With a new documentary airing tonight, the 1992 Dream Team is very much in the news these days. Oddly enough, Dream Team member Charles Barkley isn't interested in talking about that iteration of USA Basketball though. In an interview on The Dan Patrick Show today, Barkley went in on the second Dream Team that played in Atlanta in 1996:
“People forget I played on the second Dream Team. The second Dream Team really sucked. I have to tell you something and I’ve said this privately and a few times publicly, we had so much junk going on about playing time, who was starting on the second Dream Team and on the first Dream Team we never had any of that. I’m playing with the greatest team ever assembled and everybody got along well, did we try to kill each other in practice? Of course we did but we went back to the hotel and everybody got along well, everybody respected each other and it was really cool. Then when I played the second time in Atlanta man guys were arguing with Lenny Wilkens and talking about who should be starting. 1992 was like the greatest thing ever as far as camaraderie and everybody getting along. Then in ‘96 I was like ‘you guys are kidding me, I played with the greatest team ever, and you guys aren’t that good and you’re complaining about who is starting and who is getting playing time?’ You have to be kidding me. It was incredible.”
Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, Scottie Pippen, Mitch Richmond, David Robinson, and John Stockton: You've officially been put on blast.
[via Sports Radio Interviews]
