Many think Isiah Thomas was the most important snub of the Dream Team.
Shaq might disagree.
The Dream Team – the nickname given to the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team – is widely considered the best sports team assembled.
The star-studded squad was plagued by NBA icons and future Hall of Famers including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley.
Chuck Daly’s all-conquering roster, which won gold in Barcelona, Spain that 12 months, also featured some lesser-known names – chiefly, Christian Laettner, who was chosen over ‘The Big Aristotle’ himself, Shaquille O’Neal.
Looking back now, Laettner’s inclusion over O’Neal appears egregious.
Shaq, a four-time NBA champion and three-time Finals MVP, is widely considered probably the most dominant big man ever and one in every of the best centers in NBA history.
Laettner, meanwhile, played for six different NBA teams across a 13-year profession with the highlight being a solitary All-Star nod in ’97.
But in 1992, Laettner was the proverbial big man on campus who led Duke to a few straight NCAA championship games and back-to-back national titles in ’91 and ’92.
The 6ft 11in former Blue Devil was a university basketball superstar who broke the hearts of UConn and Kentucky fans with a pair of epic buzzer-beating shots and held NCAA Tournament records for points scored, games won, and profession games played.
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Laettner, NCAA player of the 12 months in his senior 12 months, was the poster boy for Mike Krzyzewski’s program together with his beauty, competitive fire and dynamic play.
At times though, he struggled to toe the road between confidence and arrogance, riling up opposing players and fans together with his bullish mentality and knack for getting favorable foul calls.
The ability forward/center was despised for a lot of reasons – his temperament, college success, middle class upbringing, Duke privilege – and was subsequently featured in an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary titled, I Hate Christian Laettner.
Laettner was undeniably a polarizing figure but on the court he was an authorized stud.
He proved it in ’91 when his Duke team squared off against LSU and Associated Press national player of the 12 months Shaquille O’Neal.
Laettner dominated a foul-plagued Shaq and finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds.
Years later, O’Neal reflected on that matchup.
“After which first time I played him, he killed me,” he said. “He destroyed me. I’m not racist or anything, but that white boy ate me up.”
In 1992, O’Neal outscored Laettner in a rematch 25-22 however the latter’s team cruised to a 77-67 win.
Shaq was still a force in college, being named a two-time All-American and two-time SEC Player of the 12 months while averaging 24.1 points, 14.0 rebounds and 5.0 blocks in his final 12 months.
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Nonetheless, his Tigers didn’t make splash at The Big Dance and his college profession ended with a 2-3 record in NCAA Tournament play.
Laettner, meanwhile, was winning national championships for one of the prestigious schools within the country.
When the 1992 NBA Draft rolled around in June that 12 months, the Orlando Magic clearly felt Shaq had the upper ceiling.
They drafted him No. 1 overall while Laettner went to the Minnesota Timberwolves at No. 3.
Each players were into account for the ’92 Team USA Olympics roster, with one spot purposely left open for a university player to fill.
In the long run, head coach Daly went for the more proven player in Laettner – a good alternative given he was a 12 months older than Shaq and more established on the collegiate circuit.
Laettner didn’t expect to play that much that summer and that is exactly the way it panned out.
He averaged 4.8 points per game in his eight appearances because the Dream Team cruised to the gold medal.
Laettner was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his role on the Dream Team, but after that summer his and O’Neal’s profession went in completely different trajectories.
Years later, O’Neal said that while he was frustrated to be unnoticed of the Dream Team, he understood the choice.
“I used to be p***** off. I used to be jealous,” O’Neal said in a radio interview in the course of the 2012 NBA Finals.
“But then I had to come back to the belief that I used to be a more explosive, more powerful player, but Christian Laettner was slightly bit more fundamentally sound than I used to be. Plus he stayed all 4 years and graduated. … I just think it helped me grow as a player.”
Shaq’s near inclusion on the Dream Team stays one in every of the nice basketball ‘what ifs’.
While the concept of Shaq linking up with MJ and Barkley is the stuff of hoop dreams, the fact is that they didn’t actually need him to succeed.
Team USA won their games by a median of 43.8 points and scored greater than 100 points every game en path to the gold medal.
In addition they averaged 117.3 points per game, an Olympic record, and would have destroyed any opposition they faced, with or without Shaq.
