The One and Only Dream Team

I just finished Jack McCallum's book, Dream Team, how Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the greatest team of all time conquered the world and changed the game of basketball forever.

I remember the Dream Team like it was yesterday.  I still have a few of the old McDonalds commemorative cups around somewhere.  As a young basketball fan at the time it was the best possible idea to put all of the very best ballers together to re-establish our dominance.  As a side-effect, however, it grew the game and led basketball to global popularity.

It was fun reading about the stories behind the scenes (how Jordan refused to play if Isiah Thomas was on the team and how no one blamed him as one example) and how the players interacted.  I remember watching every game they played and I never turned it off just because Team USA was up 50.  The whole tournament was a coronation!

It was a farewell to Magic and Bird for their previous greatness and a worldwide affirmation of the unquestioned status of Michael Jordan as the world's best basketball player.  Charles Barkley provided comedy relief "(I don't know nuthin bout Angola, but I know Angola's in trouble") as well as the only international incident (a vicious elbow thrown that started a "should we send him home" debate).  You have to love Chuck.

I had USA Basketball shorts and we played hoops all summer long while talking endlessly about the star power on that team.

There was a famous scrimmage that became known as the "greatest game nobody saw" and the book documents it from a VHS tape of that scrimmage that survives.  It was fun to hear about how Magic stubbornly refused to yield the torch to Jordan and then see how helpless he was to deny the younger MJ.

It was a trip down memory lane and reminded me how much fun it was when that team was formed and then crowned.  Nothing put that memory into perspective more than a brief summary of the subsequent Dream Teams, none-of which deserved the name.