June 1, 2020 • 19 mins
Barely two months after most of the Dream Team roster was announced, Magic Johnson seemed like he would have to drop out. The jaw-dropping news of Magic’s HIV diagnosis, the gradual resumption of his rightful place on the team, and some of the attendant controversies. Who was the real leader of the Dream Team? Magic? Bird? Or the team’s transcendent player, Michael Jordan? Look no further for the answers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Dream Team Tapes, a Diversion Podcasts original
series in association with I Heart Radio. This is the
story of the United States Olympic basketball team that won
gold in Barcelona in known worldwide as the Dream Team.
(00:24):
First of all, let me say get after late afternoon, Um,
because of HIV virus that I have attained, I will
have to retire from the Lakers today. Many of us
still remember where we were when we heard the announcement. Now,
I'm not going to compare to the assassination of a president.
(00:46):
Of course, I remember exactly where I was on November
Mrs Harris's freshman English class at Okrest High School, when
John Kennedy was shot in Dallas, or the day that
planes flew to the World Trade Center. Even I was
in my living room organizing a charity golf event for
(01:06):
the day. But this was November seven. Around one o'clock
that day, I had gotten a call from somebody in
the NBA saying that Magic Johnson was going to retire
from basketball due to a medical reason. What the hell,
You'll have to come into the office to write a story.
(01:27):
Sports Illustrators Basketball editor Sandy Padway told me, Now, what
you have to understand, and what many younger listeners will
find it hard to understand was that we weren't concentrating
on the retirement part, or what it's going to do
to the Lakers, or what it means to the n
b A, or what it means to the dream team.
(01:47):
What people of my age we're thinking was we're gonna
watch him die. Irvan Johnson called Magic was to our
collective mind, a dead man walking. Roy Johnson, who was
an editor at s I in a book collaborator with Magic,
flew to l A that day to shepherd through a
(02:09):
first person story with Magic. That was the power of
s I. Back then we got Magic's voice into the magazine. Now.
The story I wrote for that week's magazine carried the
single cover building Magic. The photo was Magic taking what
he called his junior junior skyhook. No other writing than
that single word magic. In the story, I conjured up
(02:33):
all that was special about Magic and ended with this
quote from San Antonio Spurs veteran forward Terry Cummings, the
Lakers will never be the same team and the NBA
will never be the same league. It bore the single
word headline, unforgettable. Man. It sure looked and read like
we were talking about a dead person. Hi, and welcome
(02:56):
to episode four of the Dream Team Tapes, Tom Jack
mc alum. Today we're gonna talk about several things. The
organization of the Dream Team once they got together, the
shocking while some thought so, defeat of the Dream Team
in a scrimmage to a college all star team, the
division of leadership within the Dream Team, and the singular
what should I call it bravery hutzpah, a combination of
(03:19):
the two that led a man who most of us
thought was going to die to the pinnacle of the
basketball world in Barcelona. We'll return to that, but let's
figure out where we are now. The team has picked.
They've arrived for the first practice session at you see
San Diego. In a word, it's a zoo, hundreds and
(03:41):
hundreds of reporters working outside. To a non journalist, maybe
even to a young journalist, this is exciting now. Two
hard bitten veterans like myself. That was my eight year
covering the league, and I was about to turn forty three.
It was a nightmare. And here's what I wrote about
that scene in Dream Team. There we were the Nations
(04:01):
and some of the world's sporting press, maybe five hundred
of us on the steps of the University of California,
San Diego, shuffling around with equal parts anticipation and exasperation,
waiting for the doors of the Holy Temple to open,
at which point we would prostrate ourselves at the feet
of the Dream Team and grovel like face down chickens
pecking in a field for any casually tossed out nuggets
(04:24):
they might deign to cast our way. Okay, that's off
my chest. Now. We were eventually allowed access to the
Holy Temple, and there was the first sight of them together.
It was, I grant you exciting or it was certainly
at least interesting in its own way, But what had
already happened would have been more interesting to see or
(04:45):
listened to. I had to reconstruct all this later. The
night before there had been a team meeting, and before
that a couple of side meetings involving the head coach,
Chuck Daily. The first one was between Daily and his
assistants Mike Saski and p J. Carlesimo. Coach K describes it.
