Epilogue: It was all a dream(wasn't It?)

Abstract

The US men’s Olympic basketball team of 1992 reserves an exalted spot in the annals of American sports history. Michael Jordan headlined the team that cast Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in supporting roles; there were no benchwarmers, though, on this all-star squad, which annihilated each opponent and laid claim to the gold medal as if it had been reserved for the unique enjoyment of these superstars. ‘We will perhaps see another great team’, coach Chuck Daly conceded, ‘but it won’t be a team like this. It took 15 years for this team to come together with the mystique, the quality of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and now Michael Jordan. The young players who will be around the next time are not built up to that level’. In his view, this team was ‘majestic’. Daly insisted his squad would need to be prepare seriously for international competition, but hardly imagined his side could lose. Opposing teams, instead of obstructing the path to victory, contributed to the spectacle of each win, seemingly as much intoxicated by the on-court wizardry of this team as the many fans who helped make Barcelona’s Olympic outing a US media delight. [1] The most devastating win came against Angola. In perhaps the most memorable moment of that game, Charles Barkley dealt an elbow to the chest of his African adversary [2] to emphasize who ran things underneath the rim, although the score left no room for doubt: Angola lost by 68 points. Decked out, characteristically, in the stars and stripes, Jordan and company were America’s team and defended the nation’s honour, successfully, in Europe that summer. [3] Easily handling Croatia in the championship game, the US made quick work of this Eastern European basketball powerhouse. Basketball, besides baseball – it now seemed – was America’s game. ‘America’s sport – the one Dr. Naismith invented with the first peach basket nailed to a tree’ would serve as ‘the US team’s private domain during the two-week run’ that constituted the Olympic basketball tournament, in the eyes of one observer. [4] And though other nations might now be familiar with the game, it was suggested they could still use a few lessons from the