-[footsteps]
-[producer] Come on in.
..
-Here he comes.
-[man] Cool.
[producer] You good, Mario?
-[man 2] Good.
-[producer] All right?
-You good?
-Yeah.
[producer] Okay, Ant, do you
know the story of the Dream and the first select team?
-Mm-mm.
-No?
Supposedly there was one game
the Dream Team lost.
Who was on it? Michael Jordan?
-[producer] Jordan, Bird, Magic.
-Magic.
Oh, my God.
-David Robinson.
-And they lost?
-Barkley. Karl Malone.
-Karl Malone, yeah.
-Stockton.
-Stockton.
Yeah.
It happens.
Yeah, it happens.
[chuckles]
-[helicopter blades whirring]
-[siren wailing]
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter] There was some big
NBA news during the week.
The International Basketball
Federation voted to allow
professional basketball players
to compete
in future Olympic Games
and World Championships.
That means that NBA players
will be eligible to compete
in Barcelona, Spain.
[reporter 2]
This is a necessity
to bring basketball
to its peak,
and will boost,
ultimately, basketball
as a sport worldwide.
[people cheering]
[Costas] America's
collegians have a rich history
in world competition,
and with professionals
now in the picture,
it looks like the start
of a promising new era.
[dramatic music continues]
[muffled yelling]
[whistle blows]
[man] It kept building
and building and building.
They're gonna win by 60.
[crowd roars]
[crowd fades out]
[man 2] They've been called
the greatest basketball team
ever created,
but if you think the Dream was unbeatable,
have I got a story for you.
[players chattering in video]
[man 2] There they are.
Michael.
Patrick Ewing.
Magic.
And me.
That was June 24th, 1992.
That was the day
we beat the Dream Team.
[dramatic music continues]
[sound of ball dribbling]
[sneakers squeaking on court]
[dramatic music builds]
[music softens]
[dramatic chord plays]
[music fades]
[intriguing music playing]
[Hill] It's July 7th, 2024.
And I'm in Las Vegas for
USA Basketball training camp.
A few years ago,
I was named managing director
for the US Men's National Team.
[player] Gold on three.
One, two, three.
-[all] Gold.
-Next group. Next group.
[player 2] Book! Knock down,
Book! Knock down, Book!
[Hill] Now it's my job
to recruit, select,
and develop our team
for the Olympics.
[player 3] Change! Change!
[overlapping chatter]
Stack, Book! Stack!
[Hill] Thirty-three years ago...
-[whistle blows]
-Come on now.
[Hill] ...when I was just
19 years old...
[player yells]
[Hill] ...me and a group
of other college All-Americans
were recruited
to practice against
the one and only Dream Team.
[announcer]
This group may well be
the greatest team
ever assembled
in the history of team sports.
[Hill] That year was
the first time NBA players
were allowed to play
in the Olympics.
[Ahmad Rashad]
Let me ask both of y'all this.
With all these stars
on the team,
if it comes down
to the last shot,
who's gonna take the shot?
-Me.
-Me.
-[both chuckle]
-[Rashad laughing]
[Hill] And it was our job
to get them ready.
I'm not sure why,
but they called us
the select team.
I guess we were "selected"
to get our asses kicked.
The thing was,
we had other ideas.
Before we get started, you guys,
you know, without a doubt,
play such a huge role
in our preparation.
But at the end of the day,
it comes down to just hooping.
You guys have all seen
these guys,
you guys have all
played against them.
And so, you know,
there's no fear there.
And as Steve Kerr said
yesterday, like,
we want you to kick their a*s.
All right?
-[indistinct chatter]
-[Hill] All right.
-Select on three. 1, 2, 3.
-[all] Select.
[Beethoven's Eroica Symphony
playing]
[players chattering]
[indistinct chatter]
[music ends]
[Hill] As I watched
the young select team
scrimmage our Olympic team,
memories of my game
against the Dream come flooding back.
Now three decades later,
that game has become infamous.
The stories, the trash talk,
the controversy.
I feel like now's the time
to tell it all,
tell people
what really happened that day
in the summer of '92.
[dramatic string music playing]
[Hill] By the mid-1980s,
the idea of a Dream was already in the air.
[announcer] The US has
its ninth gold medal.
[Hill] Remember,
the United States
was still sending
college players
to compete in the Olympics.
[announcer 2]
Nice block by Sabonis.
[Hill] But then, 1988 happened.
[announcer 3] And here's
the frosting for the USSR.
-They win it, 82-76.
-[crowd cheering]
United States goes home
with a semifinal loss
to the bigger, more experienced
USSR team.
[Hill] That summer,
the USA didn't win the gold.
Not even silver.
We got the freakin' bronze.
And before you knew it,
the announcement was made.
[news anchor] There was some big
NBA news during the week.
FIBA, the International
Basketball Federation,
voted Friday to allow
professional basketball players
to compete in future
Olympic Games
and World Championships.
[Costas] Join us now
as we name the Dream Team,
the United States team
for Barcelona in '92.
Over the next hour,
we'll unveil the ten players
who will represent America
in the 1992 Olympics.
[Hill] The team they picked
was a who's who of the NBA,
headlined by Magic, Bird,
Barkley, and Jordan.
Oh yeah, and they took
one college player.
You might remember him.
[announcer]
There's the pass to Laettner.
-Puts it up.
-[buzzer sounds]
[cheering]
[Hill] The Dream needed a strong leader
and found one
in head coach Chuck Daly,
the legendary coach
of the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons.
And from the start,
the expectations placed
on Chuck were massive.
[Costas] Chuck,
the United States has lost
in the last five major
international competitions:
'88 Olympics,
'90 World Championships,
'91 Goodwill Games,
last two Pan Am Games.
It's pretty clear you've got
to not only bring back the gold,
but do it in emphatic fashion.
[announcer] Vlade Divac, Zdovc,
Drazen Petrovic.
[speaking foreign language]
[Hill] The style of play
and rules
of international basketball
are different from the NBA,
so Chuck wanted his guys
to practice against players
who matched what they'd face
in the Olympics.
Like they say,
iron sharpens iron,
but to me, it felt like
we were sacrificial lambs
being led to slaughter.
[music concludes]
[sea birds calling]
[Hill] The Dream was starting training camp
in beautiful
La Jolla, California.
So in June of '92,
me and seven other of the best
college players in the country
packed our bags
and headed out to Cali.
[intense music playing]
[Hill] It was Chris Webber
from Michigan.
-[announcer] Webber again!
-[announcer 2] Yes!
[Hill] My teammate
Bobby Hurley from Duke.
[announcer 3] Steal, Hurley.
[crowd cheers]
[announcer 3]
They will break your heart.
[announcer 4]
A 26-4 run for the Wildcats.
[Hill] Jamal Mashburn
from Kentucky.
[announcer 4]
Mashburn with a layup.
This is a withering display
of basketball talent.
[Hill] Big Rodney Rogers
from Wake Forest.
[announcer 5]
...right underneath.
The big man right there,
Rogers pops it from inside.
[crowd cheering]
[Hill] Eric Montross
from Carolina.
[announcer 6] Montross pummels
and scores,
and he'll sh**t one.
[Hill] Allan Houston
from Tennessee.
[announcer 7]
Houston on the drive,
stops, throws it up, got it!
[crowd cheering]
[Hill] Penny Hardaway
from Memphis.
[announcer 8] Anfernee Hardaway
going in with the cradle
and the layup over
the defender.
There is evidence
of the brilliance
of Anfernee Hardaway.
[announcer 9] Duke can take
the lead, and Hill does it.
[Hill] And yours truly.
[producer] Okay, Grant,
you say you beat the Dream Team,
but did that really happen?
The thing that's interesting
is like,
no one's really believed us.
Like, you-- it's like one
of those things that...
