Count Scottie Pippen as the latest person to weigh-in on the Dream Team vs. current Team USA debate.
The subject heated up this week when Kobe Bryant said the current Team USA basketball squad would have beaten the 1992 Dream Team. Michael Jordan laughed off Kobe’s comments while Charles Barkley predicted a double-digit win for the ’92 group. Scottie Pippen feels similarly.
“I think we could probably beat this team by 25,” Pippen said while watching Team USA destroy the Dominican Republic in an exhibition game on Thursday. “I’ll go out on a limb and say that.”
Pippen made his comments during a guest appearance on ESPN’s telecast of the exhibition which the US won easily.
“We were well-rounded,” Pippen said. “We had good bigs, we had good small forwards, good guards. We didn’t deal with any injuries, so that team stayed assembled. [The current USA] team is really not what they put together. Even though they have some great talent and they brought in more talented players, I just felt like that team is the best of the best.
“We would have attacked this team. From inside, we would be able to attack them with our bigs. Defensively we would have shut them down because we would get up on them as they’re trying to do to this Dominican team,” Pippen concluded.
There’s no way to ever have the question answered, but it’s worth noting that sports books would have favored the Dream Team by anywhere from 6-8.5 points in a hypothetical game. Computer simulations also favor the Dream Team.
I think it would have been a close contest, but the edge goes to the Dream Team for one simple reason: Michael Jordan. With him on the team, I don’t think they would have lost.
Note: This post also appeared on the Yardbarker Olympics blog Medal Detector
