Ultimate championship: Dream Team vs. Redeem Team

As you may have heard, the 1992 version of Team USA was inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame last Friday.

Over at BuckBokai’s sister site BallinEurope.com, this writer enthused that “the only two teams … who *might* possibly give the Dream Team a series [were] Dream Team III, with much of Dream Team I plus Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal, who probably should have been on the roster in lieu of the more politically-correctly chosen Christian Laettner in ‘92; and the Redeem Team of 2008, Generation Y’s own Dream Team.”

Which got BuckBokai to thinking later … Why not face ‘em off through the miracle of the virtual sports time-travel website What If Sports?

And so The Greatest Basketball Championship Never Played was about to begin between those fabled squads of international ball: The Dream Team vs. The Redeem Team.

Questions, questions … Could the relative lack of size for the Redeems compete against a frontcourt which alternated lineups among the likes of David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone? Could the older Dreams run like the speedier, jumpier 2008 team? Would the clampdown D of 2008 stop – or at least slow the Dreams? Could anyone from 2008 answer Michael Jordan near the peak of his powers? And finally, would the Redeem Team even give the publicly acknowledged (mostly) Greatest Team Ever?

As for parameters for the competition, well, BuckBokai would host a best-of-seven series. For no good reason save history, the Dream Team would play home games in New York’s Madison Square Garden; the Redeem Team calls the old Boston Garden home.

For The Dream Team, which essentially used a different starting lineup every game, BuckBokai went with Magic, MJ, Bird, Barkley and the Admiral as the first five on the floor. The Redeemers got their usual starting five: Jason Kidd, Kobe, Melo, LeBron and Superman Dwight Howard.

The series started in Boston…

Game one: Dream Team 121, Redeem Team 93
The home team shot a woeful 5-of-14 on 3s and 40-of-98 overall in a game that became a laugher early. The Dream defense swarmed their modern-day counterparts with 16 steals and forced 23 turnovers: Jordan (with 3 steals), Magic Johnson (2), John Stockton (2), and Scottie Pippen (2) controlled the perimeter and beyond, Robinson was a monster in the middle (3), and Barkley (4) was everywhere.

Sir Charles finished with 10-of-13 overall shooting including tons of dunks and even a three-pointer for 23 points to go with 11 rebounds and four steals, though MJ was named Player of the Game for his 20/7/8 line.

The Redeem Dream spread the (low) scoring, with Chris Bosh at 18, Kobe Bryant at 16, Carmelo Anthony with 15 and LeBron James with 14. No Redeemer managed more than Dwight Howard’s nine rebounds.

Game two: Dream Team 100, Redeem Team 89
One of the cleanest championship games never played might have been the best sim ever if the shooting hadn’t been so sloppy: The 1992 team committed an incredible eight fouls while shooting 45-of-109 as a team; the 2008 guys were whistled for 13 fouls and shot 42-of-107.

The 2008 squad actually controlled the game throughout, building a halftime lead of 47-39 and keeping the third quarter 23-23, the Redeem Team needed only to hold an eight-point lead.

Against the Greatest Team Ever.

They couldn’t. Jordan, who would finish with 23, led a 38-point charge to lead the Dream Team on a 13-of-15 rampage, dominating King James and Kobe as though they’d merely awakened late.

Game three: Dream Team 120, Redeem Team 90
As in game one, the Hall of Famers coasted to victory in New York. MJ had 26 on 10-of-21 shooting, Magic contributed 24 on 11-of-18 and the Dream Team missed by one the distinction of having every player managing at least one point, rebound and assist.

The Dreams started on a 9-2 run, including an uncharacteristically quick two fouls, one each on Kidd and Bryant. Bryant’s, in fact, was on Larry Bird from beyond the arc. When Larry sunk all three, the Redeemers surely knew they were already in for a long night. After 4½ minutes, Bird and Johnson were outscoring the 2008 squad, 14-10. (Barkley had a jumper early, as the score was 16-10 at this point.)

This time the Redeemers’ leading rebounders (Howard and Bosh) could manage only seven apiece as the Dream Team bested their competition in all statistical categories again.

Game four: Dream Team 115, Redeem Team 108 (OT)
In a thrilling tug-of-war that was finally settled in overtime, the Dream Team had their status confirmed as The Greatest Team Ever.

Again the 1992 team opened it up early and again things were looking grim for the Redeemers: At 7:38 in the first quarter, the score stood 11-3, Dreams. A 9-1 run highlighted by Chris Paul’s nifty passing and highlight-clip flying dunk, however, showed the Redeem Team wasn’t going away quite yet. The first quarter ended 20-17.

In the second, it was the 2008 bunch that appeared to have too many weapons. Nearly every key team member (except, ironically, Kobe Bryant) contributed along the way to outscoring the Dreams, 30-26 to steal the halftime lead: Bosh, James, Deron Williams, Dwyane Wade, Michael Redd, Howard, Anthony, and Bosh ‘n’ James again passed the hot hand. Kobe missed a straight-on three at the buzzer, but the Redeemers were up.

The third quarter was all about trading baskets: The Redeem team never trailed, but they never held a lead of more than three.

Magic was there to take over the game late in the period, though: At 2:39, Johnson threaded the needle to find Mister Robinson underneath the basket for two; Clyde Drexler next picked off a Carmelo pass and found Magic on the break for 3. After the Dream Team subbed in a whole new lineup except Johnson, Magic welcomed in the new quartet quickly, with a bank shot of his own followed by feeds to Jordan and Ewing. Dream Team, 71-65, with a minute to go in the third.

Down by eight to start the fourth quarter, the Redeem Team found itself digging out of another hole – and the 2008ers did so remarkably, spurred on by a 13-0 run which ate up never five minutes of game clock until Jordan put a stop to things with a swishing jumper at 3:33 remaining. In fact, the Redeemers enjoyed a two-point lead with one second remaining – only they didn’t have anyone who can walk on air: From halfcourt, Magic inbounded to MJ for the alley-oop slam over Carmelo.

Into overtime it went and, predictably yet wonderfully, the game instantly became a battle of Kobe vs. Michael. The back-and-forth was 6-5 to start the quarter, with the sole bucket from another player Larry Bird’s – on an assist from His Airness.

The Redeem Team would go cold at the wrong time, however, and definitely against the wrong team. Though Howard and Anthony outdid Robinson and Ewing on the boards, the 2008 side finished the game a woeful 0-of-its-last-7 to lose by seven.

The aftermath
Could there ever have been any doubt? Soon – perhaps to mark the tipping off of the 2010 FIBA World Championship in August – BuckBokai will have the Dream Team square off against those other recently-enshrined Hall of Famers from 1960, but it seems as though nothing ever could stop 1992 Team USA.

As the Dream Team goes on to romp through legend and myth, we’ll let the last word be Larry Bird’s, from his excellent bon mots in Springfield on Friday. (Bird’s act starts at 5:45.)

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