Dream Team documentary

If you've got Shaq, Zo and Laettner, then there's no need for Montross. Leave the big stiff at home and given that spot to someone like Glenn Robinson, Calbert Cheaney or Jalen Rose instead.

Don't think we needed the pros that year, that would've been the best amateur roster in a long ass time. Looking back, it's amazing how many legit stars were in college basketball that year. We could never dream of fielding an amateur roster like that in today's one and done early entry era.

 

Anyone know if you can buy a box set DVD collection of the Dream Team games? Qualifying and Olympics? I had a few of them recorded on VHS back in the day, but we all know how useful they are.

 

I too would be interested if this exists.

 

Shocking, I know, but Peter Vecsey hates the Dream Team sight unseen.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/nets/dream_team_not_worth_glorifying_6WVVJS8tn3tmCFDaYxUMjJ

 

Down near the end, the incident of Magic Johnson getting rid of Westhead from the Lakers was referenced.

Magic (and all the players) would have been fine with Westhead as Olympic coach because the Olympic team was going to play 14 games, not 110 as an NBA team going to the Finals may do, and Magic would have been averaging 16 minutes of PT every game, not 40, and he would have been playing for 2-4 minute stretches at a time, not 20, and Westhead (or somebody like him) would have allowed Jordan to average 25, Barkley 22, Malone 20, Bird and Magic 20 each, Magic 15 assists, and everyone else on the roster double digits.

The 48-minute end-to-end balls-to-the-wall approach will kill you over a 100-game NBA season, but in 14 games against rosters made up of Boris Badenovs, with playing time divided precisely equally and nobody playing more than three minutes at a time, it would have been beautiful.

 

Except that . . . Magic had nothing to do with the firing of Westhead.

For the umpteeth time (please read the Ostler-Springer book):

--- Westhead installed a new offense in which Kareem was the focus.
--- Players had a hard time adjusting, as it meant nothing could be ad-libbed, and Showtime was shut off.
--- The team won more than it lost early, but the product was ugly. Buss asked "What's going on?"
--- Buss met with Westhead, who told him that the offense, executed properly, would be better than before.
--- Buss basically said, "But that's not what I'm seeing," and the meeting ended.
--- Buss told Jerry West and Bill Sharman, "I have decided to fire Paul Westhead. If both of you disagree, I will change my decision. But if either of you agrees with me, he's gone."

--- Key point here: West and Sharman agreed with Buss, but West said, "Don't announce it yet; give me a chance to scout around for a replacement."

--- A few days later, Magic has his "I'm going to ask Buss to trade me" moment in Utah.

--- Buss is pissed. "NOW what do we do?" he said. "If we fire Westhead, people will think it was because of Magic. And if we don't fire him, it WILL be because of Magic."

They decided to stick with Plan A and fire Westhead, knowing Magic was going to take the fall even though he had nothing to do with it.

 

Magic might've been fine with it, but I'm not sure about the rest of us.

At the time, Westhead had just been fired by Denver after going 20-62 and 24-58 in consecutive seasons. His last NBA job prior to that, with the Bulls, he was fired after only one season of 28-54. Care to compare that to Chuck Daly's record?

I can see the pitch now: "We're amassing the greatest team in the history of sports--the DREAM TEAM--nothing but the absolute best of the best ever, and to lead them we've chosen that dude that just got shitcanned by the Nuggets."

 

Vecsey writes:

MAGIC JOHNSON: He was the certified coach-killer (Paul Westhead) by that time. He claims he “forced” Thomas off the Olympic team because Isiah supposedly spread a rumor he got infected with the HIV virus from gay activity.

Oh, really? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I recall The Farcelona 12 being presented in tuxedoes during the summer of ’92, before the HIV press conference and retirement!

I hope someone corrected him, because he either made a bad typo or got the whole thing wrong, probably both. Magic's announcement was in November 1991. Most of the team was announced before then, but there were two spots left, which went to Drexler and Laettner not long before the event started.

There was quite a bit factually incorrect in that column, actually.

 

Ironic that there was a time when Paul Westhead was seen as running too rigid an offense.

Anyway, the question of who should have coached the Dream team is irrelevant. They won by 30, and could have won by 50? Who cares? So what?

Let's instead amuse ourselves with the fact that it was George Karl and Larry Brown's utter failure that caused the necessity of the "Redeem Team."

 

Depends on how you're viewing it, based upon what we know now--having seen those players entire career--or based upon what was known then in 92?

If it's the latter, the consensus is absolutely wrong. That season Mullin had been FIRST TEAM All NBA--a legitimate superstar averaging over 26 pts per game (third in the league behind only Jordan and Malone). And Ewing had been the league's first or second team All NBA center for five straight seasons. They were by no means the last choices.

Believe it or not, the one whose selection I seem to recall receiving questions back then was Pippen. In terms of personal honors, he was probably the least decorated member at the time, and I recall hearing some sentiment that he'd only been selected because the Bulls were the reigning champ.

 

Mostly typo. It was fall of '91, before the announcement.

http://espn.go.com/nba/topics/_/page/the-dream-team

 

Watched it this morning. Pretty vanilla stuff -- when a John Stockton story is the highlight, you know it isn't thrilling.