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By Root 734 0

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were easy choices, and they were made co-captains. They came into the NBA together, and the Olympics would serve as an encore to their marvelous careers. Johnson had been prematurely forced to retire from the NBA due to HIV in November of 1991, but he would return to play in the 1992 All-Star Game (and would comeback again in 1996 to play thirty-two more games with the Lakers). Bird had struggled with back pain through an injury-riddled 1992 season, and would never play another game in the NBA. Not knowing how much the team could rely on Bird and Johnson, USA Basketball filled out the rest of its roster like this:

Centers: Patrick Ewing, David Robinson

Well, there were three great centers in the NBA at the time, and one bubbling up on the horizon. Shaquille O′Neal was still a pup in college, and Hakeem Olajuwon didn’t become a naturalized American citizen until after the 1993 season. That left two great players to pick. Ewing won gold for the U.S. in 1984, and Robinson won bronze for the U.S. in 1988. There is no question that these were the right selections.

Forwards: Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley, Christian Laettner

Bird was a no-brainer. Karl Malone and Charles Barkley were in their prime, the two best active forwards. Mullin was a scoring machine (1992 was the fourth year in a row he had topped twenty-five points per game), and the team needed an outside shooter (the main weakness of the 1988 U.S. team). Mullin had Olympic experience as well, having played with Jordan and Ewing on the 1984 team. Pippen was one of the greatest defensive players of all time. He was a complimentary player, who had shown that he could flourish on the court with Michael Jordan. Laettner was the lone college selection.

Guards: Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton

Johnson had been retired from the NBA for a year at that point. Everyone was drooling about having Jordan and Bird play alongside Magic Johnson. At that point, Jordan was the one of the most popular figures in the world, and easily the best NBA player.

Drexler was selected with one of the two last picks saved to fill out the squad. I really thought then, and I still think now, that Drexler deserved to be on the team. In 1992, he averaged twenty-five points, 6.5 rebounds, and 6.5 assists per game. He was, in my opinion, the second best player in the game at that time, behind Jordan. Between 1985 and 1992, only three men—Jordan, Karl Malone, and the defensively challenged Dominique Wilkins—scored more points than Drexler.

Stockton was just one year younger than Thomas, yet Thomas had done so much more than Stockton by the end of the 1992 season. Stockton did have 7,381 assists in his career at that point, but Thomas had 7,991. That was third-most of all time, trailing only Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. Stockton, to that point, had averaged thirteen points per game in his career. He had never been named to the First-Team All-NBA (Thomas was, three times), nor had he led his team into the Finals. Thomas, on the other hand, had not only taken his team to the Finals three years in a row, but had led the Pistons to consecutive championships. Isiah was a supreme playmaker, and a talented and clutch scorer. In the 1984 playoffs, he scored sixteen points in ninetyfour seconds in the fourth quarter of the decisive Game Five of a series against the Knicks. Twice, he was named MVP of the NBA All-Star Game.

You can quibble with the choices, but most were rock-solid. The one real glaring piece that was missing was Thomas. How could that be, especially with his own coach, Chuck Daly, coaching the Olympians? In the spring of 2007, I spoke by phone with Daly about the omission.

Chuck Daly: Isiah absolutely should have been on the 1992 Dream Team. I didn’t have a vote. It was done by committee [USA Basketball]. I don’t know the reason why. They didn’t want me to address it. I did make a call, but it went unheard.

EK: Wait a minute. Who did you call?

Daly: I brought up