How Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan Capured the Dream Team to Olympic Gold
A group of NBA veterans led Team USA to victory at the 1992 Barcelona Games, the first Olympics to admit professional basketball players.
After years of supremacy, the American men’s basketball program could no longer field an amateur squad and expect to defeat foreign pros only by wearing the USA letters on their jerseys. This was evident by the late 1980s.
A 1988 Olympic semifinal loss to the Soviet Union solidified the argument, and when the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) decided to let American pros play the following spring, it was time to raise the cavalry for the Summer Games in Barcelona, Spain.
As a result, 12 players finished their NBA careers with a combined 117 All-Star appearances and 23 titles; their brilliance was so incredible that they could only be referred to as the “Dream Team.”
From the beginning, the team dominated their opponents.
