Speaker 1: This is The Dream Team Tapes, a Diversion Podcasts original
Speaker 1: series in association with I Heart Radio. This is the
Speaker 1: story of the United States Olympic basketball team that won
Speaker 1: gold in Barcelona in known worldwide as the Dream Team.
Speaker 1: Millions of Americans own a personal computer. If you're one
Speaker 1: of them, you can now glimpse the future with nothing
Speaker 1: more than a modem, a phone line, and a few
Speaker 1: dollars a month mark with the A and then the
Speaker 1: ring around it. At see, that's what I said, um
Speaker 1: Case said she thought it was about yeah, but I've
Speaker 1: never heard it. I've never heard it said, but never
Speaker 1: heard it said. And then it sounded stupid what I
Speaker 1: said at violence at NBC. So why did I choose
Speaker 1: to open episode three of The Dream Team Tapes by
Speaker 1: making fun of Briant Gumble, Katie Couric, and Elizabeth Fargas,
Speaker 1: all of whom are infinitely more famous than I onsode
Speaker 1: of the Today Show. Beyond the fact, of course that
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. Now, let me note that
Speaker 1: the first time I had a flip phone, I got
Speaker 1: thirty seven calls before I found out you had to
Speaker 1: actually flip the phone open to answer them. So maybe
Speaker 1: I'm not the guy to be making fun here, But
Speaker 1: I have a point. Twenty eight years after the Dream
Speaker 1: Team began to be put together, one of my most
Speaker 1: vivid memories was how, for want of a better word,
Speaker 1: quietly it all came together. That's the only description I
Speaker 1: would give to the manner in which the news was
Speaker 1: received that pros could now play in the Olympics. Why
Speaker 1: was that? Well, we must resort to the obvious here first,
Speaker 1: the absence of social media the Bryant Katie Elizabeth video.
Speaker 1: Remember was even a few years after the news of
Speaker 1: the Dream Team, there was zero social media and only
Speaker 1: daily newspapers and magazines like Sports Illustrated. The Olympic news
Speaker 1: is not big news. Had something similar happened today, the
Speaker 1: Internet would have blown up within an hour. Every hoops
Speaker 1: fan in America with a keyboard would have had his
Speaker 1: or her dream team selected. So in December, now this
Speaker 1: is nine months before the team would be announced, I
Speaker 1: had an idea that why don't I pick my starting
Speaker 1: five if these guys were to play in the Olympics.
Speaker 1: It was all presented as a hypothetical. We could take
Speaker 1: a photo at the All Star Game in Charlotte in
Speaker 1: February put it on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and
Speaker 1: that would save me writing about the All Star Game,
Speaker 1: about which there was usually nothing to write except how
Speaker 1: bad the defense is and ladies and gentlemen. Honestly, that
Speaker 1: was the beginning of the real interest in the Dream Team,
Speaker 1: and in fact, i'll tell you later how it got
Speaker 1: its name. But something else was going on in relative
Speaker 1: secret at that time, the decision about who was going
Speaker 1: to coach these guys. Here's Chuck Daily. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe I was a little far along in my career
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know, there's so many qualified people
Speaker 1: out there that I really didn't give it a lot
Speaker 1: of thought. Someone mentioned it to me and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know that I would fit into that category
Speaker 1: or not. But I said, nice, you know that people
Speaker 1: are mentioning my name and Matt Dobeck part of just
Speaker 1: your background of being optimistic. She never really enjoyed the
Speaker 1: stuff that the accomptant. You know, even lot with that
Speaker 1: because you're so worried about what I said, Joe, I
Speaker 1: get a little sad when I hear those voices for
Speaker 1: both men are gone now. The first voice belonged to
Speaker 1: Chuck Daily, who died of cancer in two thousand nine.
Speaker 1: Our interview is from Barcelona, in the middle of the Olympics.
Speaker 1: The other voice is Matt Dobek, who was the pistons
Speaker 1: long time public relations man. Matt took his own life
Speaker 1: a little over a year after Chuck died. I'm not
Speaker 1: suggesting the events were connected, but I'm not suggesting they
Speaker 1: weren't connected either. See Chuck and Matt were as close
Speaker 1: as any coach and PR man could ever be. I'm
Speaker 1: not as familiar with those relationships in other sports, but
Speaker 1: in pro basketball the relationship between the coach and the
Speaker 1: PR person is extremely important to the health of the team.
