By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist
Even today, the American Dream Team from the Barcelona Olympics is among the most legendary squads in history. But that doesn’t mean she’s unanimous… Chris Webber was particularly angry about her recently.
Impossible to deny it, the Team USA sent this summer to the Paris Olympic Games was incredible. LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid: the list of superstars coached by Steve Kerr was enough to terrify the whole world. In terms of talent, some outright agree that this is the best team ever seen on a basketball court.
On the other hand, this does not mean that American fans are all ready to put it ahead of that of the Barcelona Games in 1992, still known as the “Dream Team”. With Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, the latter has passionated a whole generation of fans and players for the orange ball. But we shouldn’t forget the few little corpses in his closet either…
Chris Webber straight on the 1992 Dream Team
First of all, we think of the famous match of shame that Team USA lost against a team of university players, just before the tournament in Catalonia. A good lesson for his stars according to Chuck Daly, coach of the team and who wanted to give them a booster shot. But some members of the squad then preferred to react by minimizing the feat of their young peers…
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Playing in Michigan’s famous Fab Five, Chris Webber was part of the team that beat the American superstars. The behavior of his elders therefore absolutely did not please him even though the performance was to be commended. Guest of Mark Jackson’s podcast, the former interior was once again angry about this:
I thought it was so disrespectful. If I was Scottie Pippen, if I was Karl Malone, if I was John Stockton, it would have been such a disrespect to say, “Oh, they were winning, but I looked to the side and I noticed that Michael Jordan was sitting. You are all the best players in the world, what does Jordan have to do with that? Even though Jordan didn’t play, the game still mattered.
We easily understand C-Webb’s annoyance, although he later explains that the other members of the team had congratulated the NCAA nuggets even though Michael Jordan had not played much. On the other hand, the revenge match was very severe, Larry Bird in particular taking pleasure in torturing them as compensation. Once maybe, but certainly not twice…
The NCAA team assembled by Chuck Daly had caused a surprise by beating Team USA in training, but some members of the latter had reacted with deep contempt. No wonder Chris Webber still takes it so badly, 32 years later.
