Whitlock - players picked for '92 Dream Team just because they were white

[Kuberski33]

Laettner didn't deserve to be on that team.  

[WsAllDay]

@Kuberski33 Laettner was the best college player so he deserved that spot reserved for the college player

[Celtics18]

I say so what if they sprinkled in a few white guys to satisfy the masses.  It wasn't like they were putting themselves in danger of not winning every game by 40 plus points, anyway.  

I don't get the adoration of the Dream Team.  Personally, I thought it was kind of an embarrassment to put together an Olympic team that was like an alternative version of the Harlem GlobeTrotters with the rest of the world being the Washington Generals.  That's not what the spirit of the Olympics is about.

I haven't rooted for US Basketball since.  They almost got me back two summers ago in the World Championships, but then Rajon Rondo walked off the team in a huff, and I was stuck rooting for the Turks and Semih Erden.  

[TripleOT]

Stockton was in the middle of a 9 year run of leading the league in assists.  It was logical to have a pure play maker on a team laden with big time scorers, no?  By the summer of 1992, Isiah Thomas was in the last quarter of a sterling career, but for basketball reasons alone, I can see Stockton on that team at that time over Isiah.  When you add the animus that MJ and Magic and even Bird had for Thomas, it's snub time. 

Mullin over 'Nique and Worthy?  With zones being legal in international ball, and not in the NBA at that time, the thought was that the team needed a pure shooter like Mullin as opposed to athletic slashers like Wilkins and Worthy.  That's sound thinking even today, when players like Michael Redd are added to Team USA because of his outside shooting ability.  Was it racist that Michael Redd was on the 2008 Dream Team?  There certainly were better all around players available than Redd at the time.

No comment on Laettner.  I didn't like him then, and didn't want him on the team.  Regarding Whitlock's column, he doesn't take into account that this team had always been picked taking into account how a player's game would translate to international ball.  Was there any racism involved when Bobby Knight chose Jon Koncak for the 1984 team over Barkley and Karl Malone? Or Leon Wood over Mark Price?     

[Rondo2287]

Whitlock is an absolute idiot and race baiter.

That's been apparent for years.

This.

Not only this but then he makes racist jokes on twitter

[GreenFaith1819]

Wow.

While I don't believe that Whitlock is racist, he can at times say hurtful things.

Just a few months ago it was the Lin comment, and now this?

The Dream TEAM was exactly what it was - a TEAM. Anyone who may not have been picked for it, I can't understand the sour grapes about it 20 years later.

Just Wow.

So if it wasn't Stockton, then who else? Who else would've backed up Magic as a distributor?

If not Mullin, who else would've been as great a shooter as Larry or Michael?

That team was as well-balanced as they come. Whoever picked them got it right.

That is why no other Dream Team out there will match them in terms of talent and chemistry.

Simply the best team that could've been assembled, IMO.

I think Whitlock's main purpose with these articles is to spur conversation, but IMO he fails here.

[bdm860]

I say so what if they sprinkled in a few white guys to satisfy the masses.  It wasn't like they were putting themselves in danger of not winning every game by 40 plus points, anyway.  

I don't get the adoration of the Dream Team.  Personally, I thought it was kind of an embarrassment to put together an Olympic team that was like an alternative version of the Harlem GlobeTrotters with the rest of the world being the Washington Generals.  That's not what the spirit of the Olympics is about.

I haven't rooted for US Basketball since.  They almost got me back two summers ago in the World Championships, but then Rajon Rondo walked off the team in a huff, and I was stuck rooting for the Turks and Semih Erden.  

I hate that view.  What is the spirit of the Olympics about if not winning?

Does any country hold back it's best athletes in any sport for the greater good of the "spirit of the Olympics"?

Why would you ever be embarrassed about being good at something? If anything, wouldn't it be more embarrassing to send our 18-22 year old kids out there to beat grown men?

You'd rather hold back your best athletes and lose, then send your best and win?  Now that's an embarrassment and an insult to every other country competing, you're only good enough for our JV team,  but that does sound like a perfect fit for today's youth culture where everybody gets a trophy, and nobody can be cut from the team, and you can't fail a student as long as he tried. Good job, good effort!

Michael Phelps definitely shouldn't compete this year, because it's not in the Olympic spirit 

[Chief]

92 Dream Team. Key word being Team. The future Olympic teams forgot that. Stockton, Mullin, and Bird were great shooters. Something Magic, Clyde, and Jordan were not. They had someone on that team that could do everything. Including Laetner, who carried the bags.

[mqtcelticsfan]

I say so what if they sprinkled in a few white guys to satisfy the masses.  It wasn't like they were putting themselves in danger of not winning every game by 40 plus points, anyway.  

I don't get the adoration of the Dream Team.  Personally, I thought it was kind of an embarrassment to put together an Olympic team that was like an alternative version of the Harlem GlobeTrotters with the rest of the world being the Washington Generals.  That's not what the spirit of the Olympics is about.

I haven't rooted for US Basketball since.  They almost got me back two summers ago in the World Championships, but then Rajon Rondo walked off the team in a huff, and I was stuck rooting for the Turks and Semih Erden.  

Not in the spirit of the Olympics? Really?

This team was the catalyst for the globalization of basketball. They're the primary reason that we have a competitive field in the Olympics with the world's very best players.

Further, what's the problem with being better? Should Bolt not be allowed to run because he's clearly superior to his peers?

[the_Bird]

@Kuberski33 Laettner was the best college player so he deserved that spot reserved for the college player

Agree with this.  I tend to think that people's opinions on Laettner are colored by his mediocre pro career, but at that time I don't think there was much doubt he was the best player in college. 

[Finkelskyhook]

Whitlock is the sharpton of "journalists"

[lostboyz682]

I say so what if they sprinkled in a few white guys to satisfy the masses.  It wasn't like they were putting themselves in danger of not winning every game by 40 plus points, anyway.  

I don't get the adoration of the Dream Team.  Personally, I thought it was kind of an embarrassment to put together an Olympic team that was like an alternative version of the Harlem GlobeTrotters with the rest of the world being the Washington Generals.  That's not what the spirit of the Olympics is about.

I haven't rooted for US Basketball since.  They almost got me back two summers ago in the World Championships, but then Rajon Rondo walked off the team in a huff, and I was stuck rooting for the Turks and Semih Erden.  

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/21/sports/la-sp-sn-were-the-ancient-greek-olympic-athletes-really-amateurs-20120321

"In 600 B.C., a winning athlete from Athens was given 500 drachma, an enormous sum - enough that he could theoretically live off of it for the rest of his life. By 200 B.C., Greek athletes had formed professional athletic guilds similar to today's Players Associations for the various professional sports. In fact, professionalism in the Olympic Games were so widespread that they even drew criticism back then from observers who noted that the financial rewards of the Games were causing young Greek men to shirk their other studies to concentrate on athletics, resulting in these men becoming worse soldiers and scholars."

[JSD]

This is disappointing. Racism is a problem in this country, but stories like this make real claims appear less credible.

[Brendan]

He's a clown.

[StartOrien]

@Kuberski33 Laettner was the best college player so he deserved that spot reserved for the college player

Christian Laetner was arguably the greatest college player of all time.