1984 USA Olympic Team vs NBA All-Stars

[Soundwave]

I know this horse is deader than dead, but what .... the .... hell ... was Portland smoking in 1984?

Even then it was blatantly clear Jordan was going to be a superstar.

In this game he was playing against Magic Johnson, probably the best player in the world at the time, and his team won and he looked like the best player on the court.

Jordan's dunk on Magic was siiiick too.

[Jasper]

I am afraid most of you guys never saw the game.
These were exhibition games , USA team warming up to the games.
They played the NBA guys.
Many Defensive sets by the NBA team was very weak. And even during the game guys like Majic and Zeke would make passes that they would not do in NBA regular season games.
However - yep MJ looked good as a young stud ... but in the vid was Perkins who showed some great athleticism and basketball skills even I forgot about.
That's why he was an Indy favorite for so many years because he was not only a great team mate , but a great IQ for the game.

[Jasper]

I know this horse is deader than dead, but what .... the .... hell ... was Portland smoking in 1984?

Even then it was blatantly clear Jordan was going to be a superstar.

In this game he was playing against Magic Johnson, probably the best player in the world at the time, and his team won and he looked like the best player on the court.

Jordan's dunk on Magic was siiiick too.

Like yesterday year as is today - Big's that have good skill levels are what it's all about in the NBA , because there are so few bigs.
In todays era , I think no team would pass up a gunner , but remember history teachs us as well as GM's what to do and not to do.
Notice in the vid what a warrior Ewing was as a Georgetown center. In college the spotlight was on him for sure.

[lilojmayo]

who won

MJ looked like GOAT at 21 yrs wow

kobe was still bench warming back then

[HB40TheNextStar]

RE: Jordan from Bobby Knight, who was coaching that 84 Olympics team. The story goes that he was talking to an NBA exec during a practice of that 84 team.

...Something along the lines of (not an exact quote), "You are one of the luckiest people in basketball, you have a chance to get Jordan." The exec replies, "Yea, but we need a big man." Knight rebuttals, "

[L.Kizzle]

In 1984, only Magic, Zeke, English and Walter Davis were All-Stars.

[InspiredLebowski]

All the Knight quotes are made up in hindsight by him, I'm just sayin.

[senelcoolidge]

Great video. There's more talents playing there than the whole NBA combined today. Even with guys like Koncak, Joe Kleine..etc.

[gengiskhan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrjhIXKc6Xk&fmt=18


High Definition :)

Notice MJ is listed 6'5" his correct height bare feet. Olympics were very rigid on correct measurements of athletes participating in '80s & '90s.

Same year MJ got drafted, he was listed 6'6" with shoes just like everyone else with NBA Height exaggerations.

[HB40TheNextStar]

No u:

http://books.google.com/books?id=JcN...page&q&f=false

[Da_Realist]

Highlighting MJ's legendary competitive nature.

[1987_Lakers]

Highlighting MJ's legendary competitive nature.

Good vid except when the narrator was talking.

Didn't MJ in his HOF speech say that he was not aware that a freeze out in the All-Star game happened?

[Ass Dan]

This team was better.

Patrick Ewing was one of the most dominant college bigs ever and a can't miss HoFer coming out of Georgetown.

Vern Fleming and Alex English were projected to be all stars.

Sam Perkins was the last player on a Jordan team to be considered better than Jordan and a can't miss prospect.

Mullin and Alford were two of the best shooters in the world.

and then MJ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UcSouLNR44

add to the fact they were in great shape and its a no brainer, kids all the way

[Da_Realist]

Good vid except when the narrator was talking.

Didn't MJ in his HOF speech say that he was not aware that a freeze out in the All-Star game happened?

MJ the ultimate competitor embarrassing NBA legends while in college. This guy was not for exhibition games or even the Olympics. The real MJ came out when the game turned into a bloodsport. The more competitive, the better MJ was. Even Isiah speaking on MJ years after he retired said "He kept coming" even when outmatched and beaten up by the Pistons year after year.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GEDL7dCxWvs

This is the real reason he's my favorite. I'm a competitor and I respect competitors win or lose. It's not about being the scoring champ or 6 for 6. That's just icing on the cake.

The guy that posted the video had to speak or youtube would take down his videos. I don't mind the commentary because he allowed the video to speak for itself before he spoke.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ongf-rJtnU

[Psileas]

That's great, but these games matter as much as the various "NBA vs Euroleague" matchups, (which, btw recently yielded increasingly tough competition for NBA teams, which is probably a reason why they stopped facing Euroleague teams in 2017, prefering to face and look invincible against third rate jokes of teams, like Chinese or Australian ones or the internationally insignificant Maccabi Haifa, which, for some reason, NBA teams absolutely love using as their punching bag).
It's not even as if it was the only time these amateur USA teams were beating random NBA selects squads, even with NBA legends on them. The 1988 team faced and beat at least twice an NBA selects team that featured Jordan, Barkley and English, and Robinson was looking like "GOAT material" at times too. And afterwards they still lost to the Soviets and Robinson was still outplayed by Sabonis. It occasionally happened before 1984, too, up to the early 1960's.