0:00

This is the Dream Team Tapes, a

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Diversion Podcasts original series

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in association with I Heart Radio.

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This is the story of the United States Olympic

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basketball team that won gold in Barcelona,

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known worldwide as the Dream

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Team.

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Welcome to episode five of the Dream Team

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Tapes. I'm Jack McCallum. We

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have moved from San Diego, where the Dream Team

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completed a week of practice, and on to

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Portland, Oregon, for something called the

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Tournament of the Americas, where the US

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team had to qualify for the Olympics. Portland

0:39

was the capital of the basketball world in the summer

0:41

of their beloved Blazers

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took the Jordan's Bulls to six games.

0:47

The NBA Draft that produced Shaquille

0:49

O'Neal and Christian Latner, the

0:51

two college stars who were the only players

0:53

considered to join the Dream Team from college,

0:56

was held there ten days after the finals ended,

0:59

and then the Dream Team arrived for their first

1:01

official public demonstration of well

1:04

worldwide dominance. I

1:06

would venture to say that all of us who were

1:08

around for the weeks of action in Portland had

1:11

a great time in that great city. It

1:13

was an excellent series. It included

1:15

the famous Jordan's shrug game

1:17

in Chicago, when he hit six first

1:20

half three pointers, the majority

1:22

of them on Clyde Drexler, and at one

1:24

point just shrugged the Magic Johnson,

1:26

who was courtside on the broadcast team,

1:28

as if to say, hell, I can't

1:30

explain it either. The draft was

1:32

pretty interesting too. After

1:34

the Minnesota Timberwolves selected late number

1:37

three, there was a chorus of booze,

1:39

which prompted Laterner's mother, Bonnie,

1:42

a sometimes outspoken woman who

1:44

like so many moms, loved her son and wanted

1:47

to protect him, blurted out to

1:49

the press, huh that was

1:51

the fifty family and friends Shakiel took

1:53

with him to Portland. Christian

1:55

wasn't happy with her. Hey, we've all

1:57

been there at one time or another. All

2:00

other things about Portland's It had one of the

2:02

great all time bookstores, Pals and

2:04

the peaceful Willamet River, and one

2:06

of the all time great bars, the veritable

2:09

Quandre hang out for the media

2:11

who had covered the NBA Finals and hung around

2:13

to cover the Dream Team. You went

2:15

into the VQ, you ordered a craft

2:18

beer, and the bartenders would put

2:20

on anything you asked. For one

2:22

night, it was Stevie Ray Vaughan. One of

2:24

the overlooked blues immortals. Stevie

2:27

Ray has gone now a helicopter crash

2:29

in Wisconsin in n hours

2:32

after he and his band had opened a show for Eric

2:34

Clapton and a loss.

2:36

So is the veritable quandary, a victim

2:39

of market forces. Nihil

2:42

st at tarranum, nothing last

2:44

forever. I'm not sure what a

2:46

Latin accent should sound like, but

2:48

that was probably not a good one. So

2:52

why were we in Portland? Well, as I said

2:54

earlier, the Americans had to qualify since

2:56

they had finished third in and

2:59

the qualifier been scheduled for March

3:01

in Brazil, in other words, at a

3:03

time when the NBA season was still going on.

3:06

So the NBA and USA Basketball arm

3:08

twisted FIBA into a schedule

3:10

change and bought the broadcast

3:13

rights for somewhere around four million dollars

3:15

from a Brazilian who owned them

3:17

and re christened the thing the Tournament

3:20

of the Americas. Now.

