Summer Olympian

Click here for the Lead Stories

YouTubing with the Dream Team

Posted April 15, 2008 at 06:00 AM by Os Davis

Section: Culture/History, Olympic History, Events, Basketball, Featured Writers, Os Davis

For anyone who came of age during the David Stern Era, it’s all been about the Dream Team since its incarnation. When Stern and the NBA brain trust assembled a roster with the three greatest players ever, the two greatest power forwards ever and a few other guys that were pretty good too, anyone of my generation who loved sports was changed forever.

The 1992 USA Olympic basketball team was the “Star Wars” of sports, a critical mass of talent and history that seems unlikely to be matched in our lifetime. Its influence coupled by the show of shock and awe it brought to Barcelona surely fostered hoop dreams worldwide, increased the NBA’s international cachet exponentially and jump-started a thousand local basketball programs. (Think it’s any coincidence Spain is one of the top b-ball nations today?)

It all comes back to the Dream Team. Today, on Summer Olympian, a few clips from the second-greatest sports-related website out there: YouTube. I’ll update this list from time to time as my own personal video shrine to The Greatest Team Ever, Any Sport, grows. And it will, to be sure.

• Top 10 plays. Though sometimes chastised for showboating, the reality is that these guys were merely taking care of business most of the time. A nice video with lots of Marv and the Czar supplying audio shows the flash to be there from time to time; particularly well-represented here are MJ and Clyde, but Scottie gets some, too. One could nitpick in disbelief at Magic’s no-look pass to MJ in low at no. 6, but who wants to argue?

• It was all a dream. KBlaze, a.k.a. JNS14 presents “The Original Dream Team” in this fan vid which captures some of the pageantry and surroundings in addition to the hoops, including the parade in the opening ceremony with our boys wearing those ill blue blazers and white boaters; there’s even a clip of a practice session. (How’d he get that?) It’s all set to DMX’ “We Right Here,” which creates a bit of a weird moment when the lines “The hottest n----- out there was, is and will be me” as Larry gets two.

• Thanks, but... A slideshow of the Dreamers set to Europe’s “The Final Countdown” segues into a lower-quality version of the top 10 video referenced above. To be avoided at all costs by those with low tolerance to not-so-heavy metal.

• YouTube hero. Look, anyone can take a bass-heavy gangsta rap clip and throw it behind highlights of the Dream Team to crank out a pretty badass YouTube. OK, almost anyone. But how many can create something with a soundtrack of Mark Knopfler’s “Coming Home” from “Local Hero”?

A love ballad for The Team, then, with plenty of homage to the fans, too: Remember the “Slam on for Sam” sign? And check out the bullet at 7:14 or so fired from Jordan to Bird! The no-look pass, MJ starts walking back to play D before Larry lays it in, and Bird is freaking laughing on the way upcourt. Sweet!

Sadly, despite this video’s promising title of “Dream Team 1992, Part 1,” max1978de has yet to provide Part 2.

• Dunks in exotic language (and I don’t mean Sir Charles’ trash talking)!

• Dominance. Forget on-court dominance; this video by Polish dude “TheKingMisiek” demonstrates how pervasive the influence of both the Dream Team and gangsta rap has been in international culture. 2Pac spits some dirty s--- as Croatia plays earnestly, to no avail. The King’s got like productions here and here and elsewhere as well.

• Virtual dream team vs. Virtual Spain!

• Japanese tutorial. At first, a seemingly inscrutable inclusion for YouTube; this one has the final seconds of the gold medal game tick down and the awards ceremony. There is some potential to learn a few good Japanese terms: “Dreama Teama,” “standing ovation,” and “gold medalist,” for example, but I have a hunch this YouTube was “created” so that you’d check out the user profile of the “creator.”

• Space Jam. This one wins the SummerOlympian Oscar for Best YouTube Production on the Dream Team, Short Form. All the beautiest plays are backlit with a bitchin’ tune possessing a mythology all its own. Try to play this one just once. Check it out ... are y’all ready to jam?

• The Winner. Kudos to Michalus of Poland for his hard work at archiving tons of basketball stuff. Getting a fair share of the man’s attention is, naturally, the Dream Team. He’s got basically the entire final match against Croatia here, in which proven at least was that Drazen “Maestro” Petrovic and Toni Kukoc could play. Also interesting to note was the crowd cheering both sides equally and good-naturedly, truly having a great time at the game. Also check out the hilarious reaction to Barkley entering the game at 8:35 or so.

(Personal Olympic memory: I caught this game while a university student kicking around in Juarez, Mexico on the weekend. I clearly recall seeing that Croatia 25, USA 23 line and thinking I’d had too many cervezas too early.)

Michalus’ footage continues here and six installments thereafter.

And you know what? This YouTube was added on March 30, 2008. The Dream Team will never die.