The 1992 Olympics Dream Team is widely considered the most dominant men’s basketball team ever put together. With multiple Hall of Famers including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, it’s hard to argue against that. But the 2024 iteration of Team USA has also drawn takes of being a dominant Olympics men’s basketball team. Former NBA star Tracy McGrady was recently asked about his opinion on the matter, and he made it clear what side he’s on.
“The Dream Team is better, Tracy McGrady said. “The Dream Team had everybody on the court intimidated. That’s why they blew them out by 50. They’re not intimidated no more.”
While McGrady never suited up for Team USA during Olympics competition, he was a member of the national team in 2003 during the FIBA Americas Championship. The United States defeated Puerto Rico to earn a berth in the 2004 Olympics, and defeated Argentina to win the event’s gold medal.
While what McGrady says may be true about the Dream Team cruising through the 1992 Olympics, there’s also an argument to be made that the rest of the world had yet to gain ground on the United States in basketball as they have now.
Team USA faced multiple NBA stars in 2024 Olympics
When the 1992 Dream Team squared off against Croatia in the Olympics gold medal game, they were opposite five current or future NBA players in the late Drazen Petrovic, Toni Kukoc, Zan Tabak, Stojko Vrankovic and Dino Rada. Kukoc, Tabak and Rada would not make the NBA debuts until after the Olympics.
This is not to say that the 2024 version of Team USA is better than the Dream Team or can stack up against the Dream Team. Only that certain things just need to be put in context.
During the United States’ gold medal victory against France, they saw a few NBA players in Victor Wembanyama, Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum and Bilal Coulibaly. Guershon Yabusele had NBA experience and recently signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Wembanyama is widely considered the top rising star in the NBA.
They also had to go through Serbia and Nikola Jokic who is a three-time NBA MVP. Although the United States did not face these countries, Greece was led by two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Canada was led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who finished top-three in the MVP voting.
Canada and Australia both fielded rosters that were overwhelmingly NBA players. The world and the game has changed with many of the top overseas players increasingly coming to the NBA.
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