Potential:
Olympic MVP
Olympic Gold Medalist

I’m no band wagoner…..BUT, LBJ obviously is a very talented man. If he accomplishes this feat, I will gladly call him “King James”….No Doubt.

So in reality, maybe the closest is actually Dirk two years ago. Though even he had a future HOFer on the team in Jason Kidd, plus Tyson Chandler ain’t half bad, and there was clearly some chemistry on that squad based on how they fell apart the next year.

Basically: long and short, nobody can do it by themselves in the NBA. And it really speaks to LeBron’s greatess that he even brought the Cavaliers to the finals in ’07, as that wasn’t a “good” team, that was a bad team (plus LeBron).

And there is a strong script for stopping LeBron: make him play with a good, not great, team. He can’t do it himself the way the greats can.

Next, over the last couple decades, Europe has created extensive systems for developing athletic talent. From a young age, Europeans with the beginnings of basketball talent are sent to intensive camps, after school programs, seminars, and eventually basketball academies: where they prepare for careers as professional athletes. By the time European players are the same age as NBA draft prospects, the talented ones have already been playing professional basketball for two or three years. So “college team” is an invalid comparison; all these guys are pros: maybe not NBA level pros, but still pros.

Lastly, there is a great deal of international player movement within the European professional basketball leagues and, though I can’t give you an exact number, it’s a good bet that at least a third of the Lithuanian National Team are not native born Lithuanians.

So really a better comparison is if the best basketball prospects in Wisconsin, plus a handful from Illinois and Minnesota had been groomed since age six to become professional basketball players, and all had more youth, NCAA level and professional experience than the US National Team.

That’s not to say almost losing to that team isn’t disgraceful, embarrassing, and unacceptable: just a little more understandable.

The simple fact is that every player on the 2012 team, with the exceptions of Davis and Chandler, shoots the 3 ball better than Larry Bird, the best 3 point shooter on the 92 team. Jordan may be the greatest scorer of all time, but Kevin Love will end his career with a better three-point percentage. This is not to say that if the shooters on the original Dream Team had played in the modern era they wouldn’t have been as talented or just as great players: just that it’s really hard to compare 2′s and 3′s from twenty years ago and today.

And it’s not just the 3 pointer itself: higher three point percentages mean a more spread out defense, which meas wider driving lanes, and just a completely different game on offense. Basically, what it boils down to is that comparing athletes and teams across history is stupid.

Yep. Kobe, lebron, durant, chris paul, etc… had a hell of a time with some guys that “spent time in the NBA.”

Let that sink in.

And then wonder how theyd do against a bunch of hall of famers.

When the only team that can possibly beat you can never possibly play you.

Quick, someone who favors the Dream Team come in and shout down jwreck and call him stupid and young. Then after that we can have someone who is in favor of the 2012 team call him ‘stupid’ and ‘old.’