Category Archives: Michael Jordan

The United States basketball team is the heavy favorite to win the gold medal in the 2012 Olympics. Los Angeles Laker, Kobe Bryant, believes they would also be favored to defeat the “Dream Team” that dazzled the world in Barcelona twenty years ago. The debate has already started as to whether this group of American athletes is as good as the “Dream Team” that won the gold medal in 1992, the first year that active NBA players were permitted to participate in the games. While Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley have openly disagreed with LA’s superstar, Kobe says “… It’d be a tough one, but I think we’d pull it out.”

The world will never know who would win if the two squads were to match up but the current All-Star ballers put on a convincing clinic on Thursday afternoon. Great Britain’s team, led by Luol Deng of the Chicago Bulls, struggled all day in this international friendly contest and will have an almost insurmountable task of defeating the Americans in front of their home crowd in London should the two teams meet again. However, that match-up is unlikely to repeat itself. The British would have to defeat the more talented Spaniards to take on Team USA in the Olympic Finals.

If Thursday afternoon’s exhibition game gave any indication as to how the United States and Great Britain would fare in the Olympics, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James should feel quite confident in their chances of bringing home the gold. Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams led the team with 19 points respectively; Russell Westbrook dished out 9 assists, and Lebron James chipped in with 16 points in an absolute route 118-78. Just a few minutes into the game, one could assume that the British were about to get humiliated in front of their own fans in Manchester.

The Americans have moved to 3-0 in exhibition play and have looked solid in two of three of those games. Some say that after the United States poor performance against Brazil earlier this week that the “Dream Team” is definitely better. The Americans struggled both defensively and offensively in the post when facing seasoned veterans who were just as big as them.

Luckily for Team USA, they will not have to go up against Jordan’s 1992 crew in the upcoming Olympic Games. Patrick Ewing of the 1992 Dream Team would most likely destroy whatever defense the current Olympic team could present him with. While Tyson Chandler is a great player, he is no Patrick Ewing or Hakeem Olajuwon. I would love to say that our 2012 team is just as good as the Dream Team but if I said that then I would just be lying. Each team is extremely talented but the Dream Team never even had a close game. They defeated their opponents by an average of 44 points. And while Lebron has finally been crowned as King James, he still has 5 more rings to win if he wants to be compared to MJ.

Coach K will continue to make adjustments as his team gets ready to take on a talented and disciplined Spain team featuring the Gasol brothers. Oklahoma City Thunder’s 23 year old Serge Ibaka, the power forward for Spain, openly said that the Spain team is just as good as the Americans. Expect a tremendous amount of explosiveness and electricity as the United States team tries to prove him wrong. Something tells me that they will do just that. The two teams face off on July 24th in a friendly exhibition. Final Score Prediction: USA: 96 SPAIN: 81

***The United States will play Argentina featuring Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs on July 22nd before taking on the Spaniards two days later.