It's something that happens,
and then you tell people,
and people are looking at you
like, "Yeah, right." You know?
And over 30 years later, um,
I think it's...
I'm-I'm-I'm more in awe now,
I think, than I was at the time.
[gentle woodwind music playing]
[producer] Okay, Chris,
take us back to 1992.
[whistles softly]
I just... Wow.
[chuckles] 1992.
[The Thieving Magpie
by Rossini playing]
We individually flew
from our different colleges
or wherever we were located
into La Jolla, San Diego.
I just remember
getting off the plane.
I saw a sign with my name,
and I walked to the car,
and Larry Bird's
sitting in there.
And I'm like...
"Hell nah."
[announcer] Right corner, Bird.
Backs in, posted up, Bird.
Takes the jumper and hits it.
In high school, we always used
to watch this video of him
playing against Atlanta.
[announcer]
Got it again, a three-pointer.
[Webber] My teammates,
we always used to watch it
and be like,
"You can never do what
these teammates in Atlanta do."
[announcer]
They want him to keep scoring.
[Webber] They're giving each
other fives with Larry Bird,
looking at spots on the floor.
That's Larry Legend.
[announcer] There's Bird.
Bird, 14 seconds,
he got fouled.
He hit the shot!
Bird has 60 points.
[Webber]
Larry Bird was a bad man.
[announcer] Look at the Boston
players mob him.
I walked to the car
and I'm like, "Damn,
nice to meet you, brother."
He's like,
"Hey, nice to meet you."
You know,
and it was just quiet.
I'm starstruck.
[The Thieving Magpie continues]
[car engine humming]
[Webber] And then we get out,
and he's like...
"Yeah, you better get some sleep
'cause we gon' bust your a*s
tomorrow."
And in my mind, I'm conflicted.
I'm like, "Yeah, he's talking--
he's talking sh*t to me."
And then, you know, I'm like,
"Quit being starstruck.
Come on, now." And I was like,
"Man, your back
already messed up.
You get some sleep."
And I just tiptoe off. Like, oh.
Call my pops like,
"Dad." [chuckles]
"I was just talking junk
to Larry Bird, man." [laughs]
"It's going great." [laughs]
-Any problems at the airport?
-No.
[Mashburn] We were staying
at a Marriott
in La Jolla, San Diego.
Big Marriott.
[receptionist] Hi, Mr. Jordan.
[Mashburn]
I remember pulling in,
getting out of the van,
and they escorted me
to a check-in desk.
[Mashburn]
They gave us our keys.
And I remember me
and Chris Webber
walking down a hallway,
and this figure, tall...
I'm like, "Chris, that's
Larry Bird coming toward us."
And first impression was,
damn, I didn't really realize
how tall Larry Bird is.
[playful orchestral music
playing]
[Mashburn] And Larry Bird
approaches us, and Larry goes,
"Are you guys the college--
part of that college
select team?"
And we say, "Yeah, Mr. Bird."
He goes, "Oh.
Get some f*cking rest.
It's gonna be a long week."
And walked off.
It was almost like
a pretty girl insulting you,
but you take it
as a compliment.
[chuckles] You know?
Larry was the type that would
talk to you going down the hall
as if he just didn't get
in the car with you and ride.
You know? That's how they were,
and it was cool
'cause that's how we were.
I mean, those are the moments
that made it
that much more special.
[pensive string music playing]
[Hill] Man, it was crazy.
We were 19 and 20-year-olds
hanging out
in Southern California,
getting ready to play
against our idols.
sh*t, we were on cloud nine.
[Houston] I think
the cool part was, like,
just trying to really enjoy
the moment.
[indistinct chatter]
You knew you were about to do
something that was historic.
You gotta understand
the basketball fan I was.
My wall was plastered
with all of these guys.
This was a chance to be around
all my heroes.
[man] How you doing, sir?
-Fine, how are you?
-Good.
[Hardaway]
When I first got to the hotel,
I was like talking to myself
saying, "Act like you belong.
Don't be in shock
and don't be a fanboy.
Don't just go crazy."
'Cause I saw Michael,
you know, I saw the Admiral,
I saw all these guys...
I'm like, "Wow, man,
this is phenomenal
that I'm gonna even be
in the same presence
as these-- these legends."
[announcer] Charles looks
like he's determined
to take over this game.
[Webber] You have to remember
the state of basketball.
At this time, there weren't
trades in the league
like there are now,
and so you would never see
Magic play with a Celtic.
Are you kidding me?
That's the same as, like,
superhero movies now,
how kids take for granted
that Batman and Superman
are in the same movie.
[dramatic string music playing]
[Webber] And Jordan...
I don't think
I can explain to the world
how big Michael Jordan was.
[announcer]
Oh! A spectacular move
by Michael Jordan!
[Webber] Those songs from...
Sometimes I feel he is--
Like, that is that. The shoes.
And before he was this
cultural icon, he was our icon,
wearing the double chains
and the rock the cradle,
rocking,
dunking the basketball.
Like, seeing him on the court.
[crowd cheering]
There was no Instagram
behind the scenes
with a player
in the locker room.
We were privy to something
at the time
that no one in the world was.
So we're just kind of
taking it all in,
like, man, can you believe this?
Like, we're here.
I remember going over
to the gym
and putting on
our USA Basketball gear,
and they gave us swag,
which wasn't really called
swag back then,
but, "Oh man, this is cool.
Like, I got this, you know,
USA Basketball stuff.
Like, no one has this."
[Hurley] We had one practice,
I think, the day before
we scrimmaged the Dream Team.
So, able to get up and down
a little bit with our team.
We were kind of familiar
with each other
just through
the high school ranks
and all the games
we might have played
against each other in college.
[announcer] ...a dominant
inside player, Chris Webber.
[Webber] I was 19 years old,
in between my freshman
and sophomore year.
I had just gone
to the NCAA finals,
playing against Hurley
and Grant Hill,
and so I was coming off of
the highest of highs
and the lowest of lows.
[announcer] The Duke of Destiny
has won it.
For the first time
in two decades,
college basketball
has a repeat champion.
[Webber] And I just wanted
more basketball,
because I lost
my last college game.
C-Webb is a funny, authentic,
cool off the court...
on the court, man-child.
Some of the greatest hands
that I've ever seen.
To have a guy, 6'10", be able
to run and jump like him
and rebound, and also be
able to catch the ball
-with those soft hands...
-[announcer] Webber underneath.
[Mashburn]
...made him invaluable.
[dramatic orchestral music
playing]
[players chattering]
[Houston] Grant and I
had known each other,
been friends way before,
and, um,
so athletic,
the skill and talent
and athletic,
like this combination.
And he just kind of
could do things.
[announcer 1] Oh! Can you
believe he got that high?
[announcer 2] Incredible!
He just like-- Man, God just
sprinkled something on him.
Bobby Hurley, I mean, we had
played two years together.
He was as good
as any point guard,
sh**ting the ball,
dribble penetration, defending.
But, you know,
Bobby's from Jersey City,
and so Bobby was fearless,
and as a little guy,
never backed down.
[crowd cheering]
Penny was, like, so good,
so gifted,
so, uh, so graceful out there,
just so athletic,
great vision.
[announcer 1] Hardaway scores.
[announcer 2]
Great concentration.
He was the total package.
We felt like myself and Bobby
could handle any guards.
We felt like Rodney Rogers
was an unbelievable weapon,
and Allan Houston could
sh**t it as good as anyone.
Eric Montross,
our defensive big,
wasn't scared to mix it up.
And Jamal Mashburn
was as smooth as they came.
Whoever put that team together
did a phenomenal job
putting us together because
we could play.
[dramatic music playing]
[sneakers squeaking on court]
[man] In the Olympics,
at that time,
remember,
we're making a transition
from college to pro,
so everyone felt that
the select team should be
a collection
of the best college players.
