he numbers are dizzying, but they don't even come close to describing what was happening on the parquet floor. Almost 44 points difference with rivals (43.8) and 117.3 points scored per game. No selection had reached three figures of average scorer in Olympic history. But these overwhelming numbers are clearly the least important to try to review the best team elite sport has ever produced, the Dream Team.
The Pavelló Olímpic in Badalona continues to have the honor of having hosted the eight duels that the United States team played in the 1992 Games, which were basketball games because there were two baskets, but which could well have been shows by Cirque du Soleil or by David Copperfield. It was something without parallel.
USA Basketball took the Barcelona Games as a way to project its basketball to the world. For the first time, the presence of professional players was allowed in the competition and after the affront of the defeat against the Soviet Union in the semifinals of the Seoul '88 Games, the Americans left no loose ends presenting simply the best team in the history. The 48-116 with which they debuted against Angola confirmed it.
Except for Christian Laettner, the only university nod to the past of the American team, the other eleven players are part of the basketball gold book. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Clyde Drexler, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing were placed under the orders of Chuck Daly, capable of deforming a team in which all were stars.
The Dream Team quickly entered the legend and had a great time in Barcelona. All those stars took it as a new experience and enjoyed it to the fullest, on and off the track. They became the epicenter of the media and every walk through the streets of the city became an event. It should be remembered that the American team decided not to stay in the Olympic village, generating much controversy, but in a luxurious hotel where they had two entire floors reserved with all kinds of luxuries and entertainment. Between game and game, Michael Jordan, as fond of betting as he is of golf, moved to the old facilities of the Real Club de Golf El Prat by the sea to play a few dollars in games that were followed by dozens of club members .
The Dream Team's adventure in Barcelona ended in the only way it could end, with the gold medal hanging around the necks of all its players. The final pitted them against the only team that seemed capable of standing up to them, the Croatia of Petrovic, Kukoc, Radja and company, but Jordan took charge of operations from the start and aborted any kind of revolution (117-85).
Of course, the top star of world basketball was not the top scorer of his team in the Games. That honor went to Charles Barkley, who in addition to 16.3 points per game, also averaged nearly one technique per game.
