WEBVTT - The Once and Future King 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:04.120 This is the Dream Team Tapes, a Diversion Podcasts original 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:10.879 series in association with I Heart Radio. This is the 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.640 story of the United States Olympic basketball team that won 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:24.040 gold in Barcelona, known worldwide as the Dream Team. Welcome 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:27.600 to episode five of the Dream Team Tapes. I'm Jack McCallum. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:29.880 We have moved from San Diego, where the Dream Team 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.960 completed a week of practice, and on to Portland, Oregon, 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.239 for something called the Tournament of the Americas, where the 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:39.839 US team had to qualify for the Olympics. Portland was 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:41.960 the capital of the basketball world in the summer of 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:46.360 their beloved Blazers took the Jordan's Bulls to six games. 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.640 The NBA Draft that produced Shaquille O'Neal and Christian Latner, 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.000 the two college stars who were the only players considered 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.000 to join the Dream Team from college, was held there 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.240 ten days after the finals ended, and then the Dream 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:04.160 Team arrived for their first official public demonstration of well 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.200 worldwide dominance. I would venture to say that all of 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.280 us who were around for the weeks of action in 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.600 Portland had a great time in that great city. It 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.480 was an excellent series. It included the famous Jordan's shrug 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.080 game in Chicago, when he hit six first half three pointers, 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.160 the majority of them on Clyde Drexler, and at one 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.319 point just shrugged the Magic Johnson, who was courtside on 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:30.640 the broadcast team, as if to say, hell, I can't 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.800 explain it either. The draft was pretty interesting too. After 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.399 the Minnesota Timberwolves selected late number three, there was a 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:43.080 chorus of booze, which prompted Laterner's mother, Bonnie, a sometimes 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.680 outspoken woman who like so many moms, loved her son 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.760 and wanted to protect him, blurted out to the press, 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.360 huh that was the fifty family and friends Shakiel took 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:57.320 with him to Portland. Christian wasn't happy with her. Hey, 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:00.120 we've all been there at one time or another. All 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.480 other things about Portland's It had one of the great 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.520 all time bookstores, Pals and the peaceful Willamet River, and 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:10.280 one of the all time great bars, the veritable Quandre 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.720 hang out for the media who had covered the NBA 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.640 Finals and hung around to cover the Dream Team. You 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:19.000 went into the VQ, you ordered a craft beer, and 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.560 the bartenders would put on anything you asked. For one night, 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:26.040 it was Stevie Ray Vaughan. One of the overlooked blues immortals. 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.440 Stevie Ray has gone now a helicopter crash in Wisconsin 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:34.000 in n hours after he and his band had opened 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.359 a show for Eric Clapton and a loss. So is 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:42.320 the veritable quandary, a victim of market forces. Nihil st 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.560 at tarranum, nothing last forever. I'm not sure what a 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.440 Latin accent should sound like, but that was probably not 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:54.200 a good one. So why were we in Portland? Well, 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.639 as I said earlier, the Americans had to qualify since 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:00.760 they had finished third in and the qualifier been scheduled 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.560 for March in Brazil, in other words, at a time 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.840 when the NBA season was still going on. So the 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.800 NBA and USA Basketball arm twisted FIBA into a schedule 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.399 change and bought the broadcast rights for somewhere around four 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.920 million dollars from a Brazilian who owned them and re 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:22.520 christened the thing the Tournament of the Americas. Now. The 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.239 money for the broadcast was put up by the United 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:29.600 States Olympic Committee, which had a surplus from the Olympics 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:33.000 in Los Angeles, which was quite possibly the last games 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.840 that made economic sense for a host country. The U 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.120 s O c resented it. They were not accustomed to 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:43.680 putting up money for millionaire professional athletes, and that resentment 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.520 would prove to be a subplot in Portland's that would 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:51.720 continue through Barcelona because initially, all I say that, you know, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:54.040 I don't want to be a part of this whole business. 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:55.720 You know, I played a game for the game, for 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.320 the batch you had that was totally against profession basketball 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.080 to was playing because I knew the business despect there 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.160 was coming around. Yeah, and it is hard to get 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:08.760 the true deliberic experience and you're sitting there were about 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.480 everybody's making money and you gotta you know, you gotta 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.920 please this guy, you know, please his company. Yet it 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:19.440 may not be the same line to what a contract. Okay, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.320 irony alert here Jordan, who at that time was earning 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.320 about thirty five million dollars in endorsements and is still, 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.040 by the way, earning about a hundred and forty five 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.359 million dollars even though he hasn't played since two thousand 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:36.080 and three, talking about the unpleasantness of mixing business and basketball. 