We Beat the Dream Team • HBO, Max • Documentary

I mean that wasn’t a typical crop of college guys.

You’re talking:
Grant Hill
Penny Hardaway
Chris Webber
Allan Houston
Jamal Mashburn

All of those guys were NBA all stars within a couple years and went on to be full on stars.

What’s even wilder is had they cut the teams differently you could’ve had Shaq, Alonzo Mourning and Jason Kidd on that practice squad as well.

92-94 College All-Stars
Healthy Penny / Jason Kidd
Allan Houston / Mashburn
Grant Hill
Chris Webber
Shaq / Mourning

Dream Team:
Magic (old)
MJ
Bird (injured) / Pippen
Barkley / Malone
Robinson / Ewing

I’m not saying the college guys win a best of 7, but those are competitive rosters.

Bottom line is a lot of talent came into the NBA around 92-94, that dream team wasn’t healthy and was thin at PG because Magic was old and no one wanted to play with Isiah Thomas.

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Jordan didn’t even play right?

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He played. Just not the majority of the game. The coach didn’t call time outs, didn’t yell at them, he let it play out.

Even the casual basketball fan knew everyone on the Dream Team and the college select team. I couldn't even begin to guess who would be on a college select team now.

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We beat the Dream Team

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Chuck threw the game to teach The Dream Team(tm) some humility.

As transparent as glass, but very effective. He was the best overall coach of that era. He wasn't blessed by talent like they had at L.A. or Boston. He didn't have the GOAT fall out of the sky like the Guru of Chicago.

The Bad Boys worked, cheated, fought, bled, scratched for everything because that's who Chuck was. I didn't like the Pistons, Isaiah and Laimbeer particularly, but at their peak, they were able to shave points and still win.

Watched this last night and loved it. And was gonna start a thread on the MSB about it today.

Coach K comes off as a total douche (shocker).

IMO it was summed up best in that they did actually legit beat the Dream Team, but that Chuck Daly let it happen. So it wasn't that he "threw the game." It was more that I think he saw what was already happening and then didn't do anything to change it because he knew it would be what the team needed to step it up.

I think it was Coach K that sort of crawfished a little when he said something like "Maybe Chuck couldn't have stopped it, but he didn't even try to."

Those kids were playing the best game of their lives that day. We all know that if Michal or Scottie were defending at 100 they could've shut down Bubby Hurley. But that was the point...none of them were playing at 100.

So IMO it was a real game and they really lost to the Select team. It just showed them they needed to step their game up and never underestimate an opponent again. And they didn't. But I find it hard to take away from waht the Select team did because they did actually win. And they all admit that they were all playing too unselfishly and everybody was trying to not step on any egos in that first game. Hell MJ, Magic, Bird, etc. in the doc even all said that the Select team beat the shite out of them. To me that's inarguable that it was a legit loss.

ETA: I really wish you could buy those two scrimmages, along with the one scrimmage discussed in the OG 2012 Dream Team doc where all of the HOFers are going at it back and forth, on DVD. I would love to watch that shite.

Did Jamal tell this story in the Doc?

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90’s basketball

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I find it so much harder to give a shite about basketball than back then. Seemed almost like a different sport. Why is that?

Yeah man i was obsessed as a kid.. especially with basketball trading cards. What a great time to be a kid. Great dynamic players too.. like Mugsy Bogues… maybe its just me but there arent many players like that in modern NBA