3:22

The money for the broadcast was put

3:24

up by the United States Olympic Committee, which

3:27

had a surplus from the Olympics

3:29

in Los Angeles, which was quite

3:31

possibly the last games that made economic

3:34

sense for a host country. The U s

3:36

O c resented it. They were

3:38

not accustomed to putting up money for

3:40

millionaire professional athletes, and

3:42

that resentment would prove to be a subplot

3:45

in Portland's that would continue

3:47

through Barcelona because

3:50

initially, all I say that, you know, I don't want

3:52

to be a part of this whole business. You

3:54

know, I played a game for the game, for the batch

3:56

you had that was totally against profession

3:58

basketball to was playing because I knew

4:01

the business despect there was coming around. Yeah,

4:04

and it is hard to get the true deliberic

4:06

experience and you're sitting there were about

4:08

everybody's making money and you gotta you

4:11

know, you gotta please this guy, you

4:13

know, please his company. Yet it may not be

4:15

the same line to what a contract.

4:19

Okay, irony alert here Jordan,

4:21

who at that time was earning about thirty five

4:23

million dollars in endorsements and is still,

4:25

by the way, earning about a hundred

4:27

and forty five million dollars even though he hasn't

4:29

played since two thousand and three,

4:32

talking about the unpleasantness of mixing

4:34

business and basketball. But Jordan's

4:37

and most of the other Dream teamers felt for the first

4:40

time in Portland's how many fingers

4:42

were reaching into the pie, and

4:44

Jordan's didn't really need the Olympics

4:46

for exposure the way other players might

4:49

have. It's not like his profile

4:51

wasn't amplified by the Dream Team experience,

4:53

but it wasn't a major consideration. Here's

4:56

David Falk, Jordan's Asian at

4:58

the time, and the and largely responsible

5:01

for creating the Jordan's marketing

5:03

monster back in you

5:06

know, gave him a broader stage

5:09

and probably set the tone maybe for

5:11

moving into other markets, you know, brand Jordan's

5:13

later on down the road. But he didn't

5:16

do it for marketing reasons. I think they've

5:18

even enter to the egration. I knew that it would

5:20

have a you know, positive impact, but

5:22

not a not a major impact.

5:24

For months, there had been pitched, behind the scenes

5:27

battles among sponsors and retailers

5:29

trying to make official deals with the NBA

5:32

to make money off these guys. And

5:34

these weren't exactly junior varsity companies.

5:36

They were companies like A T and T, Coca

5:39

Cola, McDonald's, and Visa. The

5:41

stakes were enormously high.

5:44

The real battles took place over whose likeness

5:46

could be put on what product. Remember

5:49

that all these guys, but Jordan's,

5:51

Magic, Barkley and Bird in particular, had

5:54

all kinds of endorsement deals and contracts

5:56

themselves. What would they be violating

5:58

by wearing or endorsed s a uso

6:00

C sanctioned product that was in competition

6:03

with one of their personal sponsors? To

6:05

wit, what Jordan's Mr

6:08

Nike tacitly endorsed

6:10

reebak Ah.

6:13

Jordan and his agent David Falk thought

6:15

they had a deal worked out that would take care of it.

6:17

But the deal, in the immortal words

6:19

of William Goldman, the great Hollywood screenwriter,

6:22

was apparently set, just not set

6:25

set. We'll see how that plays out. In

6:27

Barcelona, the players were

6:29

astounded at what their responsibilities

6:31

were, particularly in

6:33

the area of signing basketballs. A

6:36

couple of them told me they signed literally

6:38

thousands of balls because

6:40

each deal seemed to come accompanied

6:43

by signing basketballs, which

6:45

always struck me as crazy because

6:47

if you've seen a pro athletes sign at

6:49

least most of them, you can't make out

6:51

their signature from ancient sanskript.

6:54

Here is Steve Mills on how bad the situation

6:56

actually was. At that time. He

6:58

was working for the league and was in charge

7:00

of special events for the Dream Team

7:03

and was a close confident of many of the

7:05

players. The biggest that

7:07

actually remember that I think almost blew

7:10

up the team was the issue

7:13

was sort of the literal actual with the usc UM

7:17

and was the first time when

7:20

there's same there as a woman I believe who

7:22

who was an act was an actuate but at a different

7:25

sport. It was one of the U s C at

7:27

the time, and came in and talked to the players

7:31

their marketing obligations and the things

7:33

they couldn't do and the

7:34

thing they could do. And

7:36

here's Barkley on the same subject. Was

7:40

they got angry at h Hey,

7:44

we came here, We're not getting

7:46

any money. And you

7:49

know, Clil Michael is the man at that point

7:51

as far as endorth a Golden night,

7:54

and we have a meeting and a

7:56

couple of representative like coming him like,

7:58

hey, don't be an asshole, like

8:02

you know how Michael, excuse me.

