When the 1992 Dream Team was assembled, Larry Bird was on the cusp of retirement because of injuries and Magic Johnson was battling HIV. Both Bird and Johnson were pretty much out of their prime before the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. That’s why Gilbert Arenas believes that former Golden State Warriors guard Tim Hardaway deserved a roster spot ahead of Magic.
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On the other hand, Dominique Wilkins should have replaced Larry Bird on the team.
On his Gil’s Arena pod, Arenas and his crew discussed the favoritism prevalent in the selection of the Team USA roster bound for the Olympics. The discussion was prompted by a conversation on the infamous snub of Isiah Thomas.
Arenas argued that if they had tryouts instead of the current selection procedure, then Tim Hardaway would have secured the guard spot ahead of Isiah Thomas and Magic Johnson. Therefore, he sort of downplayed the narrative that Thomas was unfairly being left out of The Dream Team.
Agent Zero pointed out that Hardaway was one of the top two point guards behind John Stockton in 1992. On the other hand, Thomas probably didn’t even make the All-NBA team that year.
“Larry Bird took basically Dominique Wilkins’ spot, Magic took Tim Hardaway’s spot, for some reason, everybody says Isiah Thomas should have been there, but when you look at how they did it, the second best player that year was [Hardaway].”
Arenas does have a solid case here. The 26-year-old version of Hardaway was indeed much more explosive than the aging Thomas and Johnson. During the 1991-92 season, he put up 23.4 points(career-high), 10 assists, and 2 steals per game while shooting 46.1% from the floor.
Therefore, he could have fulfilled the need of both an elite scorer and a high-quality facilitator. On the other hand, Johnson didn’t play during the 1991-92 season. Thomas did have a solid season but it dwarfed in comparison to Hardaway’s effort.
However, the selection criteria for Team USA also considers star power ahead of just basic logistics. The Dream Team was also an advertisement of the NBA in front of a global audience. Therefore, the names of Bird and Magic carried more weight than that of Hardaway despite his breakout season.
The murky nature of Team USA selections
The selection committee often considers which athletes are on the brink of retirement to ensure that they get a last chance to represent the team. Meanwhile, younger superstars are entrusted to keep performing at a high-level so they nab a spot in the next Olympics.
This theory holds in case of Hardaway but not in the case of Thomas, who had spent a decade in the league when the Dream Team was put together.
Thus, there is always more at play behind-the-scenes that end up determining the final roster. This is why Arenas and Co. like the idea of tryouts where things are more transparent.