Speaker 1: See the coaches like the CEO of a large corporation,
Speaker 1: except that he's responsible to the media and fans on
Speaker 1: a daily basis. The PR person is the one charged
Speaker 1: with running interference, trying to decide when the coach should talk,
Speaker 1: when he should stay quiet, and when he should well,
Speaker 1: if not outright, lie then obfuscate. So on Valentine's Day,
Speaker 1: Charles Jerome Daily was named coach of the Dream Team.
Speaker 1: In keeping with that quiet theme I had talked about,
Speaker 1: nobody paid all that much attention and there was very
Speaker 1: little ceremony attached to the announcement. I wouldn't say Chuck
Speaker 1: was a unanimous choice, but he was certainly a popular one.
Speaker 1: Pat Riley and Don Nelson seemed the other possible choices,
Speaker 1: but in their own way, they had something against them.
Speaker 1: Nelly was a little squirrelly. You never knew what he
Speaker 1: was gonna say or what he was gonna do. For
Speaker 1: that matter, pat was a great coach, but he was
Speaker 1: way way into that my way or the highway thing.
Speaker 1: By that time, the powers that be knew that they
Speaker 1: needed a diplomat as well as a great coach, somebody
Speaker 1: who wouldn't go nuclear with all the extracurricular demands that
Speaker 1: would come with coaching the Dream Team. Plus there was
Speaker 1: this from Charles Barkley, Chuck coach the bad boy Pistons.
Speaker 1: Charles said, on more than one occasion, you coach those assholes,
Speaker 1: you can coach anybody. Chuck never seemed to take himself
Speaker 1: too seriously. It was a great Boston writer, Bob Ryan,
Speaker 1: who hung the sobriquet the Prince of Pessimism on Chuck
Speaker 1: because he would always find the gloomy side to anything,
Speaker 1: but at the same time a wry smile was never
Speaker 1: far from his face. You know me any money, he
Speaker 1: used to say as he gripped your hand in a greeting.
Speaker 1: And when Chuck would give out a cell phone, he
Speaker 1: ended up by saying the first six numbers and then
Speaker 1: Rodman Sally. That's because the final four numbers were ten
Speaker 1: and twenty two, the jersey numbers of Dennis Rodman and
Speaker 1: John Sally. Now, when Chuck's decision was announced on that
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day in one, you have to understand what was
Speaker 1: going on in the NBA that season. Daly's Pistons, the
Speaker 1: bad Boys as everyone called them, or the a holes
Speaker 1: as Charles called them, were the two time defending champions,
Speaker 1: having disposed of the Lakers in nine and the Trailblazers
Speaker 1: in but their meter had clearly expired. They were old
Speaker 1: and injured, and almost everyone figured correctly as it turned out,
Speaker 1: that Jordan's and Pippin's bulls would overtake them. But Daly
Speaker 1: was still the man the committee wanted, and in retrospect,
Speaker 1: it's hard to imagine the Dream Team without Chuck. One
Speaker 1: of my regrets is that he died in two thousand
Speaker 1: nine before I got a chance to interview him. Chuck
Speaker 1: was happy to get the job, of course, but right
Speaker 1: away he knew he was in a tough position. Matt
Speaker 1: Dobek knew it right away too, because he told me.
Speaker 1: Though no players had been selected for the team, Chuck
Speaker 1: knew in his heart of hearts that selling his captain,
Speaker 1: Isaiah Thomas to the committee would be difficult because of
Speaker 1: some of the poisonous relationships that Isaiah had built up
Speaker 1: over the years. Bill lamb, Or, Isaiah's teammate and best friend,
Speaker 1: pointed out correctly that had the Dream Team decisions been
Speaker 1: made a year or two earlier, when the Pistons were
Speaker 1: the kings of the NBA, it would have been harder
Speaker 1: to keep Isaiah off of it. You have to remember
Speaker 1: that Isaiah stirred up a lot of this stuff himself,
Speaker 1: including the time he agreed with Dennis Rodman after Robin
Speaker 1: made that much remembered statement that Larry Bird was overrated.
Speaker 1: But let's unpack that a little bit. It occurred right
Speaker 1: after Isaiah had made a bone headed pass that led
Speaker 1: to a bird steel that led to a bird pass
Speaker 1: that led to a Dennis Johnson basket that eventually led
Speaker 1: to the Celtics beating the Pistons and making the finals.