In the first meeting, Duck said, the very first thing
(05:07):
I want you guys to do, and you have whatever
is worn to ignore. He said, we have a def
players in the world, and you guys and p J,
you two are going to look at every little thing
which you'd have to do in your own world, but
in our world most of it it's not that important.
(05:29):
Learned to ignore. It's one of my favorite anecdotes from
the book, these two eager to please college coaches coming
in and Chuck saying, okay, let's chill a little bit. Fellas.
(05:49):
Another meeting Daily had was with Magic and Jordan's he
sets us down, like when I was like, uh, you
guys going to be and the leaders of the team,
and Michael before had been Michael's that Magic and he
deferred to me. Now, Bird, who had every bit as
(06:11):
big a claim to be ceremonial captain as Magic, had
no problem with Magic being the front man. They were
in fact named co captains, as Bird remembers it, but
most of the captainish duties went to Magic. We had
a meeting egos luring Magic's captain, but yet Magic sort
of took more of the big Magic. He sort of
took more of the role, no question, That's how he is.
(06:34):
And I understand that there wasn't no eagle thing with me.
If you want to carry the flag out there, carre
the flag. Now there are appointed captains and there are
actual captains, and there is no doubt who the real
leader of the Dream Team was. Here's Patrick Ewing. You know,
Michael was the leader, even though Magic, you know he
said all the things. I mean, Michael, Michael, Michael. There
(06:58):
was an edge to the Jordan Magic relationship. It really
surfaces during the mystical the Greatest Game that nobody ever saw,
Scrimmage and Monte Carlo, that is the subject of the
sixth podcast in this series, and Bird figures into it.
I had a theory that Jordan was a little bit
jealous of the dual relationship that Magic and Bird had.
(07:18):
Jordan's didn't have a co revolutionary, an immortal buddy, as
it were, to march off into history and proclaim we
saved the league together. It was always Magic and Bird
as the eternal Alphonse and Gaston, the joint subjects of
Jackie McMullen's great book when the Game was ours, But
it was Michael alone, the eternal solitary man. I'm a
(07:41):
one man guy in the morning, same in the afternoon,
one man guy. When the sun goes down, I wiss
me one man to whom what you'd prefer. I went
for Neil Diamond, solitary man instead of the great Rufus
Wayne Wrights one man guy. But Mike was is a
(08:01):
true one man guy, and he never liked magics. Sometimes subtle,
sometimes overt claims that the Dream Team belonged to him
and Larry. But but as much as a guy sometimes
didn't buy into the magic, I'm in charge here thing.
There is no one anywhere that could deny the fortitude, courage,
(08:23):
and yes, leadership that magic showed in combating HIV. He
announced that he had the virus on November seven, and
this happened on February nine, almost exactly three months later,
show time in Orlando. The final seconds, you're not getting
(08:50):
yes he is six ladies and gentlemen, it's just Tid
(09:14):
Orchid get deliver three bread trades for Johnson at the
end of the game one and falling away and as
mother and father Urban Senior from Lansing, Michigan there to
leave this year. That was the voice of Dick Enbergh
calling down the final seconds of the All Star Game
(09:35):
in Orlando, which ends with magic guarded, okay, kind of
guarded by Isaiah making a three point shot. Magic played
more minutes than anyone except Jordan's, scored more points than anyone,
and handed out more assist than anyone nine and of
course won the MVP Award. Only ninety four days had
(09:59):
passed since the announcement that we thought was an announcement
of slow deaths, and here he is not just not dying,
but apparently getting better, starring in the All Star Game.
And to answer everyone's question, yes, God damn it, I
will be going to Barcelona. In those three months, Magic
(10:19):
had resumed working out, started to eat healthy, started to
talk about HIV, reaching out in his own magic way
to others with HIV aids literally around the world. Now
did he have missteps? Of course, he helped form a
commission that managed to have no one with HIV or
any gay mail on it, which at that time was
(10:39):
a community suffering from the plague more than anyone. But
Magic forged a head. Now there was backlash, such as
the comment by Dr Brian Sando, the senior medical director
of the Australian Olympic Federation's basketball program, quote to be
read by my Australian producer Mark, I would certainly recommend
that our basketball let's not come pete with a team
(11:01):
in which Magic Johnson was a member. That risk. You
cannot absolutely say it's navigating the care basketballers. Come on, dude,
But look Sando was not some fringe guy. He was
a well known doctor whose death in two thousand twelve
was mourned throughout the Australian sports world. So his was
not an out their opinion, and it was shared by
(11:21):
probably millions, including some people close to Magic. In fact,
behind the scenes there was conversation in USA basketball circles
about well, should we welcome Magic back with open arms?
