The Best Basketball Team Ever? The Avengers vs. The Dream Team

the 2024 Summer Olympic Games are officially over and in the middle of all the golds the robberies the scandals the Snoop dogs something was formed that I think deserves a bigger conversation than the mainstream media is currently running with the 20124 Summer Olympic Games provided us all with entertainment and well if you're American you were probably entertained the most the games were so entertaining because it was probably one of the best products USA as a whole has ever produced and as I scrolled social media watching LeBron and Curry Flex their new pure Golds I thought to myself was this the best USA basketball team to ever compete in the Olympics but to find the true answer to that we got to go back in time to see just what USA Basketball has been all about in the past basketball became a game in the Olympics in 1904 but didn't officially become a medal event till 1936 and as soon as it did Team USA became a dominant force in the global basketball world since the games began awarding medals for Basketball Team USA has only missed the gold medal three times and one of those times we boycotted the Olympics overall and we aren't going to count the debacle that took place in Munich Germany never been a more controversial game than the gold medal contest in Munich United States against the Soviet Union the two superpowers having a mock war on the B basketball court Doug Collins has perhaps won the game keep there are another 3 seconds less but even with all these years of dominance it wasn't until 1992 when Team USA could truly put the fear into the world's Hearts see losing is something that America has never taken lightly so when we lost the gold in 1988 and the Olympics released the amateur restriction all hell broke loose and for other countries I mean literal hell as the NBA finest came together for one goal and one goal only to dominate now they are unified in support of the United States Olympic team what may well be the best basketball team ever assembled the white Uniform matrick Johnson Controls the tip here's Larry Bird backing in goes to the fadeaway I kind of likes the defensive aspect of the game got a piece of the glass stocked in ahead of the field and that will wrap it yes it Go the greatness of Michael Jordan Michael Jordan Larry Bird Larry Charles Barkley Magic Johnson all being on the same team was almost too good to be true something that could only come together well in a dream which is why they were widely known as the Dream Team but for opponents it was anything but a dream in fact it was more of a nightmare as the dream team's average margin of victory was by 44 points and they were the first team to score over 100 points in every single game which is quite literally insane considering just four Olympic Games before Team USA was winning games with under 100 points scored by both teams inside the dream team's roster was 11 Hall of Famers 117 All-Star appearances 15 MVPs and 23 NBA championships and was coached by Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly it's no shame that anybody called this team the greatest sports team ever assembled but just a few weeks ago we wrapped up the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and Team USA not only took home the gold it was done in exotic [Music] [Applause] [Music] fashion see just like in 1992 when America was challenged by the world and USA Basketball showed the world who Daddy was America was challenged again in 2024 although this time it came from a fellow American and athlete himself world champion of what so with this challenge like in '92 USA Basketball Sun the world again whoever said history repeats itself deserves a Nobel Prize because again like in '92 USA Basketball may have put together the best sports team to ever be assembled even better than the notorious Dream Team when Kevin Durant LeBron James Joel embiid Stephen Curry and if you need to hear more names just let me know because they were there all came together it was like we collected each infinity stone the universe had to offer and the Avengers were born and inside this roster were four NBA MVPs the most on a team at the time of creating a USA roster 84 All-Star selections probably 12 future Hall of Famers and 16 NBA championships and they went on to lead the world in points per game at 105 field goal percentage at 55.4% and we're clearly the most efficient team on the floor at any given point in time but if for some reason you don't believe me there's a stat that tracks that too and I know what you may be thinking well the Dream Team average more points per game shot a higher percentage and literally won every game by at least 30 points and the Avengers were a couple shots away from actually losing a few of their matchups to that I say the evolution of sports is truly a thing see people sometimes like to think think of sports as this one siiz fits-all kind of situation where the reality is every sport is constantly evolving expanding and reaching new limits just like every other product think of an iPhone the iPhone 10 isn't technically better than the iPhone 12 but at the time it came out it was the best technology had to offer and the same can be said for sports and this Evolution doesn't just happen in the United States this is a global thing for example the opening day roster for the 2024 MLB season featured over 260 International Players some of which are no question the best in the league and are doing things that weren't heard of before their arrival but this number was only a merely 3.9% of all MLB players being born outside of the US in 1956 the same can be found in the NFL who now has over 80 International Players today which was about 0 to decades ago and yes the same can be said for basketball so in 1992 when us a sent over the best basketball players they had to offer their opponents would have most likely been Insurance Brokers travel agents just about anything but a professional basketball player had they grown up in America so it's safe to say at the very least we are comparing two of the greatest sports teams ever but there's two sides to every story and the side I'll talk about next is pretty damning for the dream team's case as I mentioned before Sports is a constant evolving operation so in 1992 the typical pathway for a successful basketball team looked a little different than it does today in the '90s it's no secret that players often look to drive and score inside the paint more often than not I mean the idea of a three-point Specialist or someone specifically on the team to knock down threes was subjective to maybe one to two guys in the entire league in comparison to today where almost every player in the NBA is more than willing to take that shot do you work on that shot and while the dream team did carry a few pretty efficient Shooters The Avengers would most likely end up just out shooting them if the two teams were to ever square off that is if the Dream Team could stay healthy see in 1992 a couple of key players were far from the prime of their careers Magic Johnson the starting point guard had taken a full year off from basketball after being diagnosed with HIV at this point have to retire from the lake and was also dealing with some knee issues during the time of the Olympics Larry Bird was suffering from back issues that ultimately led to his retirement the minute they returned from the Olympics sorry but I'm gone I'm history John Stockton broke his fibula two weeks before the plane left the runway for Barcelona and Clyde Drexler also missed some time with knee issues like this was far from a healthy team although it being one of the best teams but even if the Dream Team could stay healthy and even if they could find a way to shoot with Stephen Curry Kevin Durant and those guys The Avengers would still take away what the dream team did best Rim running the Dream Team Lov to score inside part of the reason why Charles Barkley Carl Malone and Kyle Drexler found so much success in their run and while that worked against overseas janitors The Avengers might have posed a bigger challenge see The Avengers were literally designed for defense I mean you'd have thought they were preparing to play the dream team already with how much they stress their defensive ability based on our defense and our effort defensive intensity working on some defense def schemes our best defensive lineup the defense and it proved its worth against the Sharpshooters from South Sudan and the 7-foot French demigod web nyama so I like to think it' play a pretty big part in the outcome of a theoretical matchup but that's just it this is a theoretical matchup because in the reality these guys all play for the same team you know I think it's more admirable that USA has been able to put together two different teams born from two different Generations that are considerably the best basketball teams to ever be created but one thing's for sure if Team USA wants to make it six gold medals in a row defending the American soil as the Olympics will be held in LA in 2028 they better evolve with the rest of the world thanks for watching if you made it this far maybe that means you enjoy content like this feel free to like And subscribe as I'll be covering the more interesting stories in all of sports