These were guys who were
going to be lottery picks
in either the next draft
or the draft after that.
[indistinct chatter]
[Krzyzewski] And remember,
if there weren't pro players
playing at that time,
that select team would have
been our Olympic team.
[whistle blows]
I was disappointed
that the pros went.
Taking Michael Jordan
and all those guys,
I can see why people want to see
them rather than college kids.
But for the guys that played
on that college select team,
that was our dream
to play in the Olympics.
I was upset, uh, because
I wanted a gold medal.
[coach] All right,
now the only other one,
let's just say here...
[Hill] So there was this
internal conflict, you know,
because on one hand,
there was a real
sort of excitement.
"Oh man, you got Magic
and Bird and Barkley,"
and, you know, all these guys.
But then, on the flip side,
you're thinking, you know,
"Man, like, these guys,
you know, took our opportunity."
...your head, where it's gotta
be back here or over here.
[Mashburn] We understood
the business part of it,
but we were still
a little bit...
had a bit of a chip on
our shoulders, especially me.
[players yelling, chattering]
[Rogers speaking]
We got to go out here,
play as hard as we can.
We ain't coming out here
just to say,
"We played against
the Dream Team."
[tense music playing]
[Krzyzewski]
The guys on the Dream understood the history
of our game.
The game was
the most important thing,
and now they had a chance
to do it on a world stage.
[players chattering]
[Jordan] Anytime you represent
your country,
you know,
that's a prideful thing.
I think everybody knew
history was being made
and that this was probably
the only time ever
that you see
these type of players
all together at once.
Eleven Hall of Famers.
That's unheard of.
[Johnson] You gon' have to sit
down before you hurt somebody.
Hear what the captain says?
Captain says sit down,
or this boat is gonna sink.
That's right. Have a seat
'cause you're gonna fall,
and then it's gonna be all
that's gonna happen.
[Barkley] The first day...
we went to practice...
there was like hundreds
of people standing there.
That was the first time
that we realized
how enormous this thing was.
[cheering]
[Jordan] You saw nothing
but cameras,
documentation of everything
that we did
because of the rarity
of something like that
ever happening again.
[fan with camera] So I come
to see the team every day.
[Hurley] I got a taste of it.
Our bus arrived, we got off,
we were entering the gym,
the Dream Team bus arrived,
and there were people
going nuts.
[mellow music playing]
[crowd cheering]
[Bird] We knew they'll be
talking about this forever,
just the way that people
perceived us
as being superheroes.
[crowd cheering]
[Bird] But once we started
practicing, it got serious
because we was there
on a mission.
[loud cheering]
[dramatic orchestral music
playing]
April, May, June...
[Johnson]
That was my first opportunity
to play in the Olympics,
represent my country.
International
three-point lines...
And to prove that we could
play together,
that we would play together,
and that we would dominate.
[Barkley in 1992] When I sit
down at dinner last night,
I just looked around the room
and it was the most
incredible thing.
I'm sitting here beside
John Stockton, we're talking.
You just look around and
you see Magic, Michael, Larry,
Karl, Patrick, David,
I mean, Scott.
It was like...
I said, "Oh my God.
This is frightening
how good this team is."
It's unbelievable.
It really is, isn't it?
[laughter]
[man] Chuck Daly
was the head coach
because he was winning
championships
with the Detroit Pistons.
Could other people have
coached that team
and won a gold medal?
Without a doubt.
But I don't know that anybody
would have gotten the buy-in
with the players
as Chuck did it.
[Hill] Chuck had a presence
about him.
He was stylish,
even in his sweats.
He had his shirt up, like--
you know, he just had a style.
His hair was right.
Uh, but it was also
kind of a mafia boss.
You could see
the guys had respect for him.
[lush mandolin concerto playing]
[Webber] I knew everything
about Chuck Daly.
You gotta understand,
I'm from Detroit
where the Pistons won
back-to-back champions.
These were my guys.
So I knew where Chuck Daly
bought his suits.
Next time down,
Mahorn, you take Worthy.
You take Woolridge.
[Webber] Talk to any player
that played for him,
all they do is just rave about
what a great man he was.
And so what I think is
that there's no other man
that could have coached
the Dream because there's no other man
that each player respected
like they did Coach Daly
because of what he'd proven,
because of his humility,
because of him holding
you accountable,
and because he was a cool dude.
Well, I think Chuck is--
has the attitude
that he won't let us relax.
We don't want to relax.
We don't wanna be overconfident.
We are confident, but we don't
want to be overconfident.
[Krzyzewski] I never expected
to be an assistant.
Chuck even told me and PJ at
our first meeting as coaches,
we had notebooks, and he said,
"What are you guys doing?"
I said, "No, we're going
to take everything."
And he and Lenny would
laugh at me and PJ
because we're these young guys
trying to do a whole
bunch of stuff,
and they were the old pros,
and just,
"Slow down there, hotshot."
[Carlesimo in 1992]
What Chuck is trying to do
is obviously
we want to be prepared,
but what we really want to do
is not clutter things up either.
We have to allow these guys
to showcase their talents.
[in 2024] I remember the first
meeting when players came in,
and Chuck spoke to them,
and he just said, "Hey, guys,
we're supposed to win.
Everybody thinks
we're going to win.
That's expected.
It's not going to be considered
a great achievement
if we win the gold medal,
but this is
an opportunity for you
to represent the United States
and show people how basketball
is supposed to be played."
[somber string music playing]
[Krzyzewski]
At the end of the day,
there's a lot of pressure
on that head coach.
You not only have to win,
you have to win, like,
in-in a grand style.
[reporter speaking]
No, not nervous. You don't
know quite what to expect.
[Carlesimo] The expectation is
to bring back the gold medal,
and if you do anything
other than that,
it's a tremendous failure,
if you will.
And if you win, people just
shrug their shoulders and say,
"You were supposed to win."
Off the coast of Spain,
there are several islands.
There's one, Mallorca,
and one, Menorca.
Mallorca is a very
swinging place.
Menorca has a lot of caves
and a very high suicide rate,
and banishment or exile
is a possibility
if you don't come back
with the gold.
[Carlesimo] Even though we felt
we were gonna win,
whoever is the ultimate guy
responsible
is going to feel
somewhat nervous.
I mean, that's just
the way it is.
[man] I thought that Chuck
was excitable.
He was nervous.
I thought he also was
a worrywart.
You can prepare
and then you're ready,
but he would prepare
and then start all over again.
[inaudible dialogue]
Worldwide, people talked about
the Dream Team, okay?
He did not want to lose.
[inaudible dialogue]
[Wilkens] When you're
the head coach,
everything comes down on you.
[music fades]
[man] All righty.
All right, fellas,
I'm ready for you.
I played select team
a couple of years ago.
I think it's a mental thing.
It's funny because it's like,
I feel like
every USA team
plays a select team,
and that first day
they hit you in the mouth
because they're like...
They have-- They've got
all the confidence.
And they're just like, man,
we're going to play hard.
And I think that competition
brings out the best
in everybody.
[dramatic choral music playing]
You can't expect Grant
to front somebody in this post,
and then it goes over there,
and front somebody
over there too...
[Mashburn] That first day,
before that initial scrimmage,
they took us to another
practice facility.
We didn't realize
what we were doing
or how we fit into the equation.
[reporter] Did you envision
ever getting a chance
to play against these guys
this early in your career?
No, not really,
and it's something
that when I look at them on TV,
see Magic when I was young
and trying to do his thing
on the playground.
It'll be something special
to go up against him
and show him what I got.
I found out today
I might be picking up
Magic a little bit full-court,
so, you know, things are
just happening for me
that really makes me happy.