Is it safe? Is it okay? This is Rod Thorne,
a key committee member. It was a death sentence. Um,
(11:42):
you know what happens if he gets to open cut
close risk. It was always an issue written about a lot,
so Thorne said. There was much consulting with medical people
and eventually the decision was made that Magic would be safe.
But according to Clyde Drexe, it was never far from
anyone's mind. In other words, there were times, according to Drexler,
(12:05):
when people took it easy on Magic. Now that was
certainly true in the All Star game. But you know,
defense is not the watchword of that day anyway, and
I doubt it was true by the time the Dream
Team was assembled. And it should be noticed that Clyde,
who sometimes says things that he later regrets, was one
of the staunchest defenders of Magic when he decided to
(12:26):
return to basketball. If the doctors say it's safe, that's
okay with me, Drexler said at the time. Now later,
much later, after the Dream Team got back to the
States with the gold medal, one member of the Dream Team,
Carl Malone, had lots of worries about Magic playing. We'll
talk about that in the final episode. But all in all,
I firmly believe that when the history of the NBA
(12:48):
has written, somewhere near the first page will be its
contributions to HIV AIDS. Understanding the result of the resolute
stand taken by Commissioner David Stern that we will be
cowed by fear combined with the undying determination of Magic
to keep on plan. Look, Magic didn't become the first
famous person to live and thrive with the disease purely
(13:11):
because of his will. Let's not go full out, Dr
phil On this Magic had one of the great AIDS
researchers in the world, Dr David Hoe, working with him
and a dedicated personal physician in Michael Melman, and doing
large part to Magic's efforts. Research grew by leaps and
bounds in the months following Magic's alling himself. But it's
(13:33):
just the fact that having a positive attitude approaching any
disease is a good thing, and Magic was the ultimate
and positive attitude. So let's get back to San Diego
(13:54):
and the early days of practice for the Dream Team.
The captain ship is pretty much figured out, but still
think act roles are being determined, who leads on the court,
who shoots, who screens, who passes, Who's in charge. Chuck
Daily wanted to get them an action right away, which
is what you do with pros. So USA Basketball organized
for a first class college all star team, the kind
(14:16):
of team maybe literally the team plus Christian Lightner that
would have been our Olympic team had competition not been
opened up to include NBA players. So on the third
day of practice, when the mass has made our Daily
heard of Buffalo troop into practice, we could tell something
was wrong. Remember, we could not watch what happened. Practices
(14:37):
were closed we spent our post practice interview time trying
to reconstruct what had happened, which usually wasn't much. But
on this day June, something had happened. Some of these
college players we've just got through playing against should be
on this team. But that was Larry Bird's way of saying,
we got beat by the kids. So, as it turns out,
(15:01):
the Dream Team had a loss in the first game
it played. Okay, not an official loss. There was no
box score, no official wrap up, but the College All
Stars beat the Dream teamers by a score of sixty
two to fifty four. At least that's the most accurate
score I've been able to piece together. Accounts very widely,
(15:22):
as does the significance of the event. Bird, as I recall,
seemed piste off. Jordan was piste off that day too,
though for a different reason. Daily didn't play him in
the scrimmage very much. And here's how two players, first
Chris Mullen and then Charles Barkley evaluated that scrimmage years later,
and I think I think it was more like the
(15:43):
scrimmage for us in a World Challenge family. There were
First it was early on, which was actually masked by
and I worked out that way. It was perfect probably,
and I do really After that an Badge was like, well,
ship together, we're gonna be here, you know. And then
from then on were better. We were kind of like
(16:03):
just going through the motions and they were feeling like
he was gay seven and they beat us. So we
got together that night and the next day would beat
