The Great Dream Team Debate

I'm a little late to the party here (moving from Tulsa to DFW has put my blog on a bit of a hiatus), but the water cooler debate about whether or not this year's USA men's basketball team could beat the storied 1992 Dream Team both intrigues and amuses me.

No team will ever match the greatness of the 1992 Dream Team.

I liked Larry Bird's answer, when he said that they probably could considering he, Jordan, Magic and company are all 20 years older now. (Side note to make you feel old: Anthony Davis is on this year's team and wasn't even born when the Dream Team won gold.)

Bird's comment, though, falls in line with my opinion of the whole thing: we're talking about two different eras, so the argument is full of holes.

Could this year's team beat the 1992 team as they were that year? Actually, yes, they probably could. Bird retired just after the Olympics, and Magic had been away from the game for a year after being diagnosed with HIV. Plus, today's athletes are, generally speaking, in much better shape than athletes from 20 years ago. Training, teaching, and nutrition have all seen a lot of advances since then. So, could they beat that 1992 team one time? Sure, they could.

Are they greater than that team? Not even close.

The greatness of athletes is ultimately determined by how great they are in the eras in which they played. Athletes get bigger and faster and stronger over time, making today's teams in all sports capable of greater feats than athletes from decades ago. That's why track and swimming records fall year after year. Each generation strives to be greater than the previous one, and each generation finds a way to do so through advances in teaching and training.

While Babe Ruth would probably be great against any generation, I doubt he'd have 714 career home runs if we could get a time machine and put him in today's Major League Baseball. He was truly ahead of his time in the 1920's, though. The major league career record for homers at the time was 138, and he blew past that on his way to 714. That's why he is viewed as the greatest slugger of all time.

Athletes change over time. Judge them against their own eras.

The 1972 Dolphins are still the only team to go through an NFL season undefeated. Look at the average size of their offensive and defensive lines, though. The '72 Dolphins, like all teams in those days, averaged about 250 pounds up front on offense and defense. Any team in the NFL today averages well over 300 on the offensive line and has lean, powerful guys approaching 300 pounds or more on defense. Simple logic says those teams would blow the '72 Dolphins off the ball and dominate the game. Does that mean today's teams are greater? Absolutely not. The '72 Dolphins were perfect in their own time, and that is why they are still the gold standard for NFL champions.

The 1992 Dream Team, even with Bird and Johnson past their prime, were far and away more dominant in their own time. They won by an average of 44 points per game, and 11 of the 12 members are in the Hall of Fame. Christian Laettner, a rookie out of Duke at the time, is the lone non-Hall of Famer, but he is in the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Is this year's team that far ahead of the rest of the world? I don't think so. That's partially because the rest of the world has gained a lot of ground on the United States since 1992. The Dream Team embarrassing the rest of the world served as plenty of motivation for the development of international players. That said, will 11 of these 12 players make the Hall of Fame? It's hard to tell because many are so young, but my best guesses on that right now:

Yes: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant (I know it's early for him, but he's well on his way)
Maybe/Still work to do: Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams
No: Tyson Chandler, Andre Iguodala
Too soon to tell: Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Anthony Davis

So, while these current guys are more athletic and better conditioned than the 1992 team, in my opinion, the absolute best they could achieve would be 10 out of 12 Hall of Famers.

Despite the generation gap, several of the Dream Team members (Jordan, Ewing, Robinson, Pippen, Malone, Barkley) were in their prime. While I think the current team could get a win, I still think the Dream Team would win a best-of-seven series. But we'll never know, so it will just remain a water cooler debate or something people simulate on video games.

To me, though, there is no question that the greatness of the Dream Team far exceeds the greatness of this team, and that's all that really matters.