Speaker 1: In seven, Isaiah was in an overheated Boston Garden visitors
Speaker 1: locker room, which is exactly how the Celtics used to
Speaker 1: keep the visitor's locker room. And what Isaiah actually said was,
Speaker 1: Larry Bird is an exceptional talent, but I have to
Speaker 1: agree with Dennis. If he was black, he'd be just
Speaker 1: another good guy. Now that's a little different than just
Speaker 1: outright dissing Bird. And it was a theme that Isaiah
Speaker 1: and other black players as well used to say, and
Speaker 1: that was how much more attention great or outstanding white
Speaker 1: players got than their black counterparts. Isaiah just happened to
Speaker 1: pick the wrong guy to say it about. At any rate,
Speaker 1: it's an absolute certainty that in today's Twitter climate, Isaiah
Speaker 1: would have gotten a lot more support. At the very least,
Speaker 1: it would have been a viral blow up for a
Speaker 1: few hours. So no matter what you heard, there was
Speaker 1: never much of a chance for Isaiah thomas to make
Speaker 1: the Dream Team. For this reason, mainly, Michael Jordan's did
Speaker 1: not want him. I wrote that back because a source
Speaker 1: close to the situation, no not Jordan himself, told me
Speaker 1: that was the case. But Jordan's reaction to the question
Speaker 1: did you keep Isaiah off the team was either angry no,
Speaker 1: dismissive no Isaiah questions please, or coy hey, I didn't
Speaker 1: pick the team. So when I went to interview Jordan
Speaker 1: for the Dream Team book in two thousand eleven, I
Speaker 1: wondered how I would nudge conversation over to Isaiah Thomas.
Speaker 1: But against all odds, Jordan went there himself suddenly and
Speaker 1: without warning, and nickols me to ask me the book
Speaker 1: Robin calls, who are will to play Isaiah Thomas? Here's here?
Speaker 1: He said. You know what chucked asia going to be
Speaker 1: if you didn't hear he said, I don't want to
Speaker 1: play if Isaiah Thomas is on the team. Now much
Speaker 1: has been made is still being made about how one
Speaker 1: player should not have had the power to keep another
Speaker 1: off the team, and further how USA basketball officials, the
Speaker 1: late David Stern, Dave Gavitt, whoever, should not have listened
Speaker 1: to one man and they should have said, I you, Michael,
Speaker 1: we're taking Isaiah, to which I always say police. In
Speaker 1: the year of Our Lord, there was no one who
Speaker 1: was going to pick Isaiah Thomas over Michael Jordan's It's
Speaker 1: that simple. Plus, the case could be made that John
Speaker 1: stocked him by that point, was as good as Isaiah Thomas. Personally,
Speaker 1: I would not make that argument. At their best, Isaiah
Speaker 1: was better than John. But when you factor in everything,
Speaker 1: including the Jordan factor and team chemistry, that doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: add up to Isaiah having a deserving place on the team.
Speaker 1: A final note on the Isaiah story. When the team
Speaker 1: was finally selected and announced in September, Magic Johnson released
Speaker 1: the following statement, I sincerely hope the selection committee awards
Speaker 1: one of the final two remaining roster positions to Isaiah.
Speaker 1: I say this not because Isaiah as my friend, but
Speaker 1: because I believe he will assist the team in winning
Speaker 1: the gold medal. Oh my god, what a bunch of crap.
Speaker 1: As it evolved years later, Magic and Isaiah were already
Speaker 1: on the outs. Magic didn't want Isaiah on the team either,
Speaker 1: and he could have been considered Isaiah's greatest ally. Now,
Speaker 1: by the time Chuck Daly was announced as the coach,
Speaker 1: several players had already expressed interest in playing in Barcelona,
Speaker 1: specifically Malone Barkley, Ewing and Magic. But heartening back to
Speaker 1: the beginning of the podcast. There hadn't been much buzz
Speaker 1: about it, so many people just did not think it
Speaker 1: was going to happen after fifty years of amateur players
Speaker 1: representing our country. So I had the idea to do
Speaker 1: this story, this kind of hypothetical story about what the
Speaker 1: team might look like. And I started with Magic and
Speaker 1: he said, no way, I'm doing this if you're not
Speaker 1: picking Larry. I said, well, I would pick Larry. I
Speaker 1: told Magic, but I don't think he's going to play,
Speaker 1: which was the truth. You gotta check with the Magic said,
Speaker 1: and I did. And this is Bird years later talking
Speaker 1: about it. One thing I didn't want to do is
Speaker 1: go over there and not go to at all and
Speaker 1: take away the chance with somebody else to have. Bird's
Speaker 1: back was hurting, and he was legitimately concerned that he
Speaker 1: was too old to go to Barcelona. He was just
Speaker 1: trying to get through the season and coax the Celtics
Speaker 1: to another finals, which even he knew was not going
Speaker 1: to happen. So after I reported back to Magic, he said, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm in. I eventually rounded up Jordan's. He took some convincing,
Speaker 1: of course, because he was Jordan's and he still hadn't
Speaker 1: officially committed to the team, and I also rounded up
Speaker 1: Patrick Ewing, Kr Malone and Charles Barkley. They were my
Speaker 1: choice for a starting lineup as long as Bird said
Speaker 1: he was not playing. Now, why you Ing over David Robinson?
