Team USA’s 1992 Summer Olympics ‘Dream Team’ is one of the greatest teams ever assembled.

The star-studded squad featured an array of NBA legends including Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley.

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1992 Dream Team was unstoppable in Olympic playCredit: Getty
The roster of NBA Hall-of-Famers destroyed their opposition in Barcelona, Spain, that summer en route to the gold medal.

Team USA won their games by an average of 43.8 points and scored more than 100 points every game while averaging 117.3 ppg, an Olympic record.

They were virtually unbeatable.

Key word being ‘virtually’.

Prior to that summer’s Olympic Games, Team USA head coach Chuck Daly invited some of the country’s top college prospects to play several scrimmages against his all-conquering team.

Daly wanted to see how his collection of NBA idols would respond to adversity and told the youngsters to mimic international players.

The NCAA team was comprised of five future NBA All-Stars including Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Allan Houston and Jamal Mashburn.

In a 20-minute scrimmage in San Diego in June 1992, that team of college kids beat Team USA, with MJ, Bird and Magic in the lineup, by a reported scoreline of 62-54.

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Grant Hill was part of the college team who beat Team USACredit: Getty

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The Dream Team couldn’t handle future NBA All-Star Chris WebberCredit: Getty
It’s only the reported scoreline because Daly ordered the score to be removed from the board before media were allowed in.

“I was on the college team that beat the Dream Team, and so we practiced with them in La Jolla,” Grant Hill said in an interview in 2015.

“We beat them by 20,” he claimed.

“Houston hit 10 threes in the scrimmage. They couldn’t do anything with Webber. I’m telling you, Webber was killing these guys. We all had our moments. Bobby Hurley though, they couldn’t keep him out of the paint.”

“These young kids were killing us,” Scottie Pippen said about the scrimmage. “We didn’t know how to play with each other.”

Bird recalled: “Chris Webber was a man. I thought, ‘boy, that guy’s coming into the league. I gotta get out of here.

“We got killed today,” Jordan added.

“They beat us and they played well. We’re so out of sync and so unsure about things that we feel comfortable within normal situations. We don’t have any continuity at all. If they were in the Olympics, they’d win the silver medal.”

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Jordan and co took it personally and destroyed them the next dayCredit: Getty

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That defeat fuelled the Dream Team to winning Olympic goldCredit: Getty
“The first time we saw them, they looked