8:05

See, the Dream teamers were supposed to get

8:07

some kind of share of all the revenue

8:09

pie and a playing salary, something

8:12

that added up to around seventy five

8:14

dollars to the best of anyone's memory.

8:17

In other words, pocket change, but hey,

8:20

pocket change his pocket change. I

8:22

tore my car apart the other day looking for seventy

8:25

eight cents. But in step

8:27

the ultimate diplomat, Dave Gabbett, who

8:29

himself had been armed twisted to get the players

8:32

to give up that money for the good of the

8:34

country and the coffers of USA

8:36

basketball. Here's Larry Bird. Dave

8:39

came to me with the idea and get

8:41

out of here, you're crazy. Just more

8:43

Bertie, and went through the whole

8:45

fame, and he talked

8:48

to Magic. Of course Magic Sill's

8:50

Larry doing it. And he

8:52

went to Michael, Michael, I'm in, and

8:54

he went the other guys, and Day came to me today,

8:57

we're okay, enough enough,

8:59

let's it away from business and talk about what else

9:02

was going on in Portland. A great

9:04

introductory party by Nike for one

9:06

thing. I brought along my wife and two

9:08

sons who were fifteen and twelve, a

9:10

great fan age, and introduced

9:13

them around to the point that I wasn't being an ass

9:15

and as usual, got the best response from Charles

9:17

Barkley. You seem like nice

9:20

boys, Barkley said, putting his arm around him.

9:22

So with a father like you have, I would run

9:24

away right now. One

9:26

of the subplots was how nice this was for Clyde

9:28

Drexler, who was among the last

9:31

two Dream teamers picked and was only

9:33

a couple of weeks removed from getting

9:35

tortured by Jordan in the finals. No

9:37

matter how much he hated it, and he

9:40

hated it, Clyde could never

9:42

quite get passed being the poor

9:44

man's Michael Jordan's and his

9:46

team could never quite get past being

9:49

talented but not a closer. It

9:51

had started in the ninets against

9:54

the Pistons and was solidified

9:56

by the six game lost to the Bulls in ninety

9:58

two, and direct Or took endless

10:00

amounts of crap from his fellow Dream

10:03

teamers. Here's Bird, I feel

10:05

sorry for him some days in the basket sort

10:07

of telling played on the Dumas team.

10:10

Still, the team was tight. Relationships

10:12

were starting to build, the most unlikely

10:15

being a friendship between Bird and Patrick

10:17

Ewing. They were together so much

10:20

that the team started calling Ewing Harry

10:22

so they could brand them Harry and Larry.

10:25

In every single interview I did for the Dream

10:27

Team. Somebody brought this up. The

10:29

players got such a kick out of it.

10:32

It was in Portland, also that the real Alpha

10:34

Dog started a late night ritual of

10:36

a card game called Tunk, which

10:38

Barkley described as an old

10:40

Negro game from the South. The

10:43

main players were Barkley, Jordan's Magic,

10:45

and Pipping. So if there's any Tonk

10:47

fans out there, just think how great it would have been

10:49

to get in that game. Then again, you would

10:51

have needed to bring money, lots

10:53

of money.