him by let we see it would beat them. Feel
like we've beat about third part point. We just started
(16:25):
kicking and we wouldn't score anything where we just killed
well maybe, but there was lingering concern, which was the
way that the Collegians, particularly Bobby Hurley, the Duke point guard,
who would have no doubt started on the non Dream
team Olympic team, penetrated the Dream team defense well, to
(16:46):
be specific, how easily he got past Magic, who was
never the best one on one defender even in his
salad days. It was after that scrimmage of Daily and
the coaches decided any speedy guards in the Empics would
be defended by either Jordan or Pippen in the next
scrimmage with the Collegians. In fact, Daily put Jordan on
Hurley and as Grant Hill told me, he could barely
(17:10):
get the ball pass mid court. Then that was a
harbinger of what Jordan would do to Tony Ku coach
and Sharrunus Marchalonis in the Olympics. Those stories are coming
up now at the front of the line of those
who firmly believed there was nothing to worry about after
the scrimmage loss was Mike seki U just wanted for
one day the orchestrate. Whether we lost it or not,
(17:32):
it was only a short twenty minute spring and to
let that our guys know that you could look okay
and how it was officiated and hardly said a word
there in that scrimmage. Chuck was So everyone left San
(17:53):
Diego and fairly good spirits on route to Portland for
the Tournament of the Americas. The United States Sea had
to qualify for the Olympics due to its third place
finish in Like most of the reporters following this crazy circus,
I was looking forward to Portland's great city, nice bars,
good restaurants, and we would at last get to see
(18:15):
this team in action. And we're the dream team members
that excited. Well for them, it would be nice to
actually start playing. But Portland's also proved to be the
first time when we really saw how much business and
marketing and the pursuit of the dollar had to do
with this whole thing, and Michael Jordan's for one, would
(18:35):
not be happy. Thanks for listening and I'll see you
for episode five. If you enjoyed The Dream Team Tapes,
please follow, rate, and review wherever you get your podcasts.
The Dream Team Tapes is written and hosted by Jack mckellum.
(18:59):
It executive producers Mark Francis and Scott Waxman, Executive producer
for I Heart Media, is shown to Turne. The Dream
Team Tapes is a Diversion Podcasts original series in association
with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(19:23):
you listen to your favorite shows.
This is the Dream Team Tapes, a Diversion Podcasts original
series in association with I Heart Radio. This is the
story of the United States Olympic basketball team that won
gold in Barcelona in known worldwide as the Dream Team.
(00:24):
First of all, let me say get after late afternoon, Um,
because of HIV virus that I have attained, I will
have to retire from the Lakers today. Many of us
still remember where we were when we heard the announcement. Now,
I'm not going to compare to the assassination of a president.
(00:46):
Of course, I remember exactly where I was on November
Mrs Harris's freshman English class at Okrest High School, when
John Kennedy was shot in Dallas, or the day that
planes flew to the World Trade Center. Even I was
in my living room organizing a charity golf event for
(01:06):
the day. But this was November seven. Around one o'clock
that day, I had gotten a call from somebody in
the NBA saying that Magic Johnson was going to retire
from basketball due to a medical reason. What the hell,
You'll have to come into the office to write a story.
(01:27):
Sports Illustrators Basketball editor Sandy Padway told me, Now, what
you have to understand, and what many younger listeners will
find it hard to understand was that we weren't concentrating
on the retirement part, or what it's going to do
to the Lakers, or what it means to the n
b A, or what it means to the dream team.
(01:47):
What people of my age we're thinking was we're gonna
watch him die. Irvan Johnson called Magic was to our
collective mind, a dead man walking. Roy Johnson, who was
an editor at s I in a book collaborator with Magic,
flew to l A that day to shepherd through a
(02:09):
first person story with Magic. That was the power of
s I. Back then we got Magic's voice into the magazine. Now.
