Is the 2024 USA men's basketball team better than the 1992 'Dream Team'?
The 1992 USA Olympic men's basketball team, better known as the "Dream Team," is widely considered the best collection of basketball talent to ever share the court. Headlined by superstars Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, the team also featured eight more Hall of Famers including Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Clyde Drexler, and John Stockton to give it 11 in total.
But could the 2024 squad be even better? Danny Parkins thinks so.
"This is the most talented Team USA roster we've ever had. It is top to bottom more talented than the Dream Team," Parkis said Monday on The Herd with Colin Cowherd.
The USA men's basketball roster for the Paris 2024 games consists of NBA superstars Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis, Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Kawhi Leonard, and Jayson Tatum.
Not only do most of the key players of Team USA's gold medal run in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo 2020 games three years ago return, such as current Phoenix Suns teammates Durant and Booker and current Boston Celtics teammates Tatum and Holiday, but Lakers duo LeBron James and Anthony Davis make their returns to the national team after extended absences and Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Curry will represent Team USA at the Olympics for the first time in his career.
"The Dream Team was more impactful, the Dream Team will win by a [greater] margin of victory," Parkins said. "In terms of twelve people on a team together, this team, I agree with [Warriors and USA head coach] Steve Kerr, it's got 12 [future] Hall of Famers."
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Cooper Flagg, a top high school basketball prospect committed to Duke and seen as the favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in next year's NBA Draft, agreed with that assessment after playing against the team in a scrimmage as part of the USA select team on Monday.
"They can be whatever team they wanna be. They have no weaknesses, no holes. They can play any type of way and dominate, so this is gonna be a dominant team," Flagg said.
Parkins thinks the biggest key for this edition of Team USA to dominate as expected will be in the paint, where Davis is joined by fellow superstar centers Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers and Adebayo of the Miami Heat.
"I don't see a team with Anthony Davis, Bam Adebayo, and Joel Embiid getting dominated on the glass, or being out scored in the paint, so the fact that Joel Embiid can play for team USA, I think, tips the scale and takes away the biggest weakness of rebounding in size and now makes it a definitive strength," Parkins said.
Embiid, who has dual citizenship in France and America, made the decision to represent the U.S. instead of the France team alongside reigning NBA rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama and four-time NBA defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert. The French went home with silver in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, reaching the gold medal game before losing to the U.S. — on a team that did not feature the phenom Wembanyama. France, led by Wembanyama and Gobert in the frontcourt, will be the USA's biggest challenge in the Paris Games as the host nation.
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