How The Dream Team Changed Basketball Forever

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Recommended: History and development of basketball

Although the 1992 Olympic Men’s Basketball Team is considered the greatest assemblage of professional athletes in history, the Dream Team does have its critics. Regardless of the bureaucratic problems that stemmed from allowing NBA players to compete in the Olympics, many benefits were reaped by intertwining the two associations. Even though the basketball that was played with the Dream Team did not differ fundamentally, it changed the game of basketball forever because it respected the historical values, inspired young basketball players to pursue their NBA and Olympic dreams, and it treated book reviewers to an action-packed topic whilst also changing international basketball for the better.
To understand the phenomenal standard at which the Dream Team performed at, it is necessary to look at the statistics that they recorded. During the 1992 Olympics, the American basketball team averaged 117 ¼ points per game (Cottrell 1). This is remarkable, and partly due to the fact that this was the first Olympic games where professional basketball players were allowed to compete. Before this year, numbers like this were unprecedented in the games. Along with putting up with insane numbers, they not only held their opponents to 73 ½ points a game, but beat their competitors by an average of 44 points (“NBA” 1). These are just a few examples of the impact the Dream Team made on international basketball that year. It is easy to understand why the team has such a famous connotation to the name. The numbers that the American basketball team put up in Barcelona that summer will forever go down in history.
Various notable people at that time commented on the Dream Team, realising the magnitude of the team. “This is not a great team, this is the...

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.... Web. 5 Mar. 2014.
"Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever." Barnes & Noble. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.
Lukowsky, Wes. "Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, And The Greatest Team Of All Time Conquered The World And Changed The Game Of Basketball Forever." Booklist 108.19/20 (2012): 16. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
McCallum, Jack. Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Conquered the World and Changed the Game of Basketball Forever. New York: Ballantine, 2012. Print.
|, Michael Wilbon. "Dream Team Set Bar At Olympics." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 26 July 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
"NBA.com: The Original Dream Team." NBA.com: The Original Dream Team. NBA Media Ventures, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.

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