Review of previous Dream Teams: The history of U.S. basketball Olympics is like Wang Xiaoer’s New Year celebrations
The U.S. men’s national basketball team has been called the Dream Team since 1992. In 1988, the U.S. national team led by David Robinson played as a college team for the last time and lost at the Seoul Olympics. This led the United States Basketball Association to decide to form a national team composed of NBA players to demonstrate the United States' top reputation in the world of basketball. Therefore, in 1992, the American Basketball Association gathered the most outstanding players in the NBA at the time and formed what is recognized as the most outstanding team in history. Since this collection focuses on famous players, the players are all older. Except for Laettner, who is still studying at Duke University, the other players are all in their prime. The youngest ones are David Robinson and Scottie Pippen, who were 27 years old at the time. Other players such as Jordan, Scottie Pippen, etc. Stockton, Barkley, Mullin, Ewing, etc. are all over 30 years old, and Magic and Bird are both veterans over 33 years old. This team included all the superstars of the NBA at that time, including 10 famous players who were selected as the NBA's 50 greatest players. So much so that the Magician joked before the competition that if he couldn't win the championship, the whole team would commit suicide. However, there is still some controversy due to some details.
Pistons leader Isiah Thomas has always had a feud with Jordan because he did not pass the ball to Jordan in Jordan's first All-Star Game and led the Detroit Pistons to suppress the Bulls for many years. When recruiting for the Dream Team, Jordan publicly claimed to the Basketball Association that he and Thomas were at odds. The greatest point guard of the late 1980s missed the Dream Team. In fact, the outstanding point guards in the league at that time, Tim Hardaway and Kevin Johnson, were both recognized as having the ability to enter the Dream Team. However, the abilities of Chris Mullin and Laettner, who were finally selected, were not convincing. This is also the only flaw of the Dream Team. However, this did not prevent them from sweeping their opponents with 44 points in each game to win the 1992 Barcelona Olympics championship. Barkley averaged 18 points per game and became the king of the Dream Team. At that time, when teams around the world played against the Dream Team, they were all proud to obtain signatures from members of the Dream Team. The Dream Team averaged close to 60% shooting per game, and at the same time suppressed their opponents' shooting percentage to 36%, winning each game by 44 points, and the least one game they won was 32 points.
Dream single coach: Chuck Daly Center: Ewing, David Robinson Power forward: Barkley, Malone, Laettner Small forward: Mullin, Pippen, "Big Bird" Bird offensive guard: Jordan, Drexler Point guard: "Magic" Johnson, Stockton
Mengyi record of 8 wins and 0 losses
Participated in the World Championships in 1994 Compared with the Dream Team 1, the Dream Team 2 is completely a younger team. Except for the three veterans Dumars, Price and Wilkins, all other players are under the age of 30, such as Coleman, O'Neal, Mourning, Larry Johnson, etc., who have only been in the NBA for two or three years. young superstar. In fact, there were no first-tier superstars in the league at that time on this team. However, Dream Team 2 still maintained an unstoppable ferocious momentum and easily won the world championship. O'Neal averaged 18 points per game and ranked first in the competition with a 71% shooting percentage. However, the arrogance and unruliness of O'Neal, Kemp and others on the court have also caused a lot of criticism of the style of the Dream Team II.
Dream Second List Coach: Old Nelson Center: O'Neal, Mourning Power Forward: Larry Johnson, Kemp, Coleman Small Forward: Wilkins, Steve Smith Offensive Guard: Marley, Miller, Dumars point guards: Price, Kevin Johnson
Dream II has a record of 8 wins and 0 losses
In 1996, the United States continued to send Dream Team III Participating in the Atlanta Olympics is relatively cautious since it is a local competition. The team includes Malone, Pippen, Robinson, Stockton, and Barkley of the Dream Team, and O'Neal, Miller and other generals of the Dream Team II. "Big Dog" Robinson, the No. 1 pick in 1994, was originally on the team, but in the finals, Kings general Richmond replaced him. The team included Hardaway and Hill, the most popular newcomers in the league at the time. Jordan, who had just led the Bulls to achieve unprecedented success, had no interest in the Dream Team 3. The Dream Team 3 no longer had the same interest in pioneering history as the Dream Team 1, and did not invite Jordan. Although the Dream Team 3 is a team with the old leading the new and can represent the highest level in the United States, the loose and haphazard way in which it was formed has begun to surface. In the 1996 finals, the Dream Team trailed Yugoslavia 38-43 in the first half. Although they still beat Yugoslavia 95-69 by 26 points in the end, the myth of the Dream Team has begun to fade. There was even a fight between the Dream Team 3 and Angola this time, and Ma Long was almost punched by the Angola boys.