[choral music continues]
...dribble. Let's just say
I've got it, you dribble,
Jamal moves over, still there.
All right, now, Grant takes...
[Hill]
Roy Williams as our coach.
He was at Kansas then.
[Williams speaks indistinctly]
[Williams in 2024]
I knew all of those guys.
In this group,
Anfernee would be one.
Most of those guys
I tried to recruit. [laughs]
Didn't get any of them, but...
Cross 'em passing,
and take that away temporarily.
[Hill] And George Raveling
was an assistant coach.
At that time, he was at USC.
[Raveling]
What our team will do
is try to mirror
what the Europeans,
Australians, and Canadians,
and so forth are going to do
to try to recreate
those type of offensive
and defensive situations
that might present problems
for the US Olympic Team.
[grunting]
Barkley, Malone,
a lot of those people
taught confidence,
and I listen to that,
and I'm going in there
with a lot of confidence.
I'm not going to be intimidated,
uh, in any way,
no matter how much they dog me.
[whistle blows]
[Williams speaks indistinctly]
[Mashburn] At some point,
they took us
where the Dream was practicing.
[dramatic music playing]
[Hill] The gym was cleared out.
No reporters, no news crews.
Chuck Daly only allowed
one camera in.
And to this day, only one tape
of the practice exists.
Now it was go time.
I didn't think
I could get more nervous
than when I walked in the gym.
[Hill] I didn't know what
the select team meant,
what the practice
was going to look like.
I didn't know
if we would be there to,
you know, rebound for them.
[chuckles] If we'd be there
to maybe run some sets
on a half court.
I don't think I thought
we would scrimmage them.
And I remember
we go up to the top,
like, this balcony, to look over
the practice session...
[dramatic music continues]
[Houston]
...the most competitive
practice session
you'll ever see.
[sneakers squeaking on court]
[Hurley] It was just like
precision basketball.
They were just so sharp.
They looked like they had
been together playing
for like ten years.
My anxiety just was elevated
in that moment.
[mellow instrumental music
playing]
[producer] So, Christian,
do you remember at that point
being excited to play against
your Duke teammates,
Grant and Bobby?
I don't think it was like
high on my radar at all,
because so much was going on
at that time.
I was trying to graduate
from college.
I was making appearances
on David Letterman
and Arsenio Hall,
and I was winning awards,
and getting on
the Dream Team myself.
So it's kind of like,
I saw the college kids walk in
and I'm like, "Oh, yeah,
we're gonna play against them."
I see Bobby's little
white face up there,
and I see Grant's
high-top fade.
And I see Eric Montross
behind him,
and I'm kind of waving
to them like,
"Hey, I'm playing with
the Dream Team!" You know?
And no one's waving to me,
'cause they don't even
care about me, you know?
But they're all looking
at their, you know,
people they look up to.
And I'm kind of like,
"I should be with you guys."
[chuckles] "But I'm down here."
[up-tempo string music playing]
[Laettner] And the next time
down the court,
Barkley drives baseline,
and Karl Malone jumps up,
and Charles Barkley just
dunked on him so hard.
-[indistinct yelling]
-[cameraman chuckles]
And then their faces
all changed, like,
"Ooh, now we got to go play
against those guys."
[string music continues]
[Webber] Just imagine a bunch
of big gladiators
with all these swords and just
dead lions all on the ground.
And, you know, they're doing
flips and laughing
and all of this,
and you're up top,
and you know you're next.
[laughs] You know? It's not...
It's not that fun.
I've said it many times,
you know,
we were the crash test dummies.
We were the ones
to get in the car,
put on the seat belt,
and see how hard
we could handle the pressure
of running into the wall
of a Michael Jordan and others.
[music ends]
[Mashburn]
But with that being said,
when you look at pros,
and you just sit there and say,
"Well, I want to be a pro.
How do I kind of see internally
how I perform?"
So it's kind of
one of those things where,
yeah, you're nervous, excited,
but you also wanted
to prove yourself.
[tense string music playing]
[Webber] So walking down
the stairs, like,
I would have been embarrassed
to be nervous in front of them.
[footsteps echoing]
[Webber] When I think
about the Dream playing in the Olympics and
what they did with the world,
you had teams hugging them
before they played.
Like, that's-- that's wonderful,
but I can't do that.
That's not--
That's not who we are.
[music intensifies]
[Mashburn]
It was kind of like, uh,
you know, you're going to be
in a practice squad,
and you're talking to
college All-Americans
and potential pros.
All eight of us on that team...
we're not practice players.
[intense string music continues]
[Hardaway] We were honored,
humbled by the opportunity.
We were humbled as far as
respecting who they were.
But we also wanted to show
these guys that we could play.
And we were dumb enough to know
that we could win. [laughs]
[string music continues]
[Mashburn] Once I stepped
across those lines...
we equals until you show me
something different.
[Webber] I just remember
talking to the guys and saying,
"This is our moment.
This is our dream.
We're playing against...
our heroes."
Like, it was every
single person.
It was Hurley against Stockton.
It was everyone that
they said, you know...
Grant checking Jordan.
It was every...
You know, Penny against Magic.
It was every--
Me against Barkley.
It was everyone's dream matchup.
That's what I mean
about us being
the perfect crash test dummies.
We wanted the smoke.
That's what the kids say today.
We wanted the smoke.
[somber instrumental music
playing]
[Carlesimo]
This was the first time
the Dream Team was together.
They knew we were gonna be
playing against
these very talented
college guys
in our first scrimmage.
But, I mean, let's be honest,
there's no way you could
put together a college team
that would even think about
competing with our group.
I guarantee you
there was some debate
before this thing started
of like, you know,
is this going to be
a waste of time
playing against these guys?
[Krzyzewski] The select team,
they had a shot
to show everyone,
"Hey, I can do this,"
where I don't think
the Dream looked at it as competitively.
[Johnson] We're looking down
there at the college players.
And, you know,
we're just messing around,
thinking, "Okay,
this is the Dream Team.
We gonna blow them guys out."
[Hill] So before we started,
we sh**t a free throw.
And then they come down
and run a set against us.
Things that they walked through
just 10, 20 minutes before.
So it might be an up and down
and then stop.
[whistle blows]
But as a player,
you want to play.
[coach] Go right there. Go.
[whistle blows]
So then when Chuck Daly
actually blew the whistle,
it's time to scrimmage,
I think everybody,
at least on our side,
eyes lit up.
[Houston] Now we get called
on the court,
and they're all lathered up.
You know,
they're all loose and ready.
And it was just like,
all right, here we go.
It's just like
the best pickup game
you're ever gonna play in
in your life.
[Mashburn] We had finally
got up and close
to what you were watching
on TV.
And it looks different.
They look bigger.
They look faster.
And they look confident.
But we were definitely excited.
Roy Williams said, you know,
"Grant, you got Jordan."
And it was like, man,
this is a little different than
who I've been guarding
back in Durham.
[Williams] I said, "You, you,
you, you, and you, let's start.
And you got Jordan, and you got
Scottie, and you got..."
And the guys
are looking at me like--
And I said, "Yeah,
that's a good sound, isn't it?"
And I said, "Okay, our goal
is to help that team
win the gold medal.
That's our goal.
But while we're here,
let's play our tails off."
[players chattering]
I think... sports
and being an athlete,
it-it conditions you
to always think you can win.
[heroic instrumental music
playing]
[producer] So tell me,
what happens next?
Well, what happened next was
we jumped out on 'em.
They were shocked.
[players exclaiming]
We were dunking.
We were screaming.
We were throwing lobs.
We were making shots.
All of a sudden,
they was like, "Hold on.
These guys came to play."
[heroic music continues]
[Bird] It was a short game.
I think it was 20-minute game.
We were playing pretty well,
but they were playing great.
