The iconic Carmelo Anthony says he could have beaten the legendary 1992 Olympic Games‘ Dream Team by exposing flaws in their game, particularly be taking on the team’s power forward, Larry Bird.
The 10-time NBA All-Star says that despite their talent, they would have been no match for the 2008 Beijing Games team which included LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, as well as Anthony himself.
“It’ll be a highly competitive game,” Anthony told Ball Magnets. “But we win and we have youth, like those guys were beat up.
“Like Larry B [Bird] was on the ground like laying down his leg kicked out with a Beach Tow like those.”
The 2008 team claimed gold and never looked in trouble throughout the tournament, effortlessly breezing past China, Angola, Greece, Spain, Germany, Australia, Argentina and Spain again.
In fact, Spain needed two attempts to get within 11 points of the USA after initially being defeated 119-82 before playing them again in the Olympic Final where the Europeans lost 118-107.
Meanwhile, the Dream Team, which included the first active NBA players to go to the Olympics, brushed aside Angola, Croatia, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Croatia again in the gold medal match.
They had an extraordinary winning margin of 68 points against Angola, whilst their narrowest winning margin was 32 points against Croatia in their second meeting.
Anthony counts out beating Michael Jordan
The ex-New York Knicks star revealed that due to their different generations, the modern athletes would overwhelm the 1980s and 1990s rosters who could afford to take things easier and depend purely on talent with less of an emphasis on supreme physical conditioning.
That’s a bold thing to say considering Bird is a three-time champion, three-time MVP and two-time NBA Finals MVP following his 1979 debut, but Anthony made sure he didn’t push his look too much as he counted out beating Michael Jordan on the court.
“It’s 23, 97-98 Jordan,” Anthony added to the podcast. “See that’s a different beast right there that you dealing with 97-98.”
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