It's August. It's a Thursday. It's a Thursday in August and that means we don't have a lot of sports happening right now. As a way to help get you through your day as we wait for some more preseason football to get going, an NBA Throwback Thursday is here to kill a little time and help the nostalgia pour over you as you pretend to work.
We've had a lot of Team USA Basketball talk happening the last week or so, as USA Basketball held their mini-camp in Las Vegas last week to have a nice, light run-through with 34 players involved in the program. While we still wonder who may end up on the 2016 team that will travel to Rio de Janeiro in search of a fourth consecutive gold medal, I'm reminded of that famous 1992 Dream Team.
Back when the NBA wanted to galvanize the global marketing of the league, they worked it out so the NBA pros would get to play for Team USA. This resulted with the 1992 team in Barcelona consisting of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler and Christian Laettner. Needless to say, the U.S. was favored to win the gold medal.
Their first big test was going to come in the second game of the prelims when they faced off against Croatia. The Dream Team won their first game 116-48 against Angola and Croatia won their first game 93-76 against Brazil. It was time to see if both sides were as good as advertised.
You can view the entire game for yourself in an hour and 15 minutes here, or you can follow along below and we can kill some time together.
The Dream Team started Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley, and David Robinson. Croatia countered with Danko Cvjeticanin, Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja, and Stojko Vrankovic. This was a talented Croatian team that was definitely worthy of the US taking them seriously. But even as the announcers stated early on in the game, the odds were very much against the Croatians:
"This is the NBA pros – five of them – against four of them who are good enough to play in the pros and one other.”
That shade being thrown is headed the way of Danko Cvjeticanin. Petrovic played for the New Jersey Nets, Kukoc was headed over to the Chicago Bulls a year later, Radja had been drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1989 and was headed there in 1994, and Stanko Vrankovic was playing for the Celtics already. Cvjeticanin played 17 years in Europe and would eventually serve as a scout for the Sixers from 1998-2010. He's now a scout for the Nets.
It took maybe two seconds for the Dream Team to score and start flexing its muscles.
Croatia didn't get off to a great start there, but they'd battle back right away. Petrovic found Vrankovic for a dunk on the next play, then stole an errant pass from Magic, which eventually led to Kukoc finding Radja for a layup inside. It was still very early, but teams were looking for any sort of hope to attach to that they could remain competitive with the US team.
Early on in the game, we started getting familiar with the two foreign announcers and just how much fun they were going to bring to this telecast. They refer to Charles Barkley as "Sir Charles Barkley" at all times. They also said US coach Chuck Daly was known as the "Prince of Pessimism," which I just flat-out don't remember. I'll take their word for it.
Jordan answered with a 3-pointer, thanks to that shorter FIBA line, and Croatia would lead again at 6-5 after free throws. This is the moment that we started to see the shot-blocking prowess of the 7'2" Vrankovic and the overwhelming skill of the US team just taking it to their opponents in waves. Pippen challenged Vrankovic early by blowing past Kukoc. The Croatian big man swatted away the first shot before Pippen was fouled on the second attempt.
This seems like an apt time to remind you that in his two seasons with the Celtics, Vrankovic blocked six shots per 36 minutes, but was only given 5.5 minutes of playing time per game. He could protect the rim if you gave him the chance and the US team would learn this throughout the game.
The announcers start discussing Barkley and notice how svelte he looks on the basketball court.
“A slimmed down Charles Barkley. We understand in his career he has been 300 pounds, down to 250.”
We're too far into the game without actually showing you a Michael Jordan highlight. As the announcers were discussing Jordan's annual salary and how he's the richest athlete, his ears must have been burning. He decided to grab a highlight at this exact moment, almost as if he knew the telecast was talking about his money.
Two things: 1) P.J. Carlesimo looks fresh without Latrell Sprewell's hands around his throat, and 2) Michael Jordan is a panther on the court. He was stalking that inbound pass and then gave a little bit of a show for the fans on the break.
With the score at 11-6, the US starts trying to pound the ball into the paint to flex some muscles in the half court. They go into Barkley in the post, but he loses the ball and shuffles it to Robinson. He tries to flip up a quick shot, but Vrankovic is in the way.
That was Vrankovic's third block and we're only about four minutes into the game. He'd had 10 blocks in a recent game against Italy.
After a missed runner by Croatia, Magic grabs the rebound and pushes the tempo. The US wanted to run and wear out a much thinner Croatian bench, and even after some time off from the NBA, nobody could push the tempo like Magic. He goes coast-to-coast and finds Pippen to make it 13-6.
The announcers kept finding funny ways to talk about the US team. They often would refer to them as "NBA" instead of "Team USA" or some version of that. They also kept harping on the differences in the rule changes, which was an adjustment but not an overwhelming style difference for such a skilled team. At one point, they mention that being able to play illegal defense must feel like they were let out of jail.
They were also quite taken with the size difference between Magic and several people on the court. At one point, they made fun of the referee being "puny" compared to Johnson and said the official was "positively diminutive." There was even a jump ball between Magic and the 6'2" Vladan Alanovic. The announcers asked who was going to win this tip and both just started laughing.
By the way, am I the only one retroactively falling in love with the shot blocking presence of Vrankovic?
He's throwing everything. And I very much appreciate the wordplay of the announcer by working "stoic expression" for Stojko Vrankovic.