I remember Penny
more than anybody,
'cause he looked like
he was 12 years old,
and he was kicking
our butts, so...
I think our athleticism
surprised them.
[Bird] We was trying to do
too much.
Making some bad passes,
some turnovers.
And that was my biggest fear.
[Houston] It took us a minute
to figure out,
can I get by this guy?
You saw Bobby Hurley
started to see,
"Oh, I can get into this crease,
and I can find people."
They can't keep Bobby
in front of them.
[Mashburn] Bobby Hurley was
a nightmare for those guys,
because he was small and quick.
[Hurley] I was in
a great frame of mind
because I'd worked as hard
as I ever worked
to get ready
to go play against them.
So once you do that,
you have a belief in yourself.
[Krzyzewski] Bobby gave
the Dream Team an opportunity
to play against
that international guard
who had no fear.
[heroic music continues]
[music builds, fades out]
[pensive music playing]
[Hurley]
It was like Christmas for me,
because as a point guard,
my options are Allan Houston,
Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill,
Chris Webber, Jamal Mashburn.
It was like, wow,
these are great options.
[Hill] Grant and Penny
get out and transition,
got some blocks,
got some steals.
[players chattering
indistinctly]
[Hill] Allan Houston hits
a couple of threes.
Webber has some incredibly
athletic plays on the interior.
Chris Webber was a man,
you know? I mean...
I always thought, "Boy,
if that guy's coming
to this league,
I gotta get out of here."
[pensive music continues]
Anytime I got it, I wanted
to tear the hinges off the rim,
because these are the pillars
of the big fellas in the league.
I wanted to break a backboard
so bad.
[music ends with a flourish]
[Beethoven's Symphony No. 9
playing]
[Hill] Everybody's contributing.
Everybody's doing something.
And we're kind of
feeding off each other
and gaining confidence
as we go.
And you can tell
that they're... not in sync.
[Pippen] Everybody was trying
to be very unselfish.
We didn't know how to play
with each other.
We didn't want to step
on anybody's toes
or hurt any egos.
That college team was great.
Although they were young
and, uh, talking some junk.
There was almost a sense
of being stunned.
[Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 continues]
[Hill]
And their body language...
a little bit of getting upset.
[whistle blows]
-[whistle blows]
-[Webber] They were pissed.
[indistinct chatter]
Those type of players don't get
to where they've gotten
in basketball without taking
enormous pride in winning.
I sensed some frustration
because they were
running out of time.
[indistinct yelling]
[Houston] We knew at some point
they were going to
figure it out.
But we felt like we had, like,
a window to at least try
to cause some confusion.
[dramatic orchestral music
playing]
We had these young guys
who thought their chance of ever
playing in the Olympics
had been taken away from them.
They weren't intimidated.
They were going to
make us work.
And for sure,
there was a curiosity--
"How is Chuck going to react?"
I think us as assistants
right there, then,
clearly it was,
"Hey, Chuck, call a timeout."
[dramatic music continues]
We were like, "Hey, man,
we're winning against
the best team ever assembled.
Let's keep it going."
[dramatic music continues]
[players grunting]
They didn't take us seriously,
and then when it came time
for them to really get serious,
it was too late.
The horse is already
out the barn.
[dramatic music continues]
[Wilkens]
Even when you're a pro,
you can't wait
till the last minute
and then think, all of a sudden,
"I can turn it on."
'Cause no, you'll get surprised.
[orchestral music builds]
At the end, Chuck said,
"Okay, that's enough."
[whistle blows]
[orchestral music continues]
All I know is
when the clock stopped,
we were up.
[music builds]
[music fades]
[Hurley] We kept it anywhere
from like 6 to 12,
I think, through
most of that scrimmage.
And then when it ended, uh,
I know-- I think we won
by about 8 points.
[Houston] It was almost like
a silence, like a dead period.
You could tell people were like,
what do we do?
[Erik Satie's
Gnossienne No. 3 plays]
[Hill] There was an uneasiness
on their part.
You could feel it.
You could sense it.
I think there was kind of
a shock on everyone's part.
I think everyone
that was in the building
was just kind of like...
what-what's going on,
or what just happened?
[Carlesimo] You can talk
all you want to players.
And that team was
the best basketball team
ever put together.
But even that team found out
that if you're not
highly motivated,
if you take something
for granted,
if you don't prepare
as best you can,
that, uh, it can come back
and bite you.
You can't control it.
[Webber] Nothing felt as good
as that moment.
And I was just looking
like... yeah, yeah.
We just reminded them
that, you know,
there's a billion-to-one
long shot in every game.
But we were that one.
[chuckles]
[dramatic orchestral music
playing]
[cameraman] All those people
wait for the team to come out.
See 'em waving there--
[Hurley] Once we finished
our scrimmage,
there had to be, like,
1,000 people just out there
trying to have a chance
to see the new Dream and talk to those guys.
It was overwhelming.
I remember when the scrimmage
was over, seeing the score.
I didn't know
the media was coming in.
I didn't--
This was all new to us.
But then you look up,
and the score is down.
[Carlesimo] Chuck looked around
the room
knowing this is gonna be
the lead story in USA Today
and The New York Times.
So all that was in Chuck's mind.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Mashburn] There was a lot
riding on the Dream Team,
more than I think
people really care to share.
So if you had a college
select team... beat 'em,
you can imagine what
the conversation would've been.
And Chuck said,
"Get the score off there.
Cut it off."
I mean, he was not pleased
in one little bit.
[Hardaway]
He didn't want anybody
to take a picture
of that score.
If anybody has that score
on a picture, I need it.
[laughs]
I think it was smart
to take off the score.
No visible, tangible evidence.
-[people chattering]
-The press came in.
I mean, it was just
an incredible number of people
there covering it.
[camera shutters clicking]
[Hurley]
The media rolled in there.
We were told not
to talk about it.
But we weren't gonna
talk about it anyway.
[Hill] The media is gravitating
to all the guys.
And we're there.
Nobody's coming to us.
[chuckles]
Some of these players we just
got through playing against
probably should be on this team.
-But they'll get their chance.
-[reporters chuckle]
[Mullin] We got to scrimmage
against a developmental team,
which is a really good
bunch of players...
Nobody really said anything
about losing the game.
It's intriguing in that
the collegiate kids
are playing very well.
This is a terrific group
we're playing against.
And I think we're somewhere
between the mentality
of an All-Star Game and trying
to come together as a team.
But-but the scoreboard thing
really kind of, like, hmm.
Chuck Daly, they didn't want
anybody to know
that the Dream could be imperfect.
[pensive music playing]
We're sitting there like, man,
yeah, that happened.
[cameraman] Here they come.
[Houston]
And there was a little chatter.
I do remember a couple of guys
like C-Webb,
letting Barkley, Karl Malone,
Bird, and them know,
"We got y'all."
[chuckles]
[crowd cheering]
[pensive music continues]
[cheering]
[overlapping chatter]
[laughter]
[Houston laughs]
You have a stretch where
you're just playing
with confidence.
And then, when anybody
has confidence,
you don't know
what could happen.
[pensive music continues]
[Mashburn] We were pretty high
on ourselves.
We felt like we were pros
at that particular time.
And I remember going back
to the hotel,
and I think me
and Rodney Rogers
were sitting outside.
Bobby Hurley was there as well.
That day after we won,
Barkley yelled something at us.
You know,
"You'll be back tomorrow."
You know, there might have
been some chatter,
but certainly not from me.
Afterwards, I went to play golf.
[faint birdsong]
[Williams] And it was me
and Michael, David Robinson,
Charles Barkley,
and John Stockton.
Charles Barkley says,
"Hey, Coach,
your boys ran their mouth
too much today."
I said, "They were being kids,
but it was a great day
for them, Charles.