Speaker 1: Tell you the truth, I really don't know. To this day,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who I would take in his prime.
Speaker 1: Perhaps Robinson for his all around athleticism, but there was
Speaker 1: something about Ewing's indomitable spirit. Anyway, this took a lot
Speaker 1: of arranging and a lot of secret maneuvering, and when
Speaker 1: we tried to move the five guys into a separate
Speaker 1: room to take a shot during a break in the
Speaker 1: All Star hullabaloo, all hell broke. Loose fans were banging
Speaker 1: on the door. After we somehow managed to get the
Speaker 1: guys in there. I had arranged for my two sons
Speaker 1: to be in the room to hand out the swag
Speaker 1: bags to the players, and they were wide eyed astonished
Speaker 1: the crush of people trying to get into the room.
Speaker 1: My sons, by the way, are both over forty now
Speaker 1: and they still have the polaroids. You know the definition
Speaker 1: of a swag bag. By the way, it's good he's
Speaker 1: given to people who are so rich that they should
Speaker 1: be the ones handing out the swag bags. That's certainly
Speaker 1: what Christopher thought on The Sopranos when he robs learned Bacall.
Speaker 1: That's the Lauren Bacall to grab her swag bag as
Speaker 1: Lauren lets loose with a barrage of f bombs. Great
Speaker 1: Sopranos omen Anyway, right before we're ready to take the
Speaker 1: photo into the room, bursts Russ Grannick, who was the
Speaker 1: Deputy Commissioner of the NBA at the time, David Stearn's
Speaker 1: right hand man, and I mean he was pissed. We
Speaker 1: haven't cleared this. We haven't cleared this. He kept yelling,
Speaker 1: which I guess was technically true, meaning that we hadn't
Speaker 1: cleared it with the NBA. We finally talked Russ off
Speaker 1: the ledge and took the photo. Russ is, by the way,
Speaker 1: one of the great guys in NBA history. When the
Speaker 1: cover photo came out, it wasn't a way kind of hokey,
Speaker 1: but the five stars were holding replicas of the Olympic
Speaker 1: rings and the power them together, and it just released
Speaker 1: some kind of energy. I wrote the story that weekend
Speaker 1: and I began it this way. It's a red, white
Speaker 1: and blue dream. The five players who graced this week's
Speaker 1: cover playing together determined to restore America's lost basketball dignity
Speaker 1: in the Olympic Games in bars Lona. What's the chances
Speaker 1: of this dream coming true? Not bad? Not bad at all?
Speaker 1: And then there was just the cover line that said
Speaker 1: dream Team. From that moment on, everything changed. Dream Teams
Speaker 1: started to become a thing. There began to be stories
Speaker 1: written about it. Who's going to be on the Dream Team?
Speaker 1: Who's not a dream teamer? Okay, Magic's on board, Patrick's excited,
Speaker 1: The Mailman's all in. Chris Mullen, I didn't even think
Speaker 1: about he said, I'm in. Scottie Pippen surprised at the nod,
Speaker 1: but put me down. We had a name. It seemed
Speaker 1: like reality. The dream Team. Now, let's consider the inclusion
Speaker 1: of one Charles Wade Barkley. At the end of episode two,
Speaker 1: I played you a clip of Charles talking about how
Speaker 1: he was one of the first five players picked because
Speaker 1: he had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Uh
Speaker 1: not the case. Charles was no lock for a variety
Speaker 1: of reasons, this being one of them. But in March,
Speaker 1: Barkley did something truly outrageous, even for him. Barkley's Sixers
Speaker 1: were playing the New Jersey Nets in a hard fought
Speaker 1: regular season game. A Nets fan in the front row
Speaker 1: had allegedly been heckling him all night, and eventually Barkley
Speaker 1: snapped in the fourth quarter during a stop and play.
