1992 Dream Team Versus 2012 National Team Inside The Numbers
Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 9:31AM Joe Simmons 
How far off base was Kobe’s comments about the 2012 National Team being better than the 1992 Dream Team. At first glance it sounds pretty stupid. But when you dig inside the matchups, it gets pretty good.
Let’s take a look at the matchups:
|
92 Dream Team |
2012 National Team |
Advantage |
|
Magic Johnson |
Chris Paul |
Magic |
|
Michael Jordan |
Kobe Bryant |
Michael |
|
Larry Bird |
Lebron James |
Lebron |
|
Karl Malone |
Carmelo Anthony |
Malone |
|
David Robinson |
Tyson Chandler |
Robinson |
|
John Stockton |
Deron Williams |
Deron |
|
Clyde Drexler |
Russell Westbrook |
Westbrook |
|
Scotty Pippen |
Kevin Durant |
Durant |
|
Charles Barkley |
Blake Griffin |
Barkley |
|
Patrick Ewing |
Kevin Love |
Ewing |
|
Chris Mullen |
James Harden |
Harden |
|
Christian Laettner |
Andre Igoudala |
Andre |
|
|
|
6 – DT and 6 - NT |
The matchups are considering their ages at the time and who would have an advantage on the offensive and defensive end. It would be fun to see the Jordan vs. Kobe matchup and to see if Magic can stay in front of Chris Paul. Lebron and Kevin Durant would be the matchup problems for the Dream Team as Pippen and Bird would not be able to guard either one of them.
Watching Blake Griffin and Charles Barkley bang would be epic. That would probably surely end in a fight. I gave David Robinson the edge at the center because he had a slightly better offensive game than Chandler. Ewing got the edge over Love because of his ability on defense. Love is a better perimeter player than Ewing but even that was closer than it seemed.
I love Carmelo Anthony but Karl Malone was at his peak in 1992 and he would have been too much for Melo on the box. However Melo would have scored just as many but he would have probably fouled out trying to check Malone.
Deron is too strong and too quick for John Stockton by this time as Stockton was on the downward side of his career. However it may be closer than it seemed because of Stockton’s knowledge of the game and ability to make his teammates look better than they really are.
I still give the advantage to the 92 Dream Team because of Jordan and Magic. Somehow I don’t think they would let that team lose.
Stay Breezy ~ I’m Out!
Reader Comments (2)
Like KD but cant give him the advantage over Scottie.. as skilled as KD is Scottie would still give him some fits...... And the Harden-Mullen one I think is a wash... would just be alot of points scored with neither one of them stopping the other..lol
Westbrook over Clyde is funny!