Think about the thrill
that they had."
And he said,
"Well, we'll get 'em."
And I said, "I know.
I told them,
you know,
'Don't talk too soon.'"
[music fades]
What really hurt was
they were talking trash.
I mean, talking trash.
We were so hot.
We said to ourselves,
we don't ever want that
to happen again.
[dramatic string music playing]
[producer]
Okay, so the next day comes.
Before the game started,
did you even sense, like,
this is a little different vibe?
I don't remember that day
at all.
-You don't?
-No, I'm joking. [laughs]
[dramatic music continues]
[Hill] So when we came back
the next day,
we're riding high.
It wasn't like, "Hey, man,
they're going to respond,"
or, you know. It was like,
man-- we're like, come on.
It's day two.
I can't wait for day two.
[Krzyzewski] For the Dream Team,
there wasn't, like,
this team meeting
and saying, "You know,
we gotta beat the select team."
But they had talked.
They're men.
These are accomplished
professionals.
So they said, "Well, we need
to take care of business
better than we did."
And that's all Chuck wanted.
[music builds, fades out]
He wanted them to take
care of business.
[Daly] White team outside,
five on five.
Go about one set, five,
transition...
[Houston] It's the Dream Team.
You saw it when
we walked in the gym.
They were, you know,
going intense.
-[players grunting]
-[whistle blows]
I-I just remember,
you know, we were like...
meat getting salted
and seasoned.
[laughs]
[players chattering]
[Mashburn] I remember
Rodney Rogers just joking
and said something
to Larry Bird like,
"You haven't hit
a jump shot since 1988."
It was kind of a joke like
"you're an old man" type deal.
And I distinctively remember...
Magic kinda looking.
It's like, he wasn't offended,
but it was like...
he's logging it.
And then we was all mixed.
Being in that circle,
and, um, even the jump ball
circle felt different.
It's just... mm,
this don't feel like day one.
[opening chords of Beethoven's
Symphony No. 5 plays]
[Mashburn]
And when it was time to go,
Magic made it an emphasis
to get the ball to Larry Bird.
And Larry Bird proceeds
to tell Rodney Rogers,
"One dribble, high off glass."
He proceeded to do exactly that.
And Rodney couldn't do
anything about it.
[Bird] I knew Magic was gon'
pass me the ball.
I had a 6'6" kid guarding me.
That don't work.
[Mashburn] Next play down...
[chuckles] Magic goes back
to Larry Bird again.
And I promise you,
probably about eight trips
down the court,
I saw Larry Bird do exactly
what he said he was going to do.
Even though Larry's back
was hurting,
that boy could still sh**t
that basketball.
And the net... didn't move.
And he'd sit there and sh**t
and talk to you
at the same time.
[players chattering]
[Rogers speaking]
[Webber] I saw Larry Bird
say to Rodney Rogers...
He went like this,
all of a sudden, Rodney Rogers
flies by in slow motion,
and he's like,
"Welcome to the parachute club."
Whoosh!
[sneakers squeaking]
[Beethoven's Symphony No. 5
continues playing]
[players yelling indistinctly]
[music fades]
It was a bloodbath in there.
[Symphony No. 5 resumes]
[Hurley] They were just
so dominant, in every facet.
Size, throw the ball
in the post,
you know, block shots,
dunks, threes, everything.
[Webber] They were mad.
[whistle blows]
It was a hurt-your-feelings day.
[players chattering]
[Webber] I've never seen defense
in my life like I did that day.
[Johnson] I'm looking at Michael
and Scottie,
and they're like,
"We wanna put it on these guys."
I've always said Michael Jordan
and Scottie Pippen together,
two of the best defenders
I've ever seen.
It was a thing of beauty.
[Hurley] When they threw
a perimeter
of Michael, Scottie,
and Clyde Drexler,
there was so much athleticism
on the floor.
I couldn't go by them
off the dribble.
I couldn't really do anything.
[Laettner] I can't even tell you
how quick the Dream went from defense to offense.
When they decided
to play good defense,
and then they got a steal or
a turnover, bam, they're gone.
They're scoring within
a second down there.
[players chattering]
The day before, Allan Houston
went off like 20-something.
And I remember Jordan said
something to the effect of,
"You ain't gonna get
a shot off today.
You're not going to get it
above your shoulders."
Like, literally, you're not
gonna get it above here.
That day, Allan Houston did not
get it above his shoulders.
[players chattering]
And that's when I realized
how good Michael Jordan was.
[Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"
choral music playing]
[Mashburn] With all those
Hall of Fame players,
if you didn't know anything
about basketball,
you can tell who the best
player on the court was.
He never liked to lose.
Michael always got that look,
like...
"What the f*ck going on?"
And when you see that look,
just... give him the damn ball
and get out the way.
[Mashburn] After that,
I second-guessed
if I was going to be
a professional
basketball player.
[Hill] It was like we had
superpowers the first day,
and then, all of a sudden,
there's a big rock of kryptonite
in the middle of the court.
Like, it was--
it was like night and day.
["Ode to Joy" continues playing]
[Rogers speaking]
And I was like, "Good God."
[chuckles]
[Wilkens] All of a sudden,
Chuck got nervous,
and he didn't want anybody
to get hurt.
So he called a stop to it.
["Ode to Joy" continues]
[Wilkens] But Chuck could see
the point was made.
Message sent and received.
[laughs]
[music concludes]
[mellow ambient music playing]
[Hill] From that point on,
everything was happy memories.
The Dream Team went
to the Olympics...
[crowd cheering]
[announcer] Magic rock!
[Hill] Destroyed every team
in their path...
[announcer]
The US with a 46-1 run.
[Hill] Won the gold medal...
[announcer] The US has won
the gold here in Barcelona.
[Hill] And reclaimed
America's place
atop the basketball world.
[music fades]
[Hill] Best part of all,
me and my college teammates
go down
as the only team to ever beat
the Dream Team.
A perfect ending
to a perfect story.
Unfortunately,
that's not how our story ends.
[somber music playing]
[Hill] You see,
20 years later...
Well, I figured eventually
there'd be a movie
made about the Dream Team.
[Hill] ...they released
a documentary
on the Dream Team.
That's when everything changed.
[Krzyzewski in 2012]
He threw the game.
You know, Chuck threw the game.
If you look how much
Jordan played
and how he subbed guys in,
he set it up for us to lose.
Not picking up, not making
any adjustments.
He knew what he was doing.
And then from then on,
he had a way of just saying,
"You know, you could lose."
[Hurley in 2012] It was legit.
It felt tremendous,
you know, what we were
doing that day.
You know, they couldn't stop it.
[chuckles]
You know, there are kids
who believe in Santa Claus, too,
and... and the Easter Bunny.
And now that they've grown up,
I hate to burst their bubble,
but, uh, it was a game thrown.
[Hill] At that moment,
all I could say was...
"Damn, Coach."
[producer] Yeah, that's good.
Just tilt up just a hair.
-[indistinct chatter]
-[chuckles]
You know, what's interesting
is that Grant and Bobby Hurley
and that team that beat
the Dream Team in '92,
it's such a well-known story.
[producer] Yeah. Coach K claims
that Chuck Daly threw the game.
-[laughs]
-Uh, do you believe that?
No, I don't believe it.
[laughter]
[Erik Satie's
Gnossienne No. 3 plays]
[Krzyzewski] The guys
on the select team say,
"We beat 'em
in the scrimmage."
God bless 'em,
they can say that for
the rest of their lives,
and that's a cool thing.
I think the person who won
at that time was Chuck Daly.
The very first thing about
Chuck Daly was
he was the perfect guy
to coach that team
or any US team.
Chuck was not only
a brilliant tactician,
he understood people.
[Daly] First part was good.
-Karl.
-[Malone] Yes, sir.
