vegas with the 2012 U.S Olympic team. He was asked to compare the two teams and pick a winner by one of the reporters and
in typical Kobe fashion, Bryant gave the edge to the current team.
"Well, just from a basketball standpoint, they obviously have a lot more size than we do -- you know, with (David) Robinson and (Patrick) Ewing and (Karl) Malone and those guys. But they were also -- some of those wing players
-- were also a lot older, at kind of the end of their careers. We have just a bunch of young racehorses, guys that are eager to compete. So I don't know. It'd be a tough one, but I think we'd pull it out,” said Bryant.
This did not go down too well with Charles Barkley, member of the 1992 Olympic team that was later labelled as the “Dream Team”.
Barkley made an appearance on The Mike Missanelli Show on 97.5 The Fanatic Philadelphia, and seemed to disagree with Bryant’s assessment, going on to say that his team would win from the current team by double digits.
“Oh yeah, that's no disrespect. I ain't got to badmouth them. But like I said, their point guards weren't going to beat us. That's a no-brainer."
Barkley also responded to Bryant’s comments about the players on that team being old.
"I just started laughing. How old is Kobe Bryant? He's 34? And he's calling us old? At the time, we were only like 28, 29. Michael Jordan and me were the same age. We were both 29,” replied Barkley.
There is no doubt that the 1992 team was one of the best compiled in the history of U.S basketball, with some of the greatest NBA players in that team. Barkley even went on to say that of all the players in the current team, only
3 would make the cut for the 1992 team.
"Other than Kobe, LeBron (James) and Kevin Durant, I don't think anybody else on that team makes our team,” added Barkley.
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