Training camp started for the Dream Team in June, 1992. It was a chance for the enormously talented squad to learn how to play together. The team’s coach, Chuck Daly, scheduled a scrimmage between the team and a select group of college players. The college stars, including a young Grant Hill, Chris Webber and Penny Hardaway, were understandably geeked at the opportunity. And the college players quickly took it to their shockingly unselfish NBA counterparts.
“We didn’t know how to play with each other,” Scottie Pippen admits in the documentary. “We didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes or hurt any egos. And so these young kids…they were killing us.”
Sloppy passes and an overall lack of energy spelled doom for the future Hall-of-Famers. The Dream Team’s first ‘game’ as a team ended in defeat.
But there’s more to the story.
Mike Krzyzewski, who was an assistant coach under Daly, claims the head coach ‘ threw’ the game as a way to send a message to his players. Larry Bird questioned why Michael Jordan didn’t play much during the scrimmage. Wherever the truth lies, the loss did wake up Team USA. They went on to defeat their Olympic opponents by an average of nearly 44 points per game.
