NBA Archives Debunked: The Jordan Saga

Chapter 39 Sweet Dreams (3)

The title of "Dream Team" did not fall from the sky, nor was it an invention of the executives of the American Basketball Association and NBA, but the wisdom of the media.As the most well-known and traditional sports magazine in the United States, "Sports Illustrated" made a cover in February 1991, using the phrase "Dream Team" for the first time.This romantic appellation quickly became popular and captured people's brains and tongues immediately.

In February 1991, the American Basketball Association had just publicly announced that it would send professional players to the Barcelona Olympics. No player had actually joined the team.Jack McCarron was responsible for writing the cover article for that issue of "Sports Illustrated", looking forward to how good the American men's basketball team could be in 2, and selected their starting five tigers: Jordan, Magician, Ewing, Barkley, Malone.In McCarron's opinion, these were the five best basketball players of the time.

"Sports Illustrated" spent several months back and forth, opening up various relationships, and finally during the 1991 Charlotte All-Star Game, the above-mentioned five stars were invited together to take a group of modeling photos.Still slightly annoyed when the magician walked into the studio, he said to McCarron rudely, "OK, are you happy now?"

The cover article written by McAllen subsequently began like this—

It's a red, white and blue dream: The five players adorning this week's cover, determined to restore America's lost basketball dignity, played together at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.How likely is this dream to become a reality?The opportunity is not small, not small at all.

On the cover of that issue of "Sports Illustrated", on both sides of the magazine logo, the label "Dream Team" was hung. This was the first time that "Dream Team" became the name of this team.

Years later, many people attributed the name to McCallum who wrote the article, but McCallum dared not take the credit. He always told the truth: Yes, I used "Dream" (dream) twice in the article. ) word, however, it was an editor who put the words "Dream" and "Team" together on the cover, not me.McAllen even went out of his way to ask which editor came up with the idea in his office, but he couldn't find out. The title elements on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" are often determined after repeated revisions through democratic discussions. It is likely that various proposals were put forward at that time, and "Dream Team" became the final choice by accident.

In any case, the name "Dream Team" is getting louder and louder.Barkley still believes to this day that he was one of the first five people selected by the selection committee because he was on the cover of that issue of "Sports Illustrated", but in fact, he was not one of the original five candidates. "Sometimes, something just hits the spot and then it becomes," said Rick Wilts, the NBA's marketing director at the time. "After that issue cover, the 'Dream Team' idea really took off."

Stern later told McAllen: "It all started by a beautiful accident. We didn't even think to give it a name. Maybe, God forbid, you're done."

One week after the end of the 1992 NBA Finals, on June 6, the most legendary team in basketball history assembled in San Diego, California, and officially started their journey.

Coaching a Dream Team is not an easy job, at least not at first.Daly knew that if the team had a good chemistry, Magic was a key.Magician and Bird are the natural candidates for the co-captain of the Dream Team, but Daly knows that this honor is only important to Magician—whether Bird is the captain or not, as long as he is Bird, he will naturally become the captain. The leader; and the magician will readily accept the role of captain, and will unite this group of superstar teammates around him.

But Daly has a concern: this is no longer the era of Magician and Bird, this is the era of Jordan, and the NBA is Jordan's league.Coaches understand this better than anyone.Daly respected Jordan a lot. As a long-time opponent, he knew how hard and hard his team had to play to beat this guy.So, as soon as Daly checked into the hotel, he went to visit Jordan.

Daly said to Jordan: "Magic and Larry are captain-elects, but so are you. I just wanted to know, would you be interested in a 'three-man rule'?" It sounded like it was in Rome.

Jordan replied immediately: "Never. It should be Magic and Larry. I have too much respect for these two guys. I'm going to take a back seat."

This does not mean that Jordan has put away his competitive personality, but he is a smart person and he knows how things should be done.The next day, during the Dream Team's first training session, "Coach K" Krzyzewski discovered this.Before that, Coach K and Jordan didn't know each other very well. Not only did they not have friendship, but Coach K belonged to Duke and Jordan belonged to North Carolina. The two schools had a feud, and Jordan absolutely hated Duke. Coach K wondered how Jordan, the best player on the planet, would treat him as a college coach.As a result, Jordan walked up to Coach K and said to him naturally: "Coach K, do you have time? There is something I want to practice." Coach K recalled many years later: "Michael didn't have to do this. He did it like this. Doing means saying, 'You're important, those other things don't mean anything, and now we're all on the same team'."

