Instead of being about the Dream Team, it was more about Jack McCallum’s experience covering the Dream Team. Highly recommend this book for any basketball junkies, or fans of longform sports journalism in general. McCallum goes play-by-play through this exhibition, and I can't describe the jealousy I experienced when reading it. The greatest collection of basketball players ever, playing hard, talking trash, the works. (Insert joke about rigging the NBA lottery here.)ĥ) Every detail of "The Greatest Game that Nobody Ever Saw," the infamous team scrimmage that Coach Chuck Daly organized at the team's practice facility in Monte Carlo. Yes, David Stern is apparently a bad-ass at ping pong.
Shockingly, here is the hierarchy of the top players in the Dream Team contingent:
Classic Arvydas, eh?Ĥ) Ping pong, unsurprisingly, was just one of the fun, competitive activities that the Dream Teamers, their families, and other dignitaries/hangers on would engage in at the Ambassador hotel in Barcelona, in between the beat-downs of all the other countries lucky/unfortunate enough to be in Team USA's path in 1992. As an added bonus, the Grateful Dead supported the team and gave them sweeeeet tie-dyed uniforms, which is hilarious and awesome.Īnyway, turns out the team had some time to kill before receiving their medals, and Sabonis got into a vodka chugging contest with himself and had to sleep it off. Background: Lithuania won the Bronze medal in '92, which is a great story itself - this was a highly charged atmosphere for them (right after the Soviet Union dissolved - they beat the Russian "Unified Team" to secure their medal - a victory that was, rightfully, celebrated worldwide). This is why all normal people hate Duke and everyone who went there, forevermore.ģ) Arvydas Sabonis was too drunk to join the rest of team Lithuania for the medal ceremony. When the rest of the team would show up to events in suits and ties, he'd be all bro'ed out in sweatpants and t-shirts, not givin' a fuck.
Pretty much everything you've always thought about his is confirmed. Which admittedly wasn't that hard, but still!Ģ) Christian Laettner - team douchebag. Croatia: playing cards and smoking cigars until dawn, filming a special video for the NBA, and even getting in a round or two of golf - all before, you know, playing the game of basketball at the highest possible level, and helping the US secure the gold medal. Without giving away too much, here are my top 5 anecdotes from Jack McCallum's incredible book about the original Dream Team.ġ) Michael Jordan stayed up all night before the gold medal game vs.
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