Kobe claims Team USA is better than The Dream Team!

cubfan89 · July 12, 2012 3:29AM

The 1992 Dream Team would beat the current Team hands down. Even Michael had a good laugh about it this morning. Lol

vintageinvestments · July 12, 2012 3:30AM

Is Kobe doing crack now?

VitoCo1972 · July 12, 2012 3:37AM

Don't get me wrong, the 2012 has more athletic wings but the size of the 1992 team would crush the 2012 team. it would force them to be jumpshooters and that's a semi-weakness on the current team.

bking · July 12, 2012 3:37AM

Wha??? A pro athlete talking smack prior to an event??

stown · July 12, 2012 3:40AM

He meant to say at their current ages, today's team would be the '92 squad.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

itzagoner · July 12, 2012 3:41AM

hmmmm. i dunno.

i'd love to see any of those guys on the '92 squad keep Westbrook or CP3 outta the paint.

oh wait. basketball used to be about enforcers giving a forearm shiv to a driving guard without fear of repercussions. or concussions.

n/m.

Socalguy1967 · July 12, 2012 3:49AM

cubfan89 · July 12, 2012 3:50AM

The only thing I never liked is that Latneer was on the team. Never understood why one college guy had to make it. That spot should have went to Wilkens I think.
Can you image in Hakeem was on the Dream Team? Wow

vintageinvestments · July 12, 2012 3:51AM

I think the 92 squad would beat them today.

Socalguy1967 · July 12, 2012 3:53AM

Here is an article about what Coach K thinks....

Kobe Bryant was direct, in his very Kobe Bryant way. When asked to compare this 2012 Team USA — with himself, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and so on — and how it would do against the 1992 Dream Team with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan (a team with 11 Hall of Famers), he gave the answer you knew he would.

Kobe said he thought today’s squad would win.

Of course he did. Kobe has never stepped onto a basketball court thinking the team he was on wouldn’t win. That’s part of Kobe.

USA coach Mike Krzyzewski has a better, longer-term perspective (he was an assistant with the Dream Team) and was asked if this team could beat the legendary Dream Team.

“Right now I wouldn’t say that,” Krzyzewski said, referring to how the team looked after a few days of practices. “But this team can be very good. The one thing about this team they are all kind of in their prime or getting ready to go into their prime, and Kobe hasn’t lost anything. Whereas in ’92 there were guys at the end of their careers. Larry (Bird) had a hard time physically, John Stockton was hurt, Magic had been out a year. In their prime, all those guys together, there was no team ever like that.”

It’s an interesting point. That 1992 team did have a prime Michael Jordan plus Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing (the 2012 team would struggle to slow him), Karl Malone and Clyde Drexler in his prime, among others. But the point that that Dream Team was not 1985 Magic or 1986 Bird is a valid one, we don’t always think of it that way because those guys were able to put on a show against inferior competition.

It’s also hard to judge teams across generations because the competition against them changed.

“The competitive nature of it is so much different (now than 1992), there is so much more competition now,” Coach K said. “Remember in ’92 not only were we ahead (in terms of basketball talent), but Yugoslavia split just before that, so they never put the Yugoslavian team together. And Russia split and became Russia and Lithuania. That would have been more competition. It’s not like the world was that far behind at the time, but the two best international teams in the world other than the United States, were split for the ’92 Games. Nobody is getting split before 2012.”

No, but we have the same expectations of them.

bigdcards · July 12, 2012 3:55AM

I think spiderman would totally win in a fight against batman.

stown · July 12, 2012 4:26AM

<< Can you image in Hakeem was on the Dream Team? Wow >>

He wasn't an American citizen at the time.

chaz43 · July 12, 2012 4:35AM

Nah, no chance for Kobe. chaz

mtcards · July 12, 2012 5:00AM

Sorry, but the 1992 DT was an elite group that will never be duplicated again. Granted their level of competition wasnt quite what the international level is now, but the 92 DT would not lose a game against todays fields either. They were the last true basketball TEAM. Nowadays its 5 individuals. Its the main reason I have watched maybe 10 NBA games in the past 5 years, when I used to watch 10 or more a week

Edited to add: If you took the 92DT out of mothballs, even at their age, they would win the majority of the time

onebamafan · July 12, 2012 5:24AM

Aren't all the original Dream Team team players HOFer's except Lattener?? Sorry Kobe.........your team would get run.

LodiBrewFan · July 12, 2012 5:25AM

Of course he says they would beat the 92 team. What would you expect him to say?

These guys are ego driven alpha males, they never think that they can be beat. I'm sure that ever incarnation of the Dream Team since 92 believed prior to tip-off believed that they were the greatest too.