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.480 But Jordan's and most of the other Dream teamers felt 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.440 for the first time in Portland's how many fingers were 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.320 reaching into the pie, and Jordan's didn't really need the 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:50.240 Olympics for exposure the way other players might have. It's 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.560 not like his profile wasn't amplified by the Dream Team experience, 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:58.279 but it wasn't a major consideration. Here's David Falk, Jordan's 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.440 Asian at the time, and the and largely responsible for 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:07.080 creating the Jordan's marketing monster back in you know, gave 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.960 him a broader stage and probably set the tone maybe 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.120 for moving into other markets, you know, brand Jordan's later 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:16.320 on down the road. But he didn't do it for 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.240 marketing reasons. I think they've even enter to the egration. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.240 I knew that it would have a you know, positive impact, 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.360 but not a not a major impact. For months, there 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.520 had been pitched, behind the scenes battles among sponsors and 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.159 retailers trying to make official deals with the NBA to 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.360 make money off these guys. And these weren't exactly junior 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.320 varsity companies. They were companies like A T and T, 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:43.719 Coca Cola, McDonald's, and Visa. The stakes were enormously high. 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.200 The real battles took place over whose likeness could be 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.920 put on what product. Remember that all these guys, but Jordan's, Magic, 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:55.280 Barkley and Bird in particular, had all kinds of endorsement 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.920 deals and contracts themselves. What would they be violating by 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:02.440 wearing or endorsed s a uso C sanctioned product that 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.880 was in competition with one of their personal sponsors? To wit, 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:13.400 what Jordan's Mr Nike tacitly endorsed reebak Ah. Jordan and 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.960 his agent David Falk thought they had a deal worked 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.239 out that would take care of it. But the deal, 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:21.960 in the immortal words of William Goldman, the great Hollywood screenwriter, 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.680 was apparently set, just not set set. We'll see how 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.200 that plays out. In Barcelona, the players were astounded at 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:35.599 what their responsibilities were, particularly in the area of signing basketballs. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.159 A couple of them told me they signed literally thousands 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.200 of balls because each deal seemed to come accompanied by 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.400 signing basketballs, which always struck me as crazy because if 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.920 you've seen a pro athletes sign at least most of them, 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:54.520 you can't make out their signature from ancient sanskript. Here 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.320 is Steve Mills on how bad the situation actually was. 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.159 At that time. He was working for the league and 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.120 was in charge of special events for the Dream Team 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.719 and was a close confident of many of the players. 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.920 The biggest that actually remember that I think almost blew 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:14.160 up the team was the issue was sort of the 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:18.120 literal actual with the usc UM and was the first 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:22.160 time when there's same there as a woman I believe 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:24.600 who who was an act was an actuate but at 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.440 a different sport. It was one of the U s 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.040 C at the time, and came in and talked to 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:33.960 the players their marketing obligations and the things they couldn't 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.480 do and the thing they could do. And here's Barkley 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:43.960 on the same subject. Was they got angry at h Hey, 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:49.400 we came here, We're not getting any money. And you know, 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.760 Clil Michael is the man at that point as far 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.680 as endorth a Golden night, and we have a meeting 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.880 and a couple of representative like coming him like, hey, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:05.520 don't be an asshole, like you know how Michael, excuse me. See, 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.040 the Dream teamers were supposed to get some kind of 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.360 share of all the revenue pie and a playing salary, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.520 something that added up to around seventy five dollars to 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:19.240 the best of anyone's memory. In other words, pocket change, 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:23.120 but hey, pocket change his pocket change. I tore my 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:25.640 car apart the other day looking for seventy eight cents. 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.160 But in step the ultimate diplomat, Dave Gabbett, who himself 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.880 had been armed twisted to get the players to give 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.520 up that money for the good of the country and 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:39.520 the coffers of USA basketball. Here's Larry Bird. Dave came 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:41.920 to me with the idea and get out of here, 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:46.080 you're crazy. Just more Bertie, and went through the whole fame, 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.520 and he talked to Magic. Of course Magic Sill's Larry 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.920 doing it. And he went to Michael, Michael, I'm in, 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.200 and he went the other guys, and Day came to 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.520 me today, we're okay, enough enough, let's it away from 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:03.280 business and talk about what else was going on in Portland. 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.320 A great introductory party by Nike for one thing. I 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:09.840 brought along my wife and two sons who were fifteen 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:13.520 and twelve, a great fan age, and introduced them around 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:15.520 to the point that I wasn't being an ass and 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.200 as usual, got the best response from Charles Barkley. You 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.120 seem like nice boys, Barkley said, putting his arm around him. 