[Krzyzewski]
And he understood stars.
He knew that a number of things
would have to go wrong
for us to lose
during the Olympics.
But still, there was pressure
on him.
-All right, go ahead.
-[clapping]
[Krzyzewski]
Because anything can happen.
There are periods of time
where the best talent
doesn't beat lesser talent.
And what I think happened
that day with the select team
is that he looked at that
as an opportunity.
It was his opportunity
to introduce defeat,
like how you might feel
if you lost.
"That's my opportunity.
It might never happen again.
Michael, sit down.
You-- You're okay."
I knew then what he was doing.
And I thought it was brilliant,
you know,
to be quite frank with you.
[Laettner] Chuck might have.
He might have.
To let the 11 pros
on the Dream Team feel that,
"Hey, if we don't
take it seriously,
and if we don't
turn ourselves on
and play the right way,
anyone can beat us."
[dramatic string music playing]
[Carlesimo] Mike K and I have
argued about this for years
because Mike still believes,
I-I think,
that Chuck orchestrated
the whole thing.
But I think that that occurred
as the scrimmage developed.
At some point, he said,
"All right,
whatever happens happens.
I'm not gonna stop it."
[players chattering]
He just let it kinda pick up
and-and let the game go
with natural flow.
There was no time-out saying,
"What the hell
are you guys doing?
You know, turn it on,
or these college kids
are gonna beat ya."
Here's my Dream Team book
that I have, you know,
sitting in my house
all the time.
And maybe there's some pictures
of stuff we just talked about.
That's a picture
from the scrimmage
with the college kids
that we're talking about.
And if you look closely,
Magic and Michael
are sitting over there.
[chuckles] They're not playing.
And I don't even know
if they're even sweaty
because maybe
they haven't played at all.
[pensive string music playing]
[Hill] So, you know, I know...
Coach K said that Chuck
threw the game,
which I still...
I still have a hard time
with that.
I hear all
the conspiracy theories,
and I'm telling you,
all of that is convenient.
The coach made the team
lose on purpose
so we could win a scrimmage?
Bullshit.
[scoffs]
Um, just call it what it is.
[Webber] You can't use coaches
as an excuse to lose.
This is hoopin'.
[Houston]
This is the Dream Team.
They don't need any extra
psychology or motivation.
[Hill] Okay, maybe you took
Michael out of the game
for a period of time.
But you still had some pretty
darn good players out there.
So we're better than
the rest of 'em?
[Hardaway] You mean to tell me
that Magic Johnson,
John Stockton, Clyde Drexler,
David Robinson,
Karl Malone, Charles Barkley
aren't enough for some
college kids?
Think about that.
[music intensifies]
[Hill] See, here's the thing.
Irrespective of what
the coach wanted,
if I'm on that team,
if I'm a competitor,
and I'm getting beat, like...
Like, no,
like, I'm gonna, like...
You know, you're gonna get mad,
you're gonna...
Like, there's pride,
you know? [chuckles]
And-and you know what?
Guys on the Dream have pride.
And Michael Jordan
is the greatest.
I'm not tripping on that.
But I think Michael Jordan
would tell you
that if he didn't play,
that they should beat us.
Let's be honest. They didn't
rest the complete starting five.
They rested Michael Jordan.
But he still played.
It wasn't like
he played one minute
and sat out the rest of it.
No, he played.
[Hurley] I didn't keep track
of how many minutes
Jordan was out there,
but I was always looking
over my shoulder.
I think they played really hard.
They wanted to beat us.
We just-- We were quicker
on the ball,
maybe a fraction of a step
quicker that day,
and just, uh, playing freely.
[Hill] That's where
I have issues with this idea
of throwing the game.
The only people
who can throw a game
are the people in the game.
[whistle blows]
[dramatic music playing]
[Mashburn]
They talkin' about Chuck Daly's
method to his madness.
We never got the memo.
I think there was
a signature moment in the game
that we were on a run,
and Chuck Daly
called a time-out.
I just remember kinda
glancing over at Coach K.
He was kind of looking
surprised.
Yeah, I don't remember that.
And to be quite frank,
I don't remember it
because I didn't think
it was that important.
[Carlesimo]
Mike's got two problems.
First of all, his memory
is a little faulty.
And secondly,
he never lets the truth
get in the way of a good story.
[laughs]
But I will say Chuck did not
go out of his way to stop it.
It wasn't like he was
taking time-outs
and breaking clipboards
and screaming at them.
I think Chuck said,
"You know what,
this might not be
the worst thing."
[Williams] Bullshit.
I'm 73 years old.
I don't buy it now.
If I live to 99,
I won't buy it then.
We did beat the Dream Team.
[dramatic music continues]
[music fades]
I played for coaches that say
talent gets you beat
if talent doesn't work hard.
And the motivation
and the energy and the effort
is something you can't coach.
For us college players,
our opportunity to be Olympians
was kind of taken away.
So that was maybe our one day
to, uh, to have our moment.
[Webber]
That wasn't a practice to us.
It was the biggest moments
of our life.
We played it as if it was
a championship game.
We were so motivated
because everyone in life knows
you can slay the giant
on that one day.
[mellow ambient music playing]
[Houston] Look, if I'm a coach,
and I got this
young kid saying,
"I beat you, I beat you,"
I'm not gonna be like,
"Yeah, you beat me."
I'm going to have something
to say about it, right?
And I think that's all it is.
Coach, he's gon' have
something to say about it.
He's not gonna be like,
"Yeah, okay."
You know, that's--
it's a competitive spirit.
Coach K is
a phenomenal human being.
He's an unbelievable coach.
That's the way that
he motivated his teams.
If a loss came about,
we deserved it.
You didn't play
Duke basketball.
I think he said that
because that's kind of how
he handles his...
his business at Duke.
[producer] Coach, if Chuck Daly
was alive today,
what do you think he'd say?
He might say we tried our best.
And-- Because it was only
important that he knew.
But you know what?
No one will ever know for sure.
[Hill]
Not long ago, Coach K called
and invited me to be a guest
on his podcast.
I knew this was it.
My chance to finally
challenge him
on his "Chuck Daly
threw the game" story.
[podcast host] Grant Hill was
a four-year player at Duke,
won back-to-back
national titles.
He's the managing director
for USA Basketball.
[Krzyzewski] Managing director
for USA Basketball.
So what about Paris
and the Olympics?
The expectations, obviously,
for anything we do,
is gold medal, as it should be.
You were a part
of the '92 Dream Team.
-Yes.
-Were on that coaching staff.
What that did for the game
was incredible.
expl*si*n.
-[Hill] It exploded.
-Yeah.
Well, you know, Coach, I always
appreciated playing for you.
And I think one of the things
you taught me
was to speak my mind.
I saw the Dream documentary.
And I know you've said
that the game was thrown
and all that, but...
we beat the Dream Team that day.
You're right up to a point.
First of all, you guys were
the first select team.
The Dream Team, they liked you
and they thought
you were helping 'em,
but they knew
they could beat you at any time.
And so they didn't come in
loaded for bear, so to speak.
Right.
Once it started, and you guys
were playing lights out,
Chuck Daly,
as a brilliant coach,
he let it happen.
Did you ever hear him
raise his voice?
Or you guys weren't
paying attention to that.
But the reason we didn't hear
Chuck yelling and screaming,
because we were too busy dunking
and scoring and high-fiving
each other.
You were in a segmented part
of competition.
And in those segments,
a brilliant coach would take
advantage of what he saw,
not just before and after
the segment,
but during the segment.
Your segment was terrific
because he couldn't teach them
what it would mean to lose.
And so you were...
-You were used...
-[laughs]
-...for a gold medal. Come on.
-I beg to differ.
I remember Allan Houston,
like, getting hot.