Biggest non-story of the year.

bigdcards · July 12, 2012 5:27AM

If a wild cheetah had a 16 lb monkey riding it like a jockey, it would still definitely be faster than a greyhound.

galaxy27 · July 12, 2012 5:54AM

MJ received a nice chuckle from those comments. Today I heard a hypothetical line of the Dream Team -6. I'd be laying those points every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

perkdog · July 12, 2012 6:08AM

I think it would be a pretty damn good game

OneBigDummy · July 12, 2012 6:36AM

Kobe is delusional, at best.

StarPaxMan · July 12, 2012 7:20AM

Good argument for down the road,
but nobody could posibly know! the young people of today would agree with Kobe
the people in rocking chairs like me would disagree but nobody will ever know and that's indisputable!!!

Probstein123 · July 12, 2012 7:27AM

I agree with kobe

pmcollectour · July 12, 2012 7:32AM

Can't wait to hear the questions the reporters will be asking Kobe after each game.
God forbid if Team USA loses a game. Kobe has put himself and his teammates in a tough spot.
The Dream Team didn't even come close to losing, although the competition wasn't what it is today.

jimrad · July 12, 2012 7:33AM

Kobe is a tool. I don't like him, never have and I am in LA.

In his defense on the comment that's easy. Any top team from 2012 would beat the top team from 1992 in any sport.
It's called evolution and the athletes are getting better all the time. Any argument is comical.

Ahmanfan · July 12, 2012 7:47AM

<< Pretty sure the '92 2nd string would beet the 2012 Team. Kobe is an idiot, so is James and while I'll be rooting for the US team (of course) I will be the most impressed if they can, for once, act like gentlemen ... or at the very least just keep their mouths shut and let their play speak for them ... if they are so good after all ... >>

Kobe knows a hell of a lot more about basketball than you do.

perkdog · July 12, 2012 7:55AM

<< 

In his defense on the comment that's easy. Any top team from 2012 would beat the top team from 1992 in any sport.
It's called evolution and the athletes are getting better all the time. Any argument is comical. >>

I actually agree, the one thing that does it for me is the fact that Bird, Stockton and Magic were beyond their prime

itzagoner · July 12, 2012 7:55AM

i heard another rumor today that Kobe swears they could have also taken down the hockey team in Lake Placid.

Brick · July 12, 2012 8:38AM

Who besides kobe and lebron could have made the 92 team?

illinifan912 · July 12, 2012 8:50AM

I can see that if it was the refs from any of the heat games this year officiating the game

vintageinvestments · July 12, 2012 11:07AM

Kobe and Lebron may be player #11 and 12 on the Dream Team. While athletes are stronger and faster......they are not as talented. Just watch baseball.....lack of skill makes me want to puke at times.

Mickey71 · July 12, 2012 11:31AM

I'm going to make one point that maybe the biggest of them all.........Robinson and Ewing were dynamic players during that time period. We're talking upwards of 30 points per game, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks a night. The NBA has been so much about the smaller players that people forget how good the big men were 20 years ago. With Ewing and Robinson being a last line of defense the 92 team cruised every night. Those two guys went to block everything. They would have 10 fouls between them. Ewing and Robinson in their prime.......a thing of power and beauty. I've never seen a man as powerful as Patrick Ewing with that sweet touch. He could bump, grind and block with anyone and then go hit a turnaround fadeaway baseline jumper from 17 feet.

And by the way.......they were both good free throw shooters.

TheCARDKid · July 12, 2012 2:20PM

The 92 Dream Team was crazy. Remember when Chris mullin was scoring 25 points a year, for 5 or 6 years in a row? And he wasn't even one of the biggest stars.

-I think a 2nd tier 92 Dream Team would be competitive with the current squad. I.e. Dominique Wilkins, Hakeem?, Detlef Schrempf? Wouldn't you take him over James Harden?

The funny thing about the 92 Team, a lot of good players didnt even make the team. Moses Malone? He was way past his prime, but still, 3 time MVP. Parish, Isiah. Tim Hardaway was averaging 23 a game around that time.

ShootyBabitt · July 12, 2012 8:46PM

You know what team is better than both of them? The team from Hickory High. Shooter agrees with me.

saucywombat · July 12, 2012 11:26PM

He meant "at rape"

bking · July 12, 2012 11:28PM

<< He meant "at rape" >>

"That's funny" - Daniel Tosh

Hallco · July 13, 2012 12:36AM

I'm sure some statistics geek that heard this is right now running 10,000+ simulations of what that game would look like and by the time the Olympics are over, will have enough data to think he can answer this.

bking · July 13, 2012 12:41AM

<< I'm sure some statistics geek that heard this is right now running 10,000+ simulations of what that game would look like and by the time the Olympics are over, will have enough data to think he can answer this. >>