Dream Three List Coach: Wilkens Center: O'Neal, Olajuwon, David Robinson Power Forward: Malone, Barkley Small Forward: Pippen, Grant Hill Offensive Guard: Lee Chimon, Reggie Miller, "Penny" Hardaway point guard: Stockton Payton
Dream III record of 8 wins and 0 losses
In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Dream When the five teams announced their rosters, Ray Allen's first selection once made Carter, the most popular player in the league at the time, unhappy. In addition to talking nonsense in the media, he also scored a lot of points with Allen in the game against the Bucks.
Starting from the Dream Team 4, as the number of centers in the league became increasingly weak, only Mourning played the center position. At that time, the superstars who led the league such as O'Neal, Duncan, and Kobe had no interest in the team. McDyess, Baker, Raheem, Houston and other stars who cannot make the league's top three lineups have used them to make up the numbers. Relying on the bravery of Carter and Garnett, the Dream Team still maintained the dignity of the Dream Team in Sydney. However, they almost lost to Lithuania in the semifinals, which made people begin to believe that the Dream Team can be defeated. The highlight of this tournament was that in the match against the French team, Carter successfully dunked over the opponent's 218-centimeter high center, which became a classic in history.
Dream Four Coach: Tomjanovich Center: Mourning Power Forward: Garnett, McDyess, Baker Small Forward: Carter, Raheem Offensive Guard: Allen, Houston, Shi Steve Smith point guard: Kidd, Tim Hardaway, Payton
Dream 4 has a record of 8 wins and 0 losses
In 2002, Dream 5 played in the World Championships in Indiana In the game, the center position can only rely on power forwards Jr. O'Neal and Ben Wallace, while Brand, who has never played in the playoffs, second-rate insiders Davis, LaFrentz, and Andre ·Miller, Jay Williams, who just graduated from college, etc., really cannot live up to the reputation of the dream team. As a result, they lost consecutive games to Argentina and Yugoslavia and missed the semi-finals. This was also the end of the US team's 58-game winning streak in international competitions. The world's basketball hegemon was humiliated.
Dream Five List Coach: George Karl Center: O'Neal Jr., Ben Wallace Power Forward: Brand, A. Davis, LaFrentz Small Forward: Marion, Pierce Attack Guards: Andre Miller, Belen Davis, Jay Williams
Dream 5 record of 6 wins and 3 losses
2004, Athens Olympics, Dream 5 The team organized a baffling team - led by 2001 MVP Iverson and 2002 and 2003 MVP Duncan, but under his command were Boozer, Stoudemire, Marion, Odom, and Jeff. Sen, the league's second-tier stars, as well as Wade, James, and Ansany, three young and weak champions. Except for Duncan, other players are not unable to adapt to FIBA's rules at all. As a result, they could only watch as the championship continued to fall by the wayside, continuing the failure of the Dream Team since 2002.
Dream Six complete lineup - Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs), Allen Iverson (Philadelphia 76ers), Carlos Boozer and LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) , Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets), Amar'e Stoudemire and Shawn Marion (Phoenix Suns), Lamar Odom and Doniya Wade (Miami Heat) Team), Richard Jefferson (New Jersey Nets), Stephon Marbury (New York Knicks) and Emeka Okafor (Charlotte Bobcats)
Dream Flower How Much I Didn’t Know
Dream 1: In Barcelona in 1992, Jordan, “Magic” Johnson, “Big Bird” Bird, Charles Barkley, etc. led the first “Dream Team” to the Olympic Games . They went without a fight in 8 games, scoring more than 100 points in each game. No opponent could score more than 85 points in front of "Mengyi". In the end, they won all 8 games, with an average margin of victory of a terrifying 43.8 points per game. To paraphrase "Dream One" coach Chuck Daly: "I don't ask for a timeout. I use this method to express my respect for the players."