The story I wrote for that week's magazine carried the
single cover building Magic. The photo was Magic taking what
he called his junior junior skyhook. No other writing than
that single word magic. In the story, I conjured up
(02:33):
all that was special about Magic and ended with this
quote from San Antonio Spurs veteran forward Terry Cummings, the
Lakers will never be the same team and the NBA
will never be the same league. It bore the single
word headline, unforgettable. Man. It sure looked and read like
we were talking about a dead person. Hi, and welcome
(02:56):
to episode four of the Dream Team Tapes, Tom Jack
mc alum. Today we're gonna talk about several things. The
organization of the Dream Team once they got together, the
shocking while some thought so, defeat of the Dream Team
in a scrimmage to a college all star team, the
division of leadership within the Dream Team, and the singular
what should I call it bravery hutzpah, a combination of
(03:19):
the two that led a man who most of us
thought was going to die to the pinnacle of the
basketball world in Barcelona. We'll return to that, but let's
figure out where we are now. The team has picked.
They've arrived for the first practice session at you see
San Diego. In a word, it's a zoo, hundreds and
(03:41):
hundreds of reporters working outside. To a non journalist, maybe
even to a young journalist, this is exciting now. Two
hard bitten veterans like myself. That was my eight year
covering the league, and I was about to turn forty three.
It was a nightmare. And here's what I wrote about
that scene in Dream Team. There we were the Nations
(04:01):
and some of the world's sporting press, maybe five hundred
of us on the steps of the University of California,
San Diego, shuffling around with equal parts anticipation and exasperation,
waiting for the doors of the Holy Temple to open,
at which point we would prostrate ourselves at the feet
of the Dream Team and grovel like face down chickens
pecking in a field for any casually tossed out nuggets
(04:24):
they might deign to cast our way. Okay, that's off
my chest. Now. We were eventually allowed access to the
Holy Temple, and there was the first sight of them together.
It was, I grant you exciting or it was certainly
at least interesting in its own way, But what had
already happened would have been more interesting to see or
(04:45):
listened to. I had to reconstruct all this later. The
night before there had been a team meeting, and before
that a couple of side meetings involving the head coach,
Chuck Daily. The first one was between Daily and his
assistants Mike Saski and p J. Carlesimo. Coach K describes it.
In the first meeting, Duck said, the very first thing
(05:07):
I want you guys to do, and you have whatever
is worn to ignore. He said, we have a def
players in the world, and you guys and p J,
you two are going to look at every little thing
which you'd have to do in your own world, but
in our world most of it it's not that important.
(05:29):
Learned to ignore. It's one of my favorite anecdotes from
the book, these two eager to please college coaches coming
in and Chuck saying, okay, let's chill a little bit. Fellas.
(05:49):
Another meeting Daily had was with Magic and Jordan's he
sets us down, like when I was like, uh, you
guys going to be and the leaders of the team,
and Michael before had been Michael's that Magic and he
deferred to me. Now, Bird, who had every bit as
(06:11):
big a claim to be ceremonial captain as Magic, had
no problem with Magic being the front man. They were
in fact named co captains, as Bird remembers it, but
most of the captainish duties went to Magic. We had
a meeting egos luring Magic's captain, but yet Magic sort
of took more of the big Magic. He sort of
took more of the role, no question, That's how he is.
(06:34):
And I understand that there wasn't no eagle thing with me.
If you want to carry the flag out there, carre
the flag. Now there are appointed captains and there are
actual captains, and there is no doubt who the real
leader of the Dream Team was. Here's Patrick Ewing. You know,
Michael was the leader, even though Magic, you know he
said all the things. I mean, Michael, Michael, Michael. There
(06:58):
was an edge to the Jordan Magic relationship. It really
surfaces during the mystical the Greatest Game that nobody ever saw,
Scrimmage and Monte Carlo, that is the subject of the
sixth podcast in this series, and Bird figures into it.
I had a theory that Jordan was a little bit
jealous of the dual relationship that Magic and Bird had.
(07:18):
Jordan's didn't have a co revolutionary, an immortal buddy, as
it were, to march off into history and proclaim we
saved the league together. It was always Magic and Bird
as the eternal Alphonse and Gaston, the joint subjects of
Jackie McMullen's great book when the Game was ours, But
it was Michael alone, the eternal solitary man. I'm a
(07:41):
one man guy in the morning, same in the afternoon,
one man guy. When the sun goes down, I wiss
me one man to whom what you'd prefer. I went
for Neil Diamond, solitary man instead of the great Rufus
Wayne Wrights one man guy. But Mike was is a
(08:01):
true one man guy, and he never liked magics. Sometimes subtle,
sometimes overt claims that the Dream Team belonged to him
and Larry. But but as much as a guy sometimes
didn't buy into the magic, I'm in charge here thing.
There is no one anywhere that could deny the fortitude, courage,
(08:23):
and yes, leadership that magic showed in combating HIV. He
announced that he had the virus on November seven, and
this happened on February nine, almost exactly three months later,
show time in Orlando. The final seconds, you're not getting
(08:50):
yes he is six ladies and gentlemen, it's just Tid
(09:14):
Orchid get deliver three bread trades for Johnson at the
end of the game one and falling away and as
mother and father Urban Senior from Lansing, Michigan there to
leave this year. That was the voice of Dick Enbergh
calling down the final seconds of the All Star Game
(09:35):
in Orlando, which ends with magic guarded, okay, kind of
guarded by Isaiah making a three point shot. Magic played
more minutes than anyone except Jordan's, scored more points than anyone,
and handed out more assist than anyone nine and of
course won the MVP Award. Only ninety four days had
(09:59):
passed since the announcement that we thought was an announcement
of slow deaths, and here he is not just not dying,
but apparently getting better, starring in the All Star Game.
And to answer everyone's question, yes, God damn it, I
will be going to Barcelona. In those three months, Magic
(10:19):
had resumed working out, started to eat healthy, started to
talk about HIV, reaching out in his own magic way
to others with HIV aids literally around the world. Now
did he have missteps? Of course, he helped form a
commission that managed to have no one with HIV or
any gay mail on it, which at that time was
(10:39):
a community suffering from the plague more than anyone. But
Magic forged a head. Now there was backlash, such as
the comment by Dr Brian Sando, the senior medical director
of the Australian Olympic Federation's basketball program, quote to be
read by my Australian producer Mark, I would certainly recommend
that our basketball let's not come pete with a team
(11:01):
in which Magic Johnson was a member. That risk. You
cannot absolutely say it's navigating the care basketballers. Come on, dude,
But look Sando was not some fringe guy. He was
a well known doctor whose death in two thousand twelve
was mourned throughout the Australian sports world. So his was
not an out their opinion, and it was shared by
(11:21):
probably millions, including some people close to Magic. In fact,
behind the scenes there was conversation in USA basketball circles
about well, should we welcome Magic back with open arms?
Is it safe? Is it okay? This is Rod Thorne,
a key committee member. It was a death sentence. Um,
(11:42):
you know what happens if he gets to open cut
close risk. It was always an issue written about a lot,
so Thorne said. There was much consulting with medical people
and eventually the decision was made that Magic would be safe.
But according to Clyde Drexe, it was never far from
anyone's mind. In other words, there were times, according to Drexler,
(12:05):
when people took it easy on Magic. Now that was
certainly true in the All Star game. But you know,
defense is not the watchword of that day anyway, and
I doubt it was true by the time the Dream
Team was assembled. And it should be noticed that Clyde,
who sometimes says things that he later regrets, was one
of the staunchest defenders of Magic when he decided to
(12:26):
return to basketball. If the doctors say it's safe, that's
okay with me, Drexler said at the time. Now later,
much later, after the Dream Team got back to the
States with the gold medal, one member of the Dream Team,
Carl Malone, had lots of worries about Magic playing. We'll
talk about that in the final episode. But all in all,
I firmly believe that when the history of the NBA
(12:48):
has written, somewhere near the first page will be its
contributions to HIV AIDS. Understanding the result of the resolute
stand taken by Commissioner David Stern that we will be
cowed by fear combined with the undying determination of Magic
to keep on plan. Look, Magic didn't become the first
famous person to live and thrive with the disease purely
(13:11):
because of his will. Let's not go full out, Dr
phil On this Magic had one of the great AIDS
researchers in the world, Dr David Hoe, working with him
and a dedicated personal physician in Michael Melman, and doing
large part to Magic's efforts. Research grew by leaps and
bounds in the months following Magic's alling himself. But it's
(13:33):
just the fact that having a positive attitude approaching any
disease is a good thing, and Magic was the ultimate
and positive attitude. So let's get back to San Diego
(13:54):
and the early days of practice for the Dream Team.
