by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
Kobe Bryant was literally laughed out of the room for daring to suggest that the current U.S. National Men’s basketball team could defeat the fabled Dream Team — even beating them once was made to seem like a completely ludicrous idea.
Fans, media and fellow players seemed to agree for the most part that the 1992 squad couldn’t possibly lose to the current team (or any other, for that matter.)
LeBron James, much like his Olympic teammate Kobe, isn’t so sure about that.
From the AP:
Days before the current U.S. squad takes the court in London, James made his boast in a recent television interview. “The ’92 Dream Team paved the way for all of us… We understand what they did for our game, but we also are big-time competitors as well, so if we got the opportunity to play them in a game we feel like we would win too.”
“As a competitor you never want to say that you will lose no matter who you are going against,” James told ABC News “Nightline” anchor Cynthia McFadden. James also showed his respect to the iconic 1992 team, which was led by Michael Jordan and included 11 future Hall of Famers. That team won its six Olympic games by an average of more than 43 points en route to capturing the gold medal.
Everyone may disagree with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James on this, but that doesn’t matter. They believe they could beat the Dream Team, and that’s fine. It changes nor settles nothing, though it sure does seem to enrage certain nostalgic fans.
We’ll obviously never get to the bottom of this debate — unless scientists hurry up and build that damn time machine already!