Dream Two: In the 1994 World Championships, Kai Vin Johnson, O'Neal, Mourning, Reggie Miller, etc. took over from their predecessors and still won the World Championship trophy with a record of 8 wins. The strength of "Dream II" is already inferior to that of "Dream I", but the essence of American basketball remains unchanged. Perhaps the best explanation for the problem is that the field goal percentage that exceeds the opponent's by 14 percentage points per game.
Dream 3: In Atlanta in 1996, the "Dream 3" continued to stand out in front of the hometown elders. The ending of 8 wins was not surprising. The "invincible aircraft carrier" composed of Payton, Hardaway, O'Neal and others This is what American fans want to see. "Dream III" averaged a net victory of 31.7 points per game, and only scored more than 100 points in 4 games. The only encouraging news was the defense: opponents failed to score more than 82 points in 8 games.
Dream Four: The "Dream Four" did not gather the most powerful players in the NBA at the time. O'Neal was not selected for the "Dream Four". "Hero" Mourning became the team's only "purebred" center. . The "Dream Four" managed to win eight games in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but the average point margin per game dropped to 21.6 points. They only narrowly defeated Lithuania by 2 points in the semifinals and only defeated France by 10 points in the finals. Although the defense was successful, the crown of "Basketball's First Nation" is in jeopardy.
Dream Five: At the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, "Dream Five" was embarrassed in front of his hometown elders: 6 wins and 3 losses, ranking only sixth. The Americans were responsible for losing the world championship. Many NBA superstars refused to play under various excuses. The "Dream Five" completely shattered the dream and American basketball fell from the altar.
Dream Six: The shame of "Dream Five" made NBA players angry. However, before the 2004 Athens Olympics, many players found excuses to withdraw from the national team because they were worried about being attacked by terrorists. As a result, the "Dream Six" organizing committee let "Stone Buddha" Duncan and "Answer" Iverson take the lead, leading a group of young newcomers with obvious flaws in the lineup configuration to Athens.
With 5 wins and 3 losses in 8 games, the peripheral players led by Iverson collectively could not find the basket, which became the most shocking scene in the history of the "Dream Team". The defeat in Athens also prompted the Americans to start to reflect on how to build a team rather than an organization. All-star summer camp.
Dream Team 7 roster
Kobe Bryant (Lakers), Odom (Lakers), Wade (Heat), LeBron James (Cavaliers), Carmelo Anthony (Nuggets), Arenas (Wizards), Battier (Grizzlies), Billups (Pistons), Chris Bosh (Raptors), Bruce Bowen (Spurs), Elton? Brand (Clippers), Dwight Howard (Magic), Josh Howard (Mavericks), Antawn Jamison (Wizards), Joe Johnson (Hawks), Rashard Lewis (SuperSonics) ), Marion (Suns), Brad Miller (Kings), Chris Paul (Hornets), Paul Pierce (Celtics), Michael Reed (Bucks), Luke Reed North (SuperSonics), Stoudemire (Suns)
The personnel configuration has distinct roles
"We are drafting a team with distinct roles, not an All-Star team. Team." - Colangelo, Chairman of the "Dream Seven" Organizing Committee
The team built with famous stars is not suitable for international competitions. This has already happened in the "Dream Six" discount It was proved to be an iron rule when it defeated Athens. "Dream Seven" finally made up its mind to follow rather than challenge the rules of international competitions, setting up a banner guiding direction for the "Dream Seven" personnel and equipment plan.
Under the guidance of this policy, the names of pure point guards such as Billups and Ridnour appeared in the "Dream Seven" list, while names like Iverson and Marbury have long been attached to the list. Ball's "offensive point guards" are excluded. This ground-breaking move means that the "Dream Team" point guard's mission has finally returned to the right path: organizing and allocating offensive resources, putting an end to individual shows, and taking helping the team win as the first goal! This change alone can raise the entire team's combat effectiveness to a higher level.
"Dream Seven" attaches great importance to the selection of point guard, which is the lesson learned from the defeat of Athens by "Dream Six". In the summer of 2004, the "Dream Six" backcourt jointly managed by Marbury and Iverson was not stable. Iverson averaged 13.8 points and 2.5 assists in 8 games with a shooting percentage of 37.8%, while Marbury averaged 13.8 points and 2.5 assists in 8 games. The shooting percentage averaged 10.5 points and 3.4 assists per game. These two brothers who can make waves in the NBA failed to activate the team's tactics. On the contrary, Xiao Ai took 11.3 shots per game and Colts ranked first in the team with 8.9 shots per game. And the second one - the two brothers who were supposed to be responsible for the organizational tasks were always thinking about shooting instead of sharing offensive resources, which made the coach Larry Brown almost fall into a coma. The "Dream Six" collapsed as early as when the team was being formed. The foreshadowing was laid, and "Meng Qi" definitely has no intention of repeating the same mistake.
In addition to the "roleization" of point guards, the "Dream Seven" are also making great efforts in selecting defensive candidates: As we all know, the NBA did not open zone defense until the beginning of the new century, and most current players are not familiar with high-level zone defense. The weakness in Athens simply turned the Stars and Stripes basket into an undefended target. If the "Dream Six" semi-final against Argentina is used as a representative reference, the Argentinians in this campaign made full use of the rotations that American players were not familiar with under the zone defense system, and continuously formed opportunities for the left and right baselines or diagonal cuts from both wings. The 18 assists per game surpassed the 11 assists of the "Dream Six", and the 54.2% shooting rate was a full 13 percentage points ahead of the "Dream Six". The Americans were confused and also reflected on how they could re-understand the offensive and defensive system of international competitions. .
There is no way for active American players to quickly integrate into the zone defense mechanism of international competitions. NBA players themselves are professional players and play at least 82 games a year. They are accustomed to using American-style leagues and man-to-man rotations. Interactively complete most of the game, forcing these star players to follow European or South American players in constant rotation will simply kill them. This is one of the reasons why "Dream Six" was defeated like a mountain, and it is also an area where "Dream Seven" is committed to improvement, so "duct tape" players entered the "Dream Seven" list. The best ones are Bruce Bowen and Xiao Uh-huh, Shane Battier. Many star players are both offensive and defensive, but none of them are as dedicated to defense as a coolie. You know, Bowen and his likes simply regard 48 minutes of confrontation as their bread and butter on the football field. They can rely on their individual abilities to compete with top NBA players. Kobe and Tracy McGrady are naturally not afraid of European or South American players in international competitions.
Even if the "Dream Six" is disgraced, people can still see that the Americans have obvious advantages in the penalty area, and the big forwards regard attacking offensive rebounds as an instinctive reaction. European or South American players often use air cuts, breakthroughs or mid-to-long-range shots after rotation as the main means of attacking the "Dream Team", and most of these highly mobile scores come from shooting guards or small forwards. Bowen or Battier are tailor-made plasters for freezing forwards and swingmen. The "Dream Seven" can ignore Bowen Battier's scoring ability, but needs such players to follow closely and challenge the opponent's mobile attackers.
Like previous "Dream Teams", although the "Dream Seven" have spent more time training together than their predecessors, they still cannot avoid the disadvantage of professional players from different teams mixing together and lacking a tacit understanding. Since they can overcome it in the short term Instead of taking advantage of the unfavorable situation of defensive rotation and zone defense, we can simply select role players with strong individual defense, use part man-to-man and part zone defense to solve the defensive problem, and explain it in vernacular: that is, use Bowen or Battier's "special" "Take care of" the opponent's chief perimeter attacker, try to prevent points lost due to cuts or breakthroughs, and thereby gain a defensive balance.
"Role" is the main tone of Meng Qi's selection, but it does not mean that the organizing committee has given up on "star effect". Or as a point guard, the "Dream Seven" is still equipped with the Wizards' chief attacker Arenas, who has first-class offensive power, and the new generation of top players Chris Paul; at the small forward position, LeBron James is at his peak and has reached the peak of his personal achievements. , the Suns' brutal forward Marion is both offensive and defensive... These monster-level first-class attackers can cause terrifying lethality on the court at any time.