Speaker 1: Barkley spit in the fans general direction, only it hit
Speaker 1: a little girl instead. Now a couple of things here. First,
Speaker 1: there was no allegedly about Charles being heckled. He was
Speaker 1: being heckled, fat ass and all that. I don't know
Speaker 1: if there was a racial component, but of course he
Speaker 1: shouldn't have snapped, and of course he didn't mean to
Speaker 1: spit on the young girl, whose name was Lauren Rose
Speaker 1: and who Charles later spoke to and apologize. But combined
Speaker 1: with other incidents a bar room brawler too, and on
Speaker 1: court fight or two, a weapon's charge for carrying an
Speaker 1: unlicensed handgun, a few dozen on politic comments, and well, Charles,
Speaker 1: despite what he said in episode two about being one
Speaker 1: of the first five pick was automatic for the Dream Team,
Speaker 1: and certainly David Stern, the Commissioner, was ambivalent about his inclusion.
Speaker 1: The basketball of people are always metrified you can't get
Speaker 1: enough good players. Yeah, if they had the big twenty players, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really reluctant. You know, you never know what he's
Speaker 1: gonna say because he doesn't know what because he really
Speaker 1: he's really you know, stepped over the line a couple
Speaker 1: of times, but you know he's Charles. So why did
Speaker 1: Charles make the team? Two reasons? Really. Rod Thorne, who
Speaker 1: at that time was an executive with the league, was
Speaker 1: the one charge with calling Charles, and he was instantly
Speaker 1: impressed by how much Barkley wanted to play. But this
Speaker 1: is the key factor. Thorne, a former general manager who
Speaker 1: had drafted Jordan's and was very much an important man
Speaker 1: in the process of gathering players, wanted his talent. Remember
Speaker 1: what David Stern said, while the people more preoccupied with image,
Speaker 1: never think you have enough boy scouts basketball people, which
Speaker 1: Rod Thorne was, never think you have enough talent. Charles
Speaker 1: was clearly not a boy scout, but talent one out
Speaker 1: and Charles Barkley was a dream teamer. Now, so far
Speaker 1: as need goes, the team probably did not need Larry Bird.
Speaker 1: He was thirty five and it was an old thirty five.
Speaker 1: His back was not just hurting, it was killing him.
Speaker 1: As you heard from his voice at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the episode, Bird would describe times when he would drive
Speaker 1: his car only a mile before he had to stop
Speaker 1: and get out stretches back. This resonates with me, as
Speaker 1: it does with many others. On a couple of occasions,
Speaker 1: I visited Bird's miracle man physiotherapist Dan Direct, and over
Speaker 1: long stretches of the season, Direct was Bird's most constant companion.
Speaker 1: But Bird, after many haranguing phone calls from Magic and
Speaker 1: a couple of conversations with Dave Gabbett, eventually signed on.
Speaker 1: Remember that he says it was just to hang out
Speaker 1: with Gavitt, but there was more to it than that.
Speaker 1: One of the kids. My dad was big on the Olympics,
Speaker 1: and uh it adn't matter of his traffic field, you know,
Speaker 1: high jug whatever. His big thing was always a national
Speaker 1: anthem eternal of TV for o Limpics. The year the
Speaker 1: national anthem, he turned and smile saying us one goal.
Speaker 1: I always remember that and I always stopped bought that
Speaker 1: would be as a kid. I never dreamed I ever
Speaker 1: to do it. But the most exciting thing for me
Speaker 1: was when we got our medals when he played the Stars,
Speaker 1: because I remember back in his mind when he heard
Speaker 1: the anthem plan it was a gold medal. He was happy.