At this point, I'm a little surprised that Croatia isn't trying to utilize the 3-point line more. We have a lot of them being run off the line, but it's almost like they wanted that anyway. Either they really thought they could score in the midrange and paint (which is understandable because in 1992, the 3 wasn't utilized like it is today) or they just didn't feel comfortable shooting 3s despite having shooters.
With the game getting away from them, though, it seemed like something to try. And they could've stood to trim some of the turnovers that were starting to pile up.
That's the cool thing about this Dream Team experience: there were just so many open court plays on both ends of the floor. If you managed to get out and run on them a little bit, they'd track you down. If you couldn't keep up with them in the open floor (and few could), they'd make a highlight reel out of you.
For example, look at Magic pushing the ball here and the pass he tries to deliver to a teammate in transi... HEY DOWN IN FRONT!
Actually, shortly after this play, it appeared that Magic suffered a calf cramp or injury of some sort. He had to be helped to the bench by Mullin and Pippen.
We find out one of the announcers' name is Roy when they're discussing that the basic salary of Ewing is actually higher than Jordan's basic salary. The other announcer Simon says that money earned away from the court is much higher and only Roy's off-court salary can contend with Jordan's.
Bird checks into the game with the score 24-13. You're quickly reminded of Bird's back injury and just how much it took out of him because he moves like the old guy at the pickup game. You can see the instincts and skill set are there, but his body just doesn't allow him to turn anything loose. It's a reminder that Father Time is undefeated and so is Michael Jordan when you compare him to today's players on Twitter.
Things really start getting out of hand at this point in the game. We get a Malone dunk, a Drexler dunk, and some incredible moves as the Dream Team just pours it on. In fact, let's just cut those into one quick highlight package for you.
This is getting rough. There just isn't much Croatia can do to keep this under 20. They work hard to get a baseline jumper in transition, only to have Jordan fire the inbound pass immediately down court to Mullins, who drops it off to Pippen for the open dunk. It's a bloodbath. The lead hovers around 23 and 24 points, before Croatia hits back-to-back 3's to cut it to 17. It's like they figured out those shots are worth more points.
Check out this Panasonic TV ad from 1992:
That's the only way to watch the 1992 Summer Olympics. Speaking of the Olympics, this Barcelona basketball logo travels, right?
We're about done with the first half of this game (the second half flies by), and Chuck Daly is already lighting the victory cigar by subbing Laettner into the game. Laettner scores pretty quickly too, as the U.S. flexes on the rest of the world. Dream Team leads 54-37 at half, but it's really not that close.
In the second half, Croatia goes to Dino Radja early and often, which is smart because he's probably their best scorer. They didn't utilize him a lot in the first half, but he scores a few times to start the second. Remember that Radja scored 16.7 points per game in 32.6 minutes in his four years with the Celtics from 1993-97. He could've been an All-Star in the NBA but he decided to leave the NBA after Rick Pitino apparently lied to him about being a part of the Celtics' plans.
Radja says he had been hearing rumors of being dealt and asked Pitino if he was a part of their plans. Pitino assured him he was and that the offense would run through Radja. Five days later, he was dealt to the Sixers, only he failed his physical because of a lack of cartilage in his knee. The trade was voided and Radja eventually agreed to a buyout on the remaining three years of his deal.
Croatia cuts the lead to 13 and our friends Simon and Roy start discussing the height of Barkley:
“Barkley, in most basketball annuals, reckoned to be 6’6” but he personally reckons he’s only 6’4”.”
“Whatever he says is good with me.”
“Not a man to argue with in a dark alley.”
They also discuss how a leg fracture has kept Stockton out of this game, but do manage to mention he's the only true point guard on Team USA. I guess Magic Johnson doesn't count because he's tall?
Dream Team starts to regain control of the match after Croatia gives them a bit of a reality check. But the U.S. can't be too concerned if Mullin is executing a 3-on-1 fast break like this:
We need more of these transition opportunities.
The next couple moments have the Dream Team continuing to erase doubt for this game and the announcers taking shots at the Americans. One of them was about Michael Jordan's gambling habits:
“Michael Jordan of course known for his gambling apart from his basketball and the money he earns. The odds on this match were 7:1 against Croatia.”
Yes, that is what Jordan is known for. Although, I do have to give him credit for a smooth segue to mentioning what the betting odds were for this game. Then they take a shot at Larry Bird saying he looks every single one of his 35 years, which I think I mentioned earlier so let's just move on from this.
It's been a while since we've seen a Croatia highlight, so check out this ball movement and the reaction from the announcers when Kukoc hits Vrankovic with a quick delivery.
A few minutes later, the announcers mention that Vrankovic, who has at least five blocks in this game, looks a lot like the actor Stojko Vrankovic. However, they do mention they have slightly different builds, considering Vrankovic is 7-2 and Atkinson is just under six feet.
They're not that far off on the comparison, though:
Larry Bird hits a 3-pointer to push the lead to 30 and then Drexler gets another dunk. I don't think Croatia is going to retroactively win this game.
Croatia cuts it to 90-66 and then Sir Charles Barkley reminds everybody what it would look like if a careening semi-truck was playing basketball.
Laettner hits a 3-pointer the announcers deem "casual" to put the US up 29 points. The lead gets back over 30 as the Dream Team goes up 33, and with the lead that big and less than a minute left in the game, we hear a "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant breaking out in the arena. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, crowd!
Final score is 103-70, which would be the lowest margin of victory for the Dream Team before these two teams would meet again in the gold medal game. USA Basketball won that gold medal matchup by 32 points.
Happy Throwback Thursday!