11:05

In the dream Team second game, in the Tournament

11:07

of the America's Stockton and

11:10

Michael Jordan collided on a defensive

11:12

sequence, and though not many people

11:14

saw it, Stockton came away

11:16

with an undisplaced fracture of the

11:19

right fibula. Most everybody else

11:21

thought, well, so what, Stockton's great,

11:23

but the Dream Team hardly needs him. But Chuck

11:25

Daily, the Prince of Pessimism,

11:28

who was already imagining if he would have

11:30

to appear before Congress the Dream

11:32

Team lost a game, was worried

11:34

about the point guard position. Chuck

11:36

honestly wasn't sure that Magic could handle

11:39

the load alone, particularly

11:41

defensively ridiculous in

11:43

retrospective course, But and more,

11:46

much more than was made public, Chuck

11:48

really thought that Stockton should be replaced.

11:51

Just got the actually down to eating

11:53

us. He brought baplace.

11:57

Daily was even a little pissed at Stockton because

12:00

he clung to his spot. So Chuck

12:02

convened a meeting. Okay, at

12:04

dinner meeting at a great Italian restaurant

12:06

in Portland. Matt Dobek, his trusted

12:08

public relations man, was there, and

12:11

so was assistant p J. Car Lessimo, who

12:13

was in charge of restaurants. P J

12:16

was still is one of basketball's

12:18

great restaurant guys. You gotta

12:20

have guys that know every great restaurant, No,

12:22

every owner and major d at every

12:25

great restaurant. Anyway, the subject

12:27

of the meeting was should we replace

12:29

Stockton? And if we decide we should,

12:32

who are you going to call? Here's the late

12:34

Matt Dobek can make it work. We're going to

12:36

call Joe. How in

12:40

case you didn't get it, that Joe was

12:42

Joe Dumars. So there it was

12:45

the specter of Isaiah Thomas all over

12:47

again. Daily could not get out

12:49

from under it. And the best guest from

12:51

Matt, and he told me this before he died, was

12:54

that Chuck would have given the call to Joe Dumars,

12:57

not Isaiah Thomas Jordan

13:00

for one was watching these developments with

13:02

interest and some degree

13:04

of ankst. When doctor now,

13:07

I'm already committed ship.

13:11

You know, I checked into the saying anything to you know, idea,

13:15

you're gonna keep it the way it wants

13:18

to take. But he

13:20

came to do so, he had to leave it.

13:22

He had to keep stocking on the team even when it broke

13:24

legs to the place. Eventually,

13:27

Chuck decided to let it go, take the time

13:30

until Barcelona for Stockton to get better, And

13:32

I was glad. I love Dumars

13:34

as a player, as a person too,

13:36

but I'm glad it didn't happen. That would have just

13:39

been too cruel. Isaiah passed

13:41

over not once, but twice, and

13:44

for a teammate who really wasn't even a point

13:46

guard. And for Chuck it was actually

13:48

better from a playing time standpoint.

13:51

Since Bird's back was hurting so bad and

13:53

there were always other assorted injuries,

13:56

not having stocked and available at all made

13:58

it easier on daily to slide

14:01

players in and out. One more thing

14:03

about Isaiah, we never got along all that great.

14:06

He was one of the few people who turned down an interview

14:08

requests for the Dream Team book. He

14:10

told me not long ago at a Hall of Fame gathering

14:13

that he thought I had never treated him

14:15

or the Pistons fairly in print, but

14:17

then he shook my hand. I respected

14:20

him for that, and I respected the way

14:22

he handled the Dream Team snub. One

14:24

of the things he did around the time of the selection

14:26

process was called John Stockton's

14:29

father. Here is Stockton talking

14:31

about it. I think I should have been

14:33

and I was the clear artt I

14:35

guess you know what people thought. He knit

14:38

And in case you didn't

14:40

get it, at the end, there John said, and

14:43

he called my dad. That means Isaiah

14:45

Thomas called up John Stockton's

14:47

father. And when Stockton was

14:49

inducted into the Hall of Fame, incidentally,

14:52

the player he chose to walk up with him to

14:54

the stage was one Isaiah

14:56

Thomas. Okay,

15:07

is there anything else I've forgotten about Portland'? Oh? Yes.

