By JIMMIE TRAMEL Sports Writer on Jul 13, 2012, at 11:13 AM Updated on 7/13 at 11:15 AM
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I’ll tackle the subject of Dream Team vs. current Olympic team for the third day in a row (don’t blame me; Kobe Bryant started it) and then I’ll leave it alone, unless I change my mind.
Debates like this often fall along generational lines. My music is better than your music. My movie vampires are better than your movie vampires (now they’re romantic sissies). My NFL players (remember Jack Lambert’s face on the SI cover?) were tougher than today’s NFL players.
But, bias, aside, I wrote the other day that the Dream Team would beat the current Olympic team not because of a talent edge (and there is one), but because of shot selection. Guys on the Dream Team wouldn’t have thrown away many possessions by taking bad shots. I count three guys on the current Olympic roster who seem to relish taking poor shots perhaps because, hey, if I make one out of six goofy shots, the one that I make will be on SportsCenter!
But here’s my closing argument on why the Dream Team is a superior creature to the current Olympic team: I could pick 12 guys who got snubbed for Dream Team consideration and Snub Team would beat the current team.
Here’s the Snub Team roster:
Guard: Isiah Thomas. He quarterbacked the Detroit Piston’s “Bad Boys” to back-to-back NBA championships in 1989-90, was a 12-time All-Star and was voted one of the 50 greatest players in league history. You can find this quote about Thomas in his Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame biography. Said an opposing coach, “I call him the baby-faced assassin because he smiles at you, then cuts you down.”
Guard: Mark Price. The Enid High School graduate was a four-time NBA All-Star who got selected for Dream Team II. Need somebody to hit a clutch free throw? He owns the best career free throw shooting percentage in NBA history. He also is one of five players in league history ever to shoot at least 40 percent from 3-point range, 50 percent from the field and 90 percent from the free throw line in a season.
Guard: Joe Dumars. He’s the other reason the “Bad Boys” had, during their heyday, the best backcourt in basketball. How good? They made Michael Jordan wait his turn before he could start winning championship rings. Dumars, a six-time All-Star and four-time member of the NBA’s All-Defensive Team, is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Guard: Reggie Miller. Need a zone-buster? At the time of Miller’s retirement, no one in NBA history had made more 3-pointers.
Guard: Kevin Johnson. Russell Westbrook isn’t the first point guard in league history ever to get to the rim whenever he wanted. You can draw the same conclusion about Johnson, who drew so many fouls that, the year the Dream Team was formed, he ranked fourth among NBA players in free throws made and fifth in free throws attempted. He also kept his eyes open. He was the NBA’s second-leading assist man that season.
Guard: Tim Hardaway. Blessed with a killer crossover, Hardaway reached 5,000 points and 2,500 assists faster than any NBA player except Oscar Robertson. From 1991 through 1997, he never finished lower than fifth among league leaders in assists. A knee injury prevented him from playing on Dream Team II.
Forward: Dominique Wilkins. A nine-time NBA All-Star and two-time slam dunk champion, Wilkins was called the Human Highlight Film for a reason. The dude could fill it up. He averaged 20 or more points for 11 consecutive seasons. He still holds the NBA record for points scored in game seven of an NBA playoff series. He dropped 47 on the Boston Celtics in the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals. He’s in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Forward: Dennis Rodman. This is the kind of guy every Olympic team needs -- someone who doesn’t need shots to impact the game and takes pride in doing all the dirty work. He led the NBA in rebounding for a record seven consecutive years and was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive Team seven times. He’s in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Forward: Larry Johnson. Need young legs? Great. Larry Johnson was the NBA’s rookie of the year when the Dream Team was selected.
Forward: Buck Williams. Never flashy, but always steady, Williams averaged a double-double over the course of his 17-year career. He shot over 60 percent from the field during the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons, twice leading the NBA in that category. The 1982 NBA rookie of the year was a three-time All-Star and four-time member of the NBA’s All-Defensive Team.
Center: Brad Daugherty. With Patrick Ewing and David Robinson off the board because they are Dream Teamers and with Hakeem Olajuwon not yet cleared to suit up for the U.S., the next-best center is five-time All-Star Brad Daugherty, who was fourth among NBA players in field goal percentage in 1992. Daugherty was third-team All-NBA that season.
Center: Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq completed his senior season at LSU in 1992, so he wasn’t yet an NBA player. But he can be Snub Team’s Christian Laettner.
Anybody still think current team can beat Dream Team? Or, for that matter, Snub Team?
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