Regardless, Jordan was tired of the endless responsibilities when the Dream Team assembled.He has led his team to the NBA Finals and won the NBA Championship for two consecutive seasons. He doesn't need to be one of the three captains of the Dream Team. Everyone knows this will be his team.

Slowly, Jordan and Magic began to make decisions together on the team."Chuck would say, 'OK, do we want to practice tomorrow'? Michael and I would look at each other, and if he didn't want to, we'd tell Chuck: No. Or Chuck would say, 'You guys What time do you want to practice tomorrow'? Michael would say, 'Early, because I want to play golf.' And then we'd be early."

The mystery of this was tacitly understood by the whole team.If in the dream team, the magician is the sun, then Jordan is the North Star.Mullin later recalled: "Leading the team out, talking to the media, representing us as a whole, all these things belong to Magic. But once we enter the arena? Then it's all up to Michael."

There is a delicate issue that Daly must communicate with the players in advance.He said, "Look, there's 12 of you, you're all All-Stars, you're all future Hall of Famers, there's no way I'm going to get all of you the minutes you're used to getting..." Magic and Jordan cut him off .Jordan said: "It's not going to be a problem." Magic said: "We're here to win. No one cares about playing time, Chuck."

After the meal, it was time for the coaching staff to meet.The three assistant coaches of the dream team, one is NBA veteran Lenny Wilkens, one is Coach K who just led Duke University to complete the NCAA two consecutive championships, and the other is the little-known Seton Hall University Bring PJ Carlesimo (PJ Carlesimo) into the United States. Coach K and Carlesimo entered the Dream Team coaching staff feeling like college freshmen going to their first class, wearing USA Basketball badges but still looking like college coaches.The two opened their notebooks, took their pens, and prepared to listen attentively to what Daly would say.

"Chuck said, 'Listen, the first thing I want you guys to do is...' Me and PJ were like, 'Yeah yeah, what is that, Coach'?" Coach K described the scene, "Chuck said, 'I think the first thing you guys do is learn to ignore'."

Daly offered another version of the adage: "It's good to be inaudible."

Daly has long realized that the team will always complain about the coach, always argue about women, always get involved in unnecessary squabbles, and even throw fists at each other.When he sees this, he reminds himself that the only thing that really matters is that when they play basketball, they are united most of the time.

Daly told Coach K and Carlesimo: "We have the best players in the world, and you, as college coaches, look at every detail, just like you have to do on your own team. I understand. But At this level, most of those things don't really matter. You go with me, don't get mad at the little things. I'm going to need you to work on the players, because you're young, but there are some things you have to ignore. If anything Important, I will understand. Open your eyes wide, tell me everything you want, and give me any advice. Treat them, not just like professional players, but like professional players among professional players.”

After the coaching staff meeting, Coach K had only one thought in his mind: Daly understood the psychology of superstars better than anyone else.

Years later, Drexler would use the word "ignore" when referring to Daly."Over time, we'd try to annoy Chuck in practice, just to see if we could do it," Drexler said. "We'd pretend to wail, 'Chuck, man, you're gonna kill us. We're getting out of here.' And he just ignored it."

Coach K and Carlesimo were in awe of Daly."The feeling right now is that anybody could have coached that team to go to the gold medal," Carlesimo said. "I'm not sure anyone else could actually do that except Chuck."

In order to warm up for the dream team, the American Basketball Association recruited a group of college players to serve as sparring partners and play training games.Originally, it would be better to find another group of professional players, but I am afraid that it will not work to make NBA players sacrifice their party time to be sparring partners. Therefore, it is a young talent who came to La Jolla, California to wait for the dream team. hansome.These young men would soon become famous in the NBA, including Chris Webber (Chris Webber), Grant Hill (Grant Hill), "Penny" Anfernee Hardaway (Anfernee Hardaway), Bobby Bobby Hurley and Allan Houston.

These college kids arrived in La Jolla earlier than the Dream Team.One day when they returned to the hotel after training, they just entered the elevator, and Bird just finished checking in and was about to go upstairs. The children respectfully held the elevator door for Bird, waiting for him.With a flash of a smile on his face, Bird said to the children: "I hope you young kids are ready, we will teach you a hard lesson." Bird also said that he really wants them to rush to the NBA, "So I can kick all of your asses off".After speaking, Bird got out of the elevator.