I remember Bobby just
getting into the paint at will.
I remember Chris Webber
dunking all over the bigs.
You have Magic and Bird
and Jordan and Barkley.
These are the greatest.
They're like
the greatest players
and the greatest competitors.
Forget about what
the coaches are saying,
Chuck, they're like, "Hey,
we're not letting this happen."
-Maybe he couldn't stop it.
-Right.
But he didn't attempt
to stop it.
Now, do you remember
what happened the next day?
[clicks tongue]
I-I don't. I don't.
You know, I-I remember
the arrival.
I remember the first day.
They were on, uh, a cruise ship
before that scrimmage.
Now they got on a battleship.
So you think us beating them or
shocking them, like, it played--
-it helped them...
-Huge.
...not just the next day,
but for the rest of the journey?
Yes. That's what I'm saying.
And, you know,
we're all part of history.
Yeah.
And that history then changed
how the US and the world
looked at our game.
So be thankful that you won
a scrimmage.
I'm so happy
that you were able to keep
these, uh, childish dreams.
-That's funny.
-Makes me feel good.
The jury would already
have decided this by now.
[Overture
to The Barber of Seville plays]
[chuckles]
[Jordan] You know, and Chuck...
people tend to forget
that he played, you know,
some very competitive
mind games.
You know, and me
coming from Phil Jackson,
I kind of understood exactly
what he was doing.
I think it was
very gratifying to Chuck
for us to get our butts
beat like that
because now
we had to listen to him.
But those kids kicked our butts
up and down.
[players shouting]
[Barkley] We were on
spring break, basically,
and then they kicked our butt.
After that first day,
we realized, like,
"Guys, if we lose,
it's gonna be like
the biggest upset
in sports history."
[Johnson]
Chuck Daly was a master.
His genius was the fact
that he brought
these young college guys in
who he knew was gonna be up
and sky-high to play against us,
and they were gonna play hard.
And he probably knew
we were just
going through the motions
a little bit.
Well, what happened was
them guys came at us
and blew us out
and really was taking it to us.
I mean, uh,
on all phases of the game.
We were just, uh...
were not into it,
and we paid for it.
Those college guys woke us up
and made us play
the way we're used to playing.
So I want to thank them
for that butt whooping
that they put on us.
[Jordan] It goes to say
that you never underestimate
your opponent,
and I think you had
11 Hall of Famers there
who underestimated
these college kids,
and you never can underestimate
your opponent.
I don't care who they are.
[sneakers squeaking on court]
-[whistle blows]
-[Daly] Let's just scrimmage.
[Hill] Looking back,
there's one thing
I know for sure.
My teammates and I
completed our mission.
We gave the Dream the wake-up call they needed,
and they went on
to wake up the world.
[announcer] Barkley off
a beautiful feed from Mullin.
[camera shutter clicks]
[music fades]
[Hill] Meanwhile, our journey
was just beginning.
Good evening, and welcome
to the 1993 NBA Draft.
With the first pick,
the Orlando Magic select
Chris Webber
from the University of Michigan.
[cheering]
[Hill] As the years passed,
my teammates and I
all got drafted
in the first round.
-[man 1] Anfernee Hardaway...
-[man 2] Jamal Mashburn...
[man 3] Bobby Hurley
from Duke University...
[announcer 1]
Hurley gets by Hornacek.
All the way through,
drops to Alaa.
Beautifully-timed drop pass
from Bobby Hurley.
[announcer 2] Oh, brother!
[arena announcer] Chris Webber!
[pensive music playing]
[announcer 3] Allan Houston,
Houston ducks under...
Got it! With eight tenths left!
[announcer 4] Sweet redemption
for Allan Houston.
[Hill] Along the way,
there were awards...
[arena announcer]
Rodney Rodgers!
[Hill] All-Star Games...
[announcer 5] Finding Mashburn
open for three.
Jamal Mashburn
has it stuck on automatic!
[Hill] And NBA Finals.
[announcer 6] Penny Hardaway.
What a star he is going to be.
[announcer 7] He has it all.
[Hill] A few of us even
got a chance
to play in the Olympics...
[arena announcer] Grant Hill!
[Hill]
...and win that gold medal.
[somber string music playing]
[announcer] Bobby Hurley
out of action for Sacramento.
[Hill]
And whether it was injuries
or just Father Time that
brought our careers to an end,
that week with the Dream will go down
as one of the greatest
experiences of our lives.
[arena announcer] Welcome
to Madison Square Garden,
the world's most famous arena.
[Houston]
The Dream Team is a team
that no one should ever
forget about.
I know there was a part of us,
and we talked about like,
"Yo, I wonder if this
is gonna be us one day."
And I think
as a college player,
that was really important
to know
that there was a process
to their greatness.
[somber music continues]
[indistinct yelling]
[Hurley] I might have
peaked that week
against the Dream as far as maybe being the best
that I ever was at basketball.
Like, I have my pictures
with Michael Jordan
and Magic Johnson
up in my office.
Magic and I connected
during that week
on a point guard level,
just how...
So when recruits come through,
it definitely has helped me
here at Arizona State.
[producer] These are kids
that weren't even born.
Do they even know what happened?
Well, yeah, they do
because when they get here,
they're gonna have to listen
to my stories about it, so...
[somber music continues]
[producer] So did that win
against the Dream help ease your pain from
the Olympics getting taken away?
Nah.
I think what that win
did for me was that
I was capable of playing
at the NBA level.
[announcer] Feeds Mashburn,
got bumped, the 360!
[announcer speaks indistinctly]
[Mashburn]
At the end of the day,
we were part of
the adversity that,
"Hey, if you guys
aren't on your game,
somebody can take you out."
I'm glad to be a part of it,
but nobody sent me a gold medal
for-for being the adversity.
[chuckles]
[somber music continues]
[players yelling indistinctly]
Shrink the floor!
[Hardaway] That week
being with the Dream did so much for me mentally.
It made me want to get
out of an adverse situation
that I was in where I lived,
because it gave me the start
of understanding
what it was like.
Everybody on the baseline.
Everybody on the baseline.
Tuck your jerseys in.
It made me want to live
the way that they lived.
Like, "Man, this is what life
is all about.
I can do this."
[light, pensive music playing]
[producer] So, Rodney,
is this a fond memory for you?
Oh, yeah.
One you'll never forget.
It's gonna always
stick in my head.
I got a picture of us,
the guys that they picked
from college,
and, uh, a picture of us
with the Dream Team.
[Webber] Every time I see
Rodney Rogers,
I tell him,
"Welcome to the parachute club,"
and he loves it and he hates it
because, I mean,
every, every time.
It's a time and a context
that I find myself,
you know, constantly
romanticizing,
not that moment of basketball
and playing against them, but
how pure those moments were
for all of us eight guys.
[pensive music continues]
[Hill] I've done a lot of things
in my career,
but there's nothing
like doing this.
[crowd cheering]
[Hill] There is a standard
that's associated
with USA Basketball.
[announcer] Back to Curry.
Over the double-team.
Oh!
[Hill] As I watch the USA
capture another gold medal,
I carry with me the pride
of knowing
over 30 years ago,
me and my teammates,
me and my friends,
played a role in helping create
the greatest basketball team
the world has ever seen.
[crowd roaring]
[Hill] Oh yeah.
And one more thing...
We beat the Dream Team.
We beat the Dream Team.
We beat the Dream Team.
And they try to say
we didn't beat 'em.
We beat the Dream Team.
We beat the Dream Team.
We won, and we beat 'em,
and it felt good. [chuckles]
And you can't take that away.
You can't.
I-I was there. I... I know.
[dramatic orchestral music
playing]
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We Beat the Dream Team (2025)
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Baseball, Football, Lacrosse, Basketball, Hockey and more sports Movie Collection.
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