I don't want to take anything away from the '08 team because they came together and played hard and beat some excellent competition but a comparison to the Dream Team is just not fair. Before we start the comparison just know that it is strictly about basketball and basketball only. The rosters alone speak volumes but I will go a bit more in-depth.
Dream Team vs. Redeem Team
| Pos. | Player | Pos. | Player |
| G | Magic Johnson | G | Jason Kidd |
| G | Michael Jordan | G | Kobe Bryant |
| G | John Stockton | G | Chris Paul |
| G | Clyde Drexler | G | Dwyane Wade |
| G/F | Scottie Pippen | G | Deron Williams |
| F | Larry Bird | G | Michael Redd |
| F | Charles Barkley | F | LeBron James |
| F | Karl Malone | F | Carlos Boozer |
| F | Chris Mullin | F | Carmelo Anthony |
| F | C. Laettner | F | Tayshaun Prince |
| C | Patrick Ewing | C | Dwight Howard |
| C | David Robinson | C/F | Chris Bosh |
Margin of Victory
This is usually the best way to compare teams and in this particular instance it is not even close. The Dream Team won by an average of 43.8 points per game while the Redeem Teams margin of victory was only 27.9. This clearly shows that the Dream Team was far more dominant and absolutely destroyed their opponents. Now I know that the level of competition is higher these days as basketball is more of a global game and foreign countries produce much better players but the stats cannot be ignored.
Best All-Around Player
The best overall player on the Redeem Team was LeBron James (in the '08 NBA season it was Kobe Bryant). The best overall player on the Dream Team was Michael Jordan who is much better than Kobe and LeBron at both offense and defense. The reason I bring this up is because when times are tough teams draw strength from their best player and when your best player is Michael Jordan you are going to draw a lot of strength.
Interior Players
If these two teams played each other the game would be won and lost in the paint. Dwight Howard would foul out in the first half trying to stop the likes of Patrick Ewing and David Robinson. Also Charles Barkley and Karl Malone would have no issues imposing their will on Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer. The Dream Team brought true centers who could dominate inside and win games single handily if the guards were having an off game, which they never did. Howard was a force in Beijing but his skills would look amateur compared to some of the greatest big men of all time.
The Point
Here is where the debate will get interesting because many people love the point guards on the Redeem Team and with good reason. Jason Kidd, Chris Paul and Deron Williams are amazing point guards and can run the offense with 0 issues. However the Dream Team had Magic Johnson and John Stockton who are two of the best point guards ever. The Dream Team also had players like MJ and Scottie Pippen who could easily run an offense that was more versatile than the Redeem Team.
Defense
The '08 team played very hard on defense (though it had few answers for Spain in the final), but the Dream Team was better at that end of the court. If you saw Jordan shut down Lithuania's Sarunas Marciulionis or Pippen put the clamps on Croatia's Toni Kukoc -- both of the international players were world-class at the time -- you would have to give the advantage to the '92 team in a close game. And that's not even to bring up how Robinson and Ewing would protect the paint.
Once again this is not intended to bash the Redeem Team who played amazing and were a great team. In this day and age its hard to bring massive egos together and make them work as a unit. It is merely to say that it would not beat the once and future kings who set a standard that will probably never be matched.
1 comment:
The problem with these hypothetical senarios is that you never know what would have truly happened.
The dream team may have had more talent than the redeem team, but the fact of the matter is, international basketball was a joke in 92. The US was the world's one nation of basketball and nobody else could even come close.
In 2008 however, the world is a different place. Europe and South America have bridged the gap, and really made basketball their own. So much so that the world's first nation of basketball was actually dethroned four years ago.
The dream team may have been able to smash the opposition by 40+ points a game, but less face it, their opponents didn't really put up much fight.
The redeem team on the other hand may have had SLIGHTLY slimmer margins of victory, but they were up against much more competant teams.
The level of basketball on the international stage is unbelievable compared to 1992.
The fact that the redeem team was able to do what the dream team did against worthy adversaries is something that can't be ignored.
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