The college students were tongue-tied, not knowing what to say.Hill later recalled: "At the time, none of us knew that Larry was a famous trash talker." It wasn't until Bird left that they reacted and began to whisper to each other excitedly: Larry Bird was talking trash Talk, talk trash to us!

For the next few days, this group of college students seemed to be living in a dream.The NBA stars of the Dream Team were friendly to them, and Pippen even hung out with them and acted as a tour guide for them.

June 6 is a big day for them, because they will play the first match against the Dream Team.They came to the UC San Diego Arena that day with mixed feelings, as Hill said, "like victims."It was odd for Laettner to see them, since his Duke teammates Hill and Hurley were on the other side.

At this point, the college students had received instructions from coach Roy Williams, from Daly and USA Basketball.Roy Williams reminded them: "Play like a European." This means that Bobby Hurley must keep dribbling and breaking, the purpose is not to lay up, but to distribute the ball to the outsiders. Shooters Alan Houston and Jamal Mashburn; bigs Webber, Eric Montross, Rodney Rogers, will be aggressive around the rim As for Grant Hill and "Penny" Hardaway, these two strikers with outstanding athletic ability, they also have to attack non-stop, playing a rhythm that the Dream Team is not used to. .

Gathering on the sidelines, Hill still remembers Roy Williams giving him an exciting order: "Grant, you guard MJ." Hill thought: Oh, my God, I guard Michael Jordan!When the magician reached the middle circle, Hill's heart almost stopped beating. This is the person he will try to imitate and learn from in the future.

At the beginning of the game, the dream team was still looking for each other's feelings. They passed too much and tried their best to avoid disturbing others with their own style of play.On the contrary, the college students behaved very well, as if they couldn't wait to take over the banner from their predecessors.Hurley is the key player. He is only 6 feet (1.83 meters) tall and his athletic ability is not particularly outstanding, but he comes from a famous family, has solid basic skills, and has many street basketball skills. He can drill anywhere he wants on the court.The main defender of Hurley is Magician, and Magician has never been good at dealing with this kind of speed point guard. Hurley's style of play completely exposed Magician's flaws.After the game, 88 to 80, the college students won.

Yes, the Dream Team lost their first game together.

The media were allowed to enter the arena after the game, and the stars of the Dream Team were interviewed, most of them in low spirits.In the midst of the conversation, the message leaked out: They had just been beaten by college kids.Although everyone said "it's just training", they probably thought much more than that.

However, there is no need to exaggerate the significance and impact of such a defeat.Will the Dream Team be in trouble in Barcelona if they don't lose to the college students?not necessarily."I don't think they were warned or anything like that, it was more of a wake-up call," Hill said.

Besides, according to Coach K, it was Daly who orchestrated the defeat.At the critical moment, Daly replaced Jordan; when they clearly had time to reverse the situation, Daly deliberately let it go and allowed the situation on the court to develop.What is Daly's purpose? Coach K said: "Chuck just wanted to let everyone realize on the first day that we can also lose."

The Dream Team held an internal meeting that night and made a decision: in the future, Jordan and Pippen will deal with the kind of speedy point guards who may cause trouble.Pippen wasn't surprised at all, saying: "I know why I'm on this team. I know I exist, and defense is more important than everything else. For me, it's fine."

Hurley's easy breakthrough was the key to the college team's first training match.The next day, another game, the situation changed: The Dream Team first had Jordan defending Hurley, who had difficulty dribbling the ball to midfield, and then Pippen defended, with the same result.The college team couldn't afford the sudden score of the previous day, and the game was completely dominated by the dream team.There are rumors in the world that the score difference in this game is about 40 points, but no one remembers that accurately."We beat them like they stole something," Barkley said.

From that day on, the dream team became a real team, they found their own characteristics, found those important details, the ball moved smoothly, and the players got along well.Years later, the best statement about Dream Team basketball came from the youngest member of the team, Laettner.Laettner said: "The first thing I remember is how incredible the transition speed they are from defense to offense. In the blink of an eye, at least three steps faster than in college. Even for a player who is used to running That said, it’s also a huge adjustment. It’s anticipation plus speed that counts.”

(End of this chapter)