The 20 Greatest Team USA Basketball Sneakers of All Time

With the 2012 Olympics ready to kick off Friday and all of the recent Dream Team 20th Anniversary talk it was impossible to not look back and break down the last five squads and what they have meant to the game. Not only are the rosters filled with a who’s-who of current and future Hall of Famers, but also the players that have shaped the sneaker game into what it is today. To celebrate another gold hopeful squad in London, we decided to break down The 20 Greatest Team USA Basketball Sneakers of All Time — let us know which pair is your favorite after the jump.

(Note: We didn't include this year's, as they should get some time to marinate first.)

Player: Karl Malone

Year: 1992

MJ might have been the most famous pair to rock a pair of L.A. Gears — Jackson, not Jordan — but Karl Malone was balling hard in his signature kicks early in the '90s. The shoe was considered extremely comfortable and held up on the court well. The design was pretty dope too, maybe too nice since Nike filed a lawsuit against them due to L.A Gear's consistent likeness to Nike models.

Player: Gary Payton

Year: 1996

The lower-tech remix of the Zoom Flight '95s were The Glove's go-to sneaker for the games in Atlanta. Sans the non-bug eye look and with the "jewel" Swoosh, the shoe is a certified '90s sleeper.

Player: Penny Hardaway

Year: 1996

Penny strayed from his signature series in lieu of the new Zoom Air technology Nike was starting to use on most of its basketball sneakers to keep players close to the floor and light on their feet. The crew in Beaverton laced its star in the perfect colorway to mesh with his Olympic uniform and also stitched in his international number "6" on the heel.

Player: Magic Johnson

Year: 1992

With Magic retiring due to his shocking HIV-positive status, he still reigned supreme in popularity being voted into the All-Star Game and also being selected to represent America in the Barcelona Games. Converse was quick on its feet, putting together a pair of red, white, and blue Cons with Earvin's Olympic #15 stitched into the ankle.

Player: Allen Iverson

Year: 2004

The sequel is never as good as its predecessor, and this remained true with the long-awaited followup to the classic Questions. Reebok cooked up a pair specifically for AI's spot on the Men's Olympic Team in Athens. The shoe featured the same familiar Hexalite system and toecap as the OGs, complete with a ginormous American flag on the tongue to show that Newport News's favorite son made it.

Player: Larry Bird

Year: 1992

The diverse group of talent on the Dream Team may not ever be matched again and the same can be said about the kicks that led them to gold. This was Converse's last chance to bless Larry Bird and Magic Johnson with heat — while they were playing for the same team, no less — and the company did not disappoint.

Player: Shaquille O'Neal

Year: 1996

Not as memorable as Shaq's Shaqnosis (which he practiced in), but on the big stage he broke out the big-man version of The Question with the Reebok Preacher Ice. It shared a similar design as AI's classic kicks with the honeycomb look of the Hexalite cushioning, the ice outsole, and overall cut of the shoe.

Player: Gary Payton

Year: 2000

The United States' greatest trash-talker also had one of the best "Olympic" sneaker resumes in the past few decades. The Zoom GP IIs represented The Glove's on-court personal perfectly with an aggressive pattern that might have been louder than Payton while playing shut-down D. GP went gold twice on the court and on his feet.

Year: 1992

A shoe that is often forgotten during Nike's golden era was so versatile that both David Robinson and John Stockton rocked them in the Barcelona Games. Ignore the fact that the high-top kicks were longer than Stockton's shorts — the midfoot strap was king in the early '90s.

Player: Grant Hill

Year: 1996

People forget that Grant Hill's popularity before he was injured earned him a crazy contract with Fila and his game earned him a spot on Dream Team III. For the Atlanta Games they didn't have to tweak much to have his footwear look patriotic — Fila used the same simple white, blue, and red features as his regular-season sneakers, and Hill helped lead the U.S. to another gold medal.