It's apparently already been run, geeks with computers being what they are, and the 92 team wins 53% of the time with a very small average point spread.

bigdcards · July 13, 2012 12:52AM

<< I'm sure some statistics geek that heard this is right now running 10,000+ simulations of what that game would look like and by the time the Olympics are over, will have enough data to think he can answer this. >>

Why would data collected in totally different situations be helpful?

itzagoner · July 13, 2012 12:54AM

<< 

<< I'm sure some statistics geek that heard this is right now running 10,000+ simulations of what that game would look like and by the time the Olympics are over, will have enough data to think he can answer this. >>

Why would data collected in totally different situations be helpful? >>

maybe he meant DNA.

bking · July 13, 2012 1:01AM

<< 

<< I'm sure some statistics geek that heard this is right now running 10,000+ simulations of what that game would look like and by the time the Olympics are over, will have enough data to think he can answer this. >>

Why would data collected in totally different situations be helpful? >>

Didn't say it was helpful, just that someone had run the sims.

bigdcards · July 13, 2012 1:16AM

<< 

<< 

<< I'm sure some statistics geek that heard this is right now running 10,000+ simulations of what that game would look like and by the time the Olympics are over, will have enough data to think he can answer this. >>

Why would data collected in totally different situations be helpful? >>

Didn't say it was helpful, just that someone had run the sims. >>

I was responding to the idea that we would get an answer.

bking · July 13, 2012 1:20AM

<< 

<< 

<< 

<< I'm sure some statistics geek that heard this is right now running 10,000+ simulations of what that game would look like and by the time the Olympics are over, will have enough data to think he can answer this. >>

Why would data collected in totally different situations be helpful? >>

Didn't say it was helpful, just that someone had run the sims. >>

I was responding to the idea that we would get an answer. >>

true, but this is Olympic basketball - 1972 proved that even playing the game won't guarantee an accurate answer.

vladguerrero · July 13, 2012 1:59AM

Since Kobe is a proven liar this does not surprise me.

bking · July 13, 2012 2:02AM

I don't get why this is even a story worth talking about, except on a slow work day.

A star athlete talking up the quality of his current team?? Unheard of!!!!

itzagoner · July 13, 2012 2:07AM

they get body art and piercing supremacy, though.

dontippet · July 13, 2012 2:32AM

Confidence and experience is very important in the NBA, and the 92 team had both.

dennis07 · July 13, 2012 3:05AM

It's not like he called a press conference to declare we are better than the 92 team. A reporter asked him a question---- How do you think you would do against the dream team. His answer
after briefly discussing some of the pluses and minuses was---

"So I don't know," Bryant continued, the trace of a smile beginning to play its way across his face. "It'd be a tough one, but I think we'd pull it out."

What the %*&^ is an athlete of his stature going to say? I think they'd kick our &%%. I'm not a Kobe fan or hater. It was a "clown question" but he still gave a professional answer.
I'm sure the dream teamers who are getting a laugh out of his answer didn't even bother to watch the interview. If they would have seen it they would understand the context of the answer.

Toro · July 13, 2012 6:29AM

A fifty plus point win today. Looks like they are going to try and prove themselves and into the history books with a 50 point average win difference. Haha, not! They'll get overconfident and lose to a team that has other NBA players on it.

galaxy27 · July 13, 2012 7:32AM

Methinks Pippen is the true dope here. First it was LeBron > Jordan, now it's '92 > '12 to the tune of 25 points.

In other news, Scottie also believes that if A > B and B > C, then C must be greater than A.

bigdcards · July 13, 2012 7:41AM

<< A fifty plus point win today. Looks like they are going to try and prove themselves and into the history books with a 50 point average win difference. Haha, not! They'll get overconfident and lose to a team that has other NBA players on it. >>

They were probably overconfident before and Kobe just gave them something to play for. Also, if a fifty point win against a terrible team doesn't count (and it doesn't to me), then the dream team never won a game. The strong opinions on this are very funny. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying the banter and like hypothetical sports debates, but people thinking they are "right" has me rolling on the floor.

And I'm rethinking my position on spiderman over batman. I think if batman could come up with something to get through spiderman's web, then he could distract spidey long enough for Robin to take a cheap shot with some type of weapon from the batcave. Actually, I'm confident that's what would happen.

Ahmanfan · July 13, 2012 7:42AM

<< Kobe and Lebron may be player #11 and 12 on the Dream Team. While athletes are stronger and faster......they are not as talented. Just watch baseball.....lack of skill makes me want to puke at times. >>

If you think Lebron James would have been the 12th man on the Dream Team, you're kidding yourself. He would have started over an old Bird.
John

Kobe claims Team USA is better than The Dream Team!

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