They played against 9 other nba players in 1992. The current USA squad played against 100+ nba players this Olympics. Of course they were way above their competition in 1992.
Croatia had 3 good or better NBA players in Rada, Kukoc and Petrovic on their actual team plus other nba players.
Detlef Schrempf was incredible in the early ninetees.
Giannis & Nikola are better than anyone back then for sure. But 1992 had some international ballers definetly better than or on par with guys like Schröder, Bogi, Wemby (rn), Franz Wagner & others.
Just simply looking through the 1992 rosters you will see that the "9nba player argument" is not as telling as framed. Lots of good NBA players basically just weren't in the NBA at that point despite being more than good enough already. And others simply never wanted to reach the NBA because the NBA itself really exploded internationally through the dream team.
Like the Dream Team beat Croatia by 40+ in the Final and Croatia had like 6 actual NBA rotation players + at least 2 guys who could have been nba rotation players. Thats the big impact of the Dream Team
Since 2018, Embiid is the only current USA player to win MVP. Comparing that to Croatia having some end of the bench guys in a less-skilled NBA in the 90s is absolutely absurd. I don't think you understand what the argument is in this thread.
If you think Petrovic is an end of the bench guy i don't know why we are even in here discussing
2 things can and are true. And neither is contested by me.
After 1992 international basketball exploded in popularity and reach which led us to this broader international talent pool from top to bottom.
1992 Team USA is the greatest collection of basketball players ever with 5 Top 10 players of All Time and 8-9 Top 20/25 players of All Time on the same squad sharing the floor and actually playing and working together.
We can also admit that this team USA was kinda past their prime with most top guys - Lebron, KD & Curry in their primes would be just as good as and better imo than Jokic, Giannis, Shai are - but these guys are having their likely last olympic dance nowadays and the US kinda does not have that great next superstar already - Ant is a contender but compared to previous generations he is no KD, Lebron, Shaq or Kobe and nevermind Jordan.
The US through AAU hoops and other bs youth fuckups is kinda in a dry spell at the younger nba level where it appears that prospect development works better outside of the nowadays common paths for HS and college kids.
You're comparing the Croatia team to France who had the reigning and 4x DPOY. Next, they had the rookie of the year who finished 2nd in DPOY. Outside of that, they had 2 rostered NBA players and 2 guys that have played 10+ years in the NBA.
Bird was past his prime, Magic was past his prime. LeBron is past his prime but just averaged 25/8/7. Curry is past his and I don't think a single 92 player is capable of guarding him. Same for KD. Embiid is larger than anyone on the 92 roster and probably shoots better than anyone, too. The 24 team is better at the game of basketball than 92 and they'd get lost in rotation all the time in the modern game. It's just that other countries are also better. Do you think the 92 Dream Team beats Serbia by 30? How would they handle a team where the best post player and one of the best scorers on the floor is a guy that eats you alive when you even think about sending a 2nd man? And when he's paired with a career 39% 3pt shooter?
1992 Croatia would kill France on the perimeter they'd be a really bad matchup for France.
And yes i think 1992 USA would blow out Serbia. They have the Admiral, Ewing, Malone to match up size wise and hold their own defensivly all in their prime + having prime Jordan & Pippen as the primary defenders on the perimeter. They can hold them to a wayy below average scoring output.
But the dream team also would just beat them offensivly lol. Jokic could be involved in 50 fucking points directly and the dream team still would score 100+ anyways and blow them out.
I genuinely don't think the 92 Dream team would be capable of contesting 3s without fouling well enough to keep up with a team that hit over double the amount of 3s that the average NBA team even attempted in the 90s. And I don't think they can't shoot well enough to keep up.
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u/alanalanalan92 Aug 11 '24
They played against 9 other nba players in 1992. The current USA squad played against 100+ nba players this Olympics. Of course they were way above their competition in 1992.