Speaker 1: I was The Bird was just starting to become a
Speaker 1: college player at Indiana State in nineteen seventy six when
Speaker 1: the US team won gold in Montreal. He was already
Speaker 1: a professional in the nineteen eighties. He had never in
Speaker 1: his Olympic chance, and Bird, despite his hesitation about his back,
Speaker 1: wanted in on the national team. He remembered those Knights
Speaker 1: have watched the Olympics with his dad. He wanted to
Speaker 1: hear the national anthem from the podium, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to remember his father, that dark soul who took his
Speaker 1: own life when Larry was a teenager. So Bird was
Speaker 1: in and Magic was in, and together they constituted the
Speaker 1: most important ceremonial picks of the Dream Team. That was
Speaker 1: one of the great luxuries of the Dream Team by
Speaker 1: the way it could afford ceremonial picks. It needed ceremonial picks,
Speaker 1: and Magic and Bird are the two best ceremonial players
Speaker 1: in history. So it's getting near the time in late
Speaker 1: summer to announce the Dream Team and the following are
Speaker 1: on board. Magic John stocked in his guards, Barkley, Malone,
Speaker 1: Mullen and Bird as forwards, Ewing and David Robinson as centers,
Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen as the classic swingman, and finally, Michael Jordan's,
Speaker 1: after months of coyness, said he was in. That's ten. Now.
Speaker 1: USA Basketball had decided to leave two spots to be
Speaker 1: announced a couple of months before the Olympics. It was
Speaker 1: a really stupid decision, determined partly because there was still
Speaker 1: some discussion about how many college players were to be
Speaker 1: added to the team. Increasingly, though, it had become clear
Speaker 1: that when players like James Worthy and Dominique Wilkins didn't
Speaker 1: even come close to making the team that really no
Speaker 1: college players should be on the team. So now we're
Speaker 1: gonna jump ahead about eight months for the anticlimactic announcement
Speaker 1: that Clyde Drexeler was added to the Dream Team. Any
Speaker 1: lingering support for Isaiah Thomas had all but dissipated, and
Speaker 1: Clyde deserved the nod. And I've always believed that a
Speaker 1: big part of the reason that Clyde made those comments
Speaker 1: about Jordan's that you heard in an earlier episode. It
Speaker 1: was because he was rightly piste off that he had
Speaker 1: been added late. Finally, they decided to add one college kid.
Speaker 1: There's the pastor right there, what's it up now? Shaquille
Speaker 1: O'Neal would be a better pro than Christian Lightner. Shaquille
Speaker 1: O'Neal would be more fun, a foil for the barbs
Speaker 1: of Barkley, Jordan's and Bird. But the pick was clearly
Speaker 1: Christian Lightner, and Rod Thorne tells why the people were
Speaker 1: adamant that it would be lateener because of good things
Speaker 1: he had done for USA basketball. He had shocked the
Speaker 1: two deaths they came down to UH and he had
Speaker 1: played on teams and been very property with them and
Speaker 1: had had a great year. So later was added first
Speaker 1: body of work, and he probably deserved to be there,
Speaker 1: even if he did sometimes act like a dick. So
Speaker 1: let's jump back in time again to the fall of
Speaker 1: and the televised show that announced the first ten members
Speaker 1: of the Dream Team. What had once seemed like a
Speaker 1: far off dream just a couple of years earlier, was
Speaker 1: now moving toward reality. The Dream Team was no longer
Speaker 1: a dream man. We couldn't wait. Preseason started the Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers headed for Paris and the fourth Annuel McDonald's Open.
Speaker 1: I covered the event, and I remember it was gloomy
Speaker 1: in Paris, and Magic Johnson, for one, wasn't real happy. Players,
Speaker 1: you see, get far less out of these cultural exchanges
Speaker 1: than the league gets out of the pr gains by
Speaker 1: sending them to far away places. But gamely, because he
Speaker 1: was Magic, he did all the requisite press conferences and
Speaker 1: smiled that magic smile. He came back from France, got
Speaker 1: a mandatory physical because of a new insurance policy he
Speaker 1: had taken out, and one afternoon, as he prepared for
Speaker 1: a preseason game in Utah, his doctor called and told
Speaker 1: him to fly back to Los Angeles a meet it ly,
Speaker 1: and on November Magic Johnson, who by most accounts would
Speaker 1: be captaining the Dream Team, held a news conference that
Speaker 1: shocked the world. We'll talk about that and the summer
Speaker 1: of nine two when the Dream Team came together on
Speaker 1: the next episode. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed The
Speaker 1: Dream Team Tapes, please follow, rate, and review wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. The Dream Team Tapes is written and
Speaker 1: hosted by Jack McCallum. Executive producers Mark Francis and Scott Waxman,
Speaker 1: executive producer for I Heart Media, is shown to tone.
Speaker 1: The Dream Team Tapes is a Diversion Podcasts original series
Speaker 1: in association with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H