By Brandon Zhu
On this day in 1991, USA Basketball announced the “Dream Team” for the 1992 Olympics. The team consisted of Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, John Stockton, Clyde Drexler, and Christian Laettner. The Dream Team marked the first time NBA players were allowed to compete on the international stage. All 11 NBA stars took advantage of the new platform to dominate the competition. The superstar team defeated opponents by an average of 44 points and embarrassed other teams by as much as 79 points. In the game against Angola, Team USA went on a ridiculous 46-1 run. The only point scored by Angola came off a free throw by Herlander Coimbra, who later remarked “those guys were on another level a galaxy far far away.” The Dream Team went on to win all eight games and defeated Croatia to win the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics. In 2010 the Dream Team itself was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame.