It’s No Dream: Olympic Team Loses

The 1992 Olympic basketball team is perhaps the best ever, but it was only the second best team on the court Wednesday.

The developmental squad made up of top college players defeated the Olympic team in a 20-minute scrimmage. No one was disclosing the final score, but the collegians won by eight points.

“We got killed today,” Michael Jordan said. “They beat us and they played well. We’re so out of sync and so unsure about things that we feel comfortable with in normal situations. We don’t have any continuity at all.”

The college team is made up of Chris Webber of Michigan, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley of Duke, Anfernee Hardaway of Memphis State, Allan Houston of Tennessee, Jamal Mashburn of Kentucky, Eric Montross of North Carolina and Rodney Rogers of Wake Forest.

In a scrimmage Tuesday, Webber and Rogers dunked over Charles Barkley.

“They were a little stronger than I thought they were,” Barkley said.

The college players say they look at playing against the NBA players as an opportunity to improve themselves, but also to give the Olympians strong competition.

“Our purpose is to help them get ready to win the gold medal and to improve our own game,” Webber said. “But we’re not going to back down. I’m not even nervous out here playing with these guys. I’m out here talking trash just like I always do. They’re doing the same thing. They talk a lot more trash.”

The college guys had the last word Wednesday, but they know the pros are better. Still, the pros are impressed.

“If they were in the Olympics,” Jordan said, “they’d win the silver medal.”