15:10

There were actually other teams there, and

15:12

there were basketball games. For the

15:14

record, these were the other competitors,

15:17

in order of how they finished behind the

15:19

US were Venezuela, Brazil,

15:22

Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina,

15:25

Mexico, Panama, Cuba,

15:27

and Uruguay. It was a gas

15:29

interacting with the players on the other teams from

15:32

the beginning. They just seemed to get it. They

15:35

just understood that they were fodder for the

15:37

Dream Team stand ins, second

15:39

bananas, and they were fine with it. They

15:41

embraced it. They understood that when

15:43

the US played, it was less like a

15:45

traditional athletic competition and

15:48

more like free form theater with a set

15:50

ending. You were going to get your ass kicked,

15:52

but let's do some improv along

15:54

the way that we know why

15:57

we're here. Attitude was best exemplified

15:59

by Oscar Schmidt of Brazil.

16:02

You have to understand this, Oscar was a

16:04

legit player. He was the best

16:06

player in the tournament not on the Dream Team,

16:09

and at one point in his career several

16:11

years earlier, many scouts believe

16:13

that he was a legit NBA prospect.

16:16

And here was Oscar talking before the game,

16:18

and well, let's called his goals

16:21

for the Tournament of the Americas. For

16:23

Larry Party is my idold Michael Jordan,

16:26

Jason Solder, I would like to have all their

16:28

age. What a rallying

16:30

cry. Let's go get their autographs.

16:33

But look, we got it, we got it back then.

16:36

You weren't going to beat the Dream Team, So go with the flow,

16:38

enjoy the experience. I know

16:40

I did. The one moment that I remember

16:43

more than all others in that summer was

16:45

the first time the Dream Team ran

16:47

out together before the first game.

16:50

It was hard to explain then, it's kind of hard to

16:52

explain now, but everybody I talked to says

16:54

the same thing. Dick Ever Saw,

16:56

the president of NBC Sports back then,

16:59

was sitting in the stay ends with David Stern, and

17:01

he told me years later that he had

17:04

chills. I remember looking in the

17:06

stands and locating my sons and thinking, well,

17:09

whatever they will later hold against me, and let's

17:11

not go there. At least I got

17:13

them to this. We were all

17:15

curious who would come out first, who would

17:17

carry the flag, who would be in that first

17:20

starting lineup, And don't think

17:22

the players didn't think about it. Also, here's

17:24

Larry Bird, Scotty's

17:27

will start. You

17:29

know, it didn't matter Mary

17:33

started that first game. Yeah, that matter doesn't

17:35

matter. And as probably the

17:37

Vegas line would have had it, Magic

17:40

came out first carrying the flag. Bird

17:43

was second in line, and when

17:45

they hit the floor, the Cuban

17:47

team stopped practicing and

17:49

lined up to stare and take photos.

17:52

As with Oscar Schmidt, their goal

17:55

was not so much to play the game, but

17:57

to say that they were there. And

18:00

so the next step for the Dream Team

18:03

was a trip to Monte Carlo

18:05

before the Olympics. Hey, that's

18:07

where everyone goes to get in some grunt work,

18:09

right Monte Carlo. See you

18:11

next time, when I'll give you the deets behind the Immortal

18:14

inter Squad Scrimmage, the greatest

18:16

game nobody ever saw. Thanks

18:18

for listening. If

18:25

you enjoyed The Dream Team Tapes, please

18:27

follow, rate, and review wherever

18:29

you get your podcasts. The

18:31

Dream Team Tapes is written and hosted

18:34

by Jack McCallum. Executive

18:36

producers Mark Francis and

18:38

Scott Waxman, Executive

18:41

producer for I Heart Media, is shown

18:43

to turn. The Dream

18:45

Team Tapes is a Diversion Podcasts

18:47

original series in association

18:50

with I Heart Radio. For

18:52

more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

18:55

visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple

18:57

Podcasts, or wherever you

18:59

listen into your favorite shows.