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:24.600 So with a father like you have, I would run 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:28.040 away right now. One of the subplots was how nice 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.000 this was for Clyde Drexler, who was among the last 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.680 two Dream teamers picked and was only a couple of 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.160 weeks removed from getting tortured by Jordan in the finals. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.679 No matter how much he hated it, and he hated it, 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.880 Clyde could never quite get passed being the poor man's 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.839 Michael Jordan's and his team could never quite get past 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:52.520 being talented but not a closer. It had started in 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.480 the ninets against the Pistons and was solidified by the 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.480 six game lost to the Bulls in ninety two, and 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.640 direct Or took endless amounts of crap from his fellow 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.840 Dream teamers. Here's Bird, I feel sorry for him some 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.360 days in the basket sort of telling played on the 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:13.440 Dumas team. Still, the team was tight. Relationships were starting 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.880 to build, the most unlikely being a friendship between Bird 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:20.320 and Patrick Ewing. They were together so much that the 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.800 team started calling Ewing Harry so they could brand them 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.040 Harry and Larry. In every single interview I did for 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.440 the Dream Team. Somebody brought this up. The players got 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.000 such a kick out of it. It was in Portland, 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.680 also that the real Alpha Dog started a late night 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.679 ritual of a card game called Tunk, which Barkley described 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:43.280 as an old Negro game from the South. The main 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:47.040 players were Barkley, Jordan's Magic, and Pipping. So if there's 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.199 any Tonk fans out there, just think how great it 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.360 would have been to get in that game. Then again, 0:10:51.400 --> 0:11:04.160 you would have needed to bring money, lots of money. 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.040 In the dream Team second game, in the Tournament of 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.840 the America's Stockton and Michael Jordan collided on a defensive sequence, 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.880 and though not many people saw it, Stockton came away 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.880 with an undisplaced fracture of the right fibula. Most everybody 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.920 else thought, well, so what, Stockton's great, but the Dream 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:28.240 Team hardly needs him. But Chuck Daily, the Prince of Pessimism, 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:30.880 who was already imagining if he would have to appear 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.679 before Congress the Dream Team lost a game, was worried 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.200 about the point guard position. Chuck honestly wasn't sure that 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:43.560 Magic could handle the load alone, particularly defensively ridiculous in 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.800 retrospective course, But and more, much more than was made public, 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:52.079 Chuck really thought that Stockton should be replaced. Just got 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:58.280 the actually down to eating us. He brought baplace. Daily 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:00.600 was even a little pissed at Stockton because he clung 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:04.480 to his spot. So Chuck convened a meeting. Okay, at 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.280 dinner meeting at a great Italian restaurant in Portland. Matt Dobek, 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.400 his trusted public relations man, was there, and so was 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:15.120 assistant p J. Car Lessimo, who was in charge of restaurants. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.480 P J was still is one of basketball's great restaurant guys. 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:22.800 You gotta have guys that know every great restaurant, No, 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.760 every owner and major d at every great restaurant. Anyway, 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:29.800 the subject of the meeting was should we replace Stockton? 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.480 And if we decide we should, who are you going 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.880 to call? Here's the late Matt Dobek can make it work. 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:40.839 We're going to call Joe. How in case you didn't 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:44.520 get it, that Joe was Joe Dumars. So there it 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.280 was the specter of Isaiah Thomas all over again. Daily 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.760 could not get out from under it. And the best 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.199 guest from Matt, and he told me this before he died, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.760 was that Chuck would have given the call to Joe Dumars, 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:02.040 not Isaiah Thomas Jordan for one was watching these developments 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:07.800 with interest and some degree of ankst. When doctor now, 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:12.360 I'm already committed ship. You know, I checked into the 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:16.319 saying anything to you know, idea, you're gonna keep it 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.480 the way it wants to take. But he came to 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.000 do so, he had to leave it. He had to 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:25.160 keep stocking on the team even when it broke legs 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.040 to the place. Eventually, Chuck decided to let it go, 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.960 take the time until Barcelona for Stockton to get better, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.920 And I was glad. I love Dumars as a player, 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.160 as a person too, but I'm glad it didn't happen. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.600 That would have just been too cruel. Isaiah passed over 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.439 not once, but twice, and for a teammate who really 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.120 wasn't even a point guard. And for Chuck it was 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.200 actually better from a playing time standpoint. Since Bird's back 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:56.080 was hurting so bad and there were always other assorted injuries, 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.640 not having stocked and available at all made it easier 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.160 on daily to slide players in and out. One more 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:05.360 thing about Isaiah, we never got along all that great. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:07.800 He was one of the few people who turned down 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.920 an interview requests for the Dream Team book. He told 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:12.960 me not long ago at a Hall of Fame gathering 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:15.760 that he thought I had never treated him or the 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.920 Pistons fairly in print, but then he shook my hand. 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.280 I respected him for that, and I respected the way 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.280 he handled the Dream Team snub. One of the things 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.960 he did around the time of the selection process was 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.880 called John Stockton's father. Here is Stockton talking about it. 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.520 I think I should have been and I was the 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.560 clear artt I guess you know what people thought. He 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.760 knit And in case you didn't get it, at the end, 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.280 there John said, and he called my dad. That means 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.680 Isaiah Thomas called up John Stockton's father. And when Stockton 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.000 was inducted into the Hall of Fame, incidentally, the player 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.120 he chose to walk up with him to the stage 0:14:55.960 --> 0:15:08.680 was one Isaiah Thomas. Okay, is there anything else I've 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.000 forgotten about Portland'? Oh? Yes. There were actually other teams there, 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.640 and there were basketball games. For the record, these were 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.280 the other competitors, in order of how they finished behind 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:27.360 the US were Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.960 and Uruguay. It was a gas interacting with the players 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:33.960 on the other teams from the beginning. They just seemed 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.920 to get it. They just understood that they were fodder 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.800 for the Dream Team stand ins, second bananas, and they 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.560 were fine with it. They embraced it. They understood that 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.440 when the US played, it was less like a traditional 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:50.200 athletic competition and more like free form theater with a 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.640 set ending. You were going to get your ass kicked, 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.560 but let's do some improv along the way that we 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.920 know why we're here. Attitude was best exemplified by Oscar 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.960 Schmidt of Brazil. You have to understand this, Oscar was 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.880 a legit player. He was the best player in the 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.760 tournament not on the Dream Team, and at one point 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.520 in his career several years earlier, many scouts believe that 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.280 he was a legit NBA prospect. And here was Oscar 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.120 talking before the game, and well, let's called his goals 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.080 for the Tournament of the Americas. For Larry Party is 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.560 my idold Michael Jordan, Jason Solder, I would like to 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.680 have all their age. What a rallying cry. Let's go 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.240 get their autographs. But look, we got it, we got 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:37.320 it back then. You weren't going to beat the Dream Team, 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.680 So go with the flow, enjoy the experience. I know 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.400 I did. The one moment that I remember more than 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.000 all others in that summer was the first time the 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.280 Dream Team ran out together before the first game. It 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.200 was hard to explain then, it's kind of hard to 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.360 explain now, but everybody I talked to says the same thing. 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.120 Dick Ever Saw, the president of NBC Sports back then, 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.720 was sitting in the stay ends with David Stern, and 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.280 he told me years later that he had chills. I 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.560 remember looking in the stands and locating my sons and thinking, well, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:11.840 whatever they will later hold against me, and let's not 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.560 go there. At least I got them to this. We 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:17.920 were all curious who would come out first, who would 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.080 carry the flag, who would be in that first starting lineup, 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.159 And don't think the players didn't think about it. Also, 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:30.960 here's Larry Bird, Scotty's will start. You know, it didn't 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.640 matter Mary started that first game. Yeah, that matter doesn't matter. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:38.800 And as probably the Vegas line would have had it, 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.720 Magic came out first carrying the flag. Bird was second 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.360 in line, and when they hit the floor, the Cuban 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:52.280 team stopped practicing and lined up to stare and take photos. 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.720 As with Oscar Schmidt, their goal was not so much 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.960 to play the game, but to say that they were there. 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:03.239 And so the next step for the Dream Team was 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.480 a trip to Monte Carlo before the Olympics. Hey, that's 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.880 where everyone goes to get in some grunt work, right 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.840 Monte Carlo. See you next time, when I'll give you 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.760 the deets behind the Immortal inter Squad Scrimmage, the greatest 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:25.679 game nobody ever saw. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.360 The Dream Team Tapes, please follow, rate, and review wherever 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:33.520 you get your podcasts. The Dream Team Tapes is written 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:38.800 and hosted by Jack McCallum. Executive producers Mark Francis and 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:43.480 Scott Waxman, Executive producer for I Heart Media, is shown 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.760 to turn. The Dream Team Tapes is a Diversion Podcasts 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:52.880 original series in association with I Heart Radio. For more 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.880 podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:01.280 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen into your favorite shows.