The captain ship is pretty much figured out, but still
think act roles are being determined, who leads on the court,
who shoots, who screens, who passes, Who's in charge. Chuck
Daily wanted to get them an action right away, which
is what you do with pros. So USA Basketball organized
for a first class college all star team, the kind
(14:16):
of team maybe literally the team plus Christian Lightner that
would have been our Olympic team had competition not been
opened up to include NBA players. So on the third
day of practice, when the mass has made our Daily
heard of Buffalo troop into practice, we could tell something
was wrong. Remember, we could not watch what happened. Practices
(14:37):
were closed we spent our post practice interview time trying
to reconstruct what had happened, which usually wasn't much. But
on this day June, something had happened. Some of these
college players we've just got through playing against should be
on this team. But that was Larry Bird's way of saying,
we got beat by the kids. So, as it turns out,
(15:01):
the Dream Team had a loss in the first game
it played. Okay, not an official loss. There was no
box score, no official wrap up, but the College All
Stars beat the Dream teamers by a score of sixty
two to fifty four. At least that's the most accurate
score I've been able to piece together. Accounts very widely,
(15:22):
as does the significance of the event. Bird, as I recall,
seemed piste off. Jordan was piste off that day too,
though for a different reason. Daily didn't play him in
the scrimmage very much. And here's how two players, first
Chris Mullen and then Charles Barkley evaluated that scrimmage years later,
and I think I think it was more like the
(15:43):
scrimmage for us in a World Challenge family. There were
First it was early on, which was actually masked by
and I worked out that way. It was perfect probably,
and I do really After that an Badge was like, well,
ship together, we're gonna be here, you know. And then
from then on were better. We were kind of like
(16:03):
just going through the motions and they were feeling like
he was gay seven and they beat us. So we
got together that night and the next day would beat
him by let we see it would beat them. Feel
like we've beat about third part point. We just started
(16:25):
kicking and we wouldn't score anything where we just killed
well maybe, but there was lingering concern, which was the
way that the Collegians, particularly Bobby Hurley, the Duke point guard,
who would have no doubt started on the non Dream
team Olympic team, penetrated the Dream team defense well, to
(16:46):
be specific, how easily he got past Magic, who was
never the best one on one defender even in his
salad days. It was after that scrimmage of Daily and
the coaches decided any speedy guards in the Empics would
be defended by either Jordan or Pippen in the next
scrimmage with the Collegians. In fact, Daily put Jordan on
Hurley and as Grant Hill told me, he could barely
(17:10):
get the ball pass mid court. Then that was a
harbinger of what Jordan would do to Tony Ku coach
and Sharrunus Marchalonis in the Olympics. Those stories are coming
up now at the front of the line of those
who firmly believed there was nothing to worry about after
the scrimmage loss was Mike seki U just wanted for
one day the orchestrate. Whether we lost it or not,
(17:32):
it was only a short twenty minute spring and to
let that our guys know that you could look okay
and how it was officiated and hardly said a word
there in that scrimmage. Chuck was So everyone left San
(17:53):
Diego and fairly good spirits on route to Portland for
the Tournament of the Americas. The United States Sea had
to qualify for the Olympics due to its third place
finish in Like most of the reporters following this crazy circus,
I was looking forward to Portland's great city, nice bars,
good restaurants, and we would at last get to see
(18:15):
this team in action. And we're the dream team members
that excited. Well for them, it would be nice to
actually start playing. But Portland's also proved to be the
first time when we really saw how much business and
marketing and the pursuit of the dollar had to do
with this whole thing, and Michael Jordan's for one, would
(18:35):
not be happy. Thanks for listening and I'll see you
for episode five. If you enjoyed The Dream Team Tapes,
please follow, rate, and review wherever you get your podcasts.
The Dream Team Tapes is written and hosted by Jack mckellum.
(18:59):
It executive producers Mark Francis and Scott Waxman, Executive producer
for I Heart Media, is shown to Turne. The Dream
Team Tapes is a Diversion Podcasts original series in association
with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(19:23):
you listen to your favorite shows.
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