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Dream Team vs. current Olympic team: Who wins?
Published: 7/11/2012 11:06 AM
Last Modified: 7/11/2012 4:35 PM

Kobe Bryant said he thinks the current Olympic team could beat the original Dream Team.

Is he crazy? Or (yeah, this is a cheap shot) senile?

I sought the opinions of people who know more about basketball than me, never mind that I once took a “theory of basketball” class from Ken Hayes at Northeastern State University.

Who wins in a game between the 1992 and 2012 Olympic basketball squads?

“Dream Team,” said former Oklahoma State and NBA player Desmond Mason. “And that’s said with no disrespect. There will never be another Dream Team.”

Mason’s former teammate, Doug Gottlieb, is quick to remind that some of the Dream Teamers weren’t exactly in the prime of their careers in ‘92. Great point.

Shawn Tiemann, a producer at Tulsa’s Sports Animal radio station, scribbled down all the names on the rosters and is making detailed notes comparing the players. He also sought input from Rogers State broadcast partner Steve Bontrager, a former Continental Basketball Association head coach who pointed out that three of the top five players in the history of the game were on the Dream Team.

I don’t need to compare rosters. The Dream Team beats current team because of shot selection. Players valued the basketball more in the pre-Allen Iverson era and didn’t throw shots away. I glanced at the names on the 2012 Olympic roster and saw the names of three guys who seem to enjoy taking degree-of-difficulty shots instead of finding a teammate for the best available shot.

Advantage Dream Team, period.


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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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