Player: LeBron James

Year: 2004

The first shoe to feature LeBron's name on the sneaker box was also his first sneaker for international play. The stacked Zoom Air is still one of the dopest concepts in a long line of thought-out designs for Nike's current king. Even if the 2004 team doesn't go down in history as the greatest (it won't), these kicks will rank up there in the Dream Team saga.

Player: Patrick Ewing

Year: 1992

Ewing's sneakers are making a much-needed comeback this year and we had to dap New York's greatest big man (pause) for his footwear in Barcelona. With everyone else getting some Olympic retro love we hope to see these on the shelves at some point in 2012.

Player(s): Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley

Year: 1996

As dominant as the Dream Teams have been, the women's national team has been no joke themselves. For the Atlanta games in '96 a few of them even got hooked up with some Olympic PE Nike Air Rupts that featured white, red, and navy color blocking throughout the upper and the American Flag boldly emblazoned on the tongue. The design was aggressive and the technology was on point — these easily could have made their way on the men's feet with no qualms.

Player(s): Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Tim Hardaway, Allan Houston, Antonio McDyess & Shareef Abdur-Rahim

Year: 2000

The Nike Shox BB4 was the unofficial sneaker of the 2000 USA squad thanks to the navy and gold PEs courtesy of The Swoosh. Nike took it to the next level of performance, adding a new cushioning system that was more than 16 years in the making. The sneaker's greatest moment — best known on the feet of Vince Carter nonchalantly jumping over a seven-foot Frenchman.

Player(s): Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin

Year: 1992

No Olympic shoe is in need of a retro drop more so than the Flight Lite IIs. Worn by versatile forwards Scottie Pippen and Chris Mullin during the Dream Team's domination in Spain, the shoe was incredibly lightweight and smooth. We're not ungrateful that the "Olympic" VIIs dropped...again, but we need Nike to drop some of the low-key performance classics again.

Player(s): Kobe Bryant, Carlos Boozer, Michael Redd, Chris Bosh, Deron Williams, Jason Kidd, Tayshaun Prince

Year: 2008

Since leaving adidas for Nike, Kobe has played his part by helping promote some uber-comfortable and sick performance sneakers before his own signature line took off. First it was the Huaraches, but then Nike unveiled its new lightweight and high-flying Hyperdunks for the Olympic Games in Beijing, Kobe was once again on board to help move the brand forward — with Nike's incredible designs and innovation it was a great way to launch one of the most relevant sneakers in today's basketball world.

Player(s): Ray Allen, Vin Baker

Year: 2000

For the 2000 Olympics, Jordan Brand laced its up-and-coming stars in "Olympic" Sixes that Mike himself never even had the opportunity of wearing on the floor — Jesus has connects.

Player(s): Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley

Year: 1996

Sneaker designers talk a lot about how well you can identify a shoe from a distance, whether you can tell what a particular model is from either in front of the TV or up in the cheap seats in Atlanta. Mission accomplished with the Scottie Pippen worn Air More Uptempo (and the lesser-priced — and lesser — Air Much Uptempo rocked by Reggie Miller) whose giant AIR lettering was visible from space.

Player: Charles Barkley

Year: 1992

Sir Charles rocked the 180s while he was throwing bows and easily becoming the de factor enforcer of USA Basketball (as well as the squad's leading scorer) in Barcelona. The shoe was welcomed with nothing but love when they were a part of the handful of Olympic retros this past month and with that 180 Air unit and mid foot strap we are good with Nike dropping these every four years too.

Player: Michael Jordan

Year: 1992

After wrapping up back-to-back NBA titles with a decisive win over the Blazers and the greatest shrug pre-Kanye, Michael was the face of the USA “Dream Team” consisting of a who’s-who of future NBA Hall of Famers (and Christian Laettner) in Barcelona. The squad murked international competition by an average of almost 44 points in route to bringing home the gold. Twenty years later MJ's kicks received another release (their fourth) and still created chaos at malls nationwide.