USA - The inspirational Dream Team

BARCELONA (Olympics) - The squad the United States brought to the Barcelona Games for the Olympic men's basketball tournament was awesome.

Eleven of the 12 players were NBA megastars and the one collegian was two-time NCAA Champion Christian Laettner.

That presence of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Larry Bird, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Chris Mullin, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson and Laettner in the same unit was dubbed the Dream Team, and its play in the build-up to Barcelona and at the Olympics created a seismic shock for the sport, one that reverberated around the world.

Drexler, who shone as a college with the Houston Cougars as a member of Phi Slamma Jamma and then in his NBA career with the Portland Trail Blazers, was one of the USA stars who literally played the game above the rim.

'Clyde the Glide' talked about the experience of being in the Dream Team to FIBA.com on Saturday in Barcelona.

"Back then, it was just an honor to play for your country and to have phenomenal talent around you," Drexler says.

Drexler was invited by USA Basketball to travel to Spain as part of the 20th anniversary celebration for the Dream Team.

"We had 12 players, all uniquely talented," he says.

"To be on a team like that and to be able to play for your country was an honor."

Drexler, who averaged 10.3 points, 3.6 assists and 3 rebounds at the Barcelona Games, remembered the weeks before the Olympics.

"We went to Monte Carlo, we went to San Diego, we went to Spain," Drexler says.

"Everywhere we went, we were received extremely well.

"We were like a rock band. We had a lot of fanfare.

"Every game was like being in the NBA Finals.

"It was a great feeling. That team was very successful because we worked so hard."

The Dream Team was so good that no opponents came close to them.

But what also happened is that the USA squad's dazzling play served as motivation for youngsters in Europe, Asia, Oceania and South America, to one day be like the players in the Dream Team.

"If you talk to a lot of the international players who play in the NBA today," Drexler says, "their inspiration was that Dream Team, to be the best that they can be.

"That's a great feeling for the guys on that team.

"We inspired millions of kids around the globe and that's the reason why the sport of basketball is so global right now."

No other country has been able to assemble a squad to rival the Dream Team, but there have been some Dream Team-like players at the Olympics in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.

What about those international players that Drexler, Jordan, Magic and Bird inspired?

Here is a Dream Team of non-US players that have competed at Olympics since 1992.

1.    Manu Ginobili - the talisman of Argentina's 2004 Olympic gold-medal winning team, who not only scored a lot of points but did so in clutch situations, like his basket at the buzzer to stun Serbia & Montenegro in the Preliminary Round that year.
2.    Yao Ming - China would not have reached the Olympic Quarter-Finals in 2004 or in 2008 without Yao. At the Athens Games, he averaged 20.7 points per game. Yao had 27 points and 13 boards in the 67-66 Preliminary Round win over Serbia and Montenegro that punched China's ticket for the last eight.
3.    Steve Nash - At the Sydney Games in 2000, Nash was the engine for Canada, the consummate playmaker and scorer who gave them a chance to win every time he stepped onto the floor. Averaging 13.7 points and 6.9 assists, Nash was electric as Canada finished sixth.
4.    Sarunas Jasikevicius - The Lithuanian was terrific at the 2000 Summer Games and almost fired the Baltic nation to an upset of Team USA in the Semi-Finals. He didn't leave Sydney empty-handed, but with a bronze medal. Jasikevicius was even more influential in 2004 when leading his country to a Preliminary Round victory over the United States.
5.    Pau Gasol - The Spaniard has been the leading scorer at the last two Olympic Games and helped fire Spain to a silver medal in 2008.
6.    Carlos Arroyo - If ever a player entered a different world on the basketball court, it was Puerto Rico's Arroyo in the opening game of the 2004 Olympics when he scored 24 points and dished out seven assists in a 92-73 win over the United States.
7.    Andrey Kirilenko - Though just bursting onto the international scene at the age of 19 in Sydney, Kirilenko raised eyebrows with his all-round play and he didn't back down from a confrontation with Team USA's Vince Carter as they walked off the court to the locker rooms at half-time.
8.    Luis Scola - Rock solid for Argentina at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games when they captured gold and silver, respectively, the 2.04m Scola has achieved legendary status in his homeland.
9.    Laurent Sciarra - The Frenchman took his game to new heights at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, averaging 18.25 points in his last four games which ended with an 85-75 defeat to Team USA in the Final.

(Established stars before the Dream Team who would be worthy of 'non-USA' Dream Team inclusion post 1992)

10.    Oscar Schmidt - The most famous player to ever wear a Brazil shirt, Oscar was a scoring machine and made his last Olympic appearance in 1996. At 38 years of age, Oscar led that tournament in scoring at 27.4 points per game.
11.    Andrew Gaze - From the time he first wore an Australia shirt, Gaze was a reliable scorer. At his fourth Olympics in Atlanta, Gaze averaged 23.8 points per game and in his final Sumer Games, he led the Aussies to a fourth-place by averaging 19.9 points. In their Semi-Final defeat to France in 2000, Gaze played in a record 39th game at the Olympics.
12.    Arvydas Sabonis - Although past his prime, the Lithuanian legend still led his national team in scoring and rebounding (16.9pts, 10.1rbs) in 1996 when they captured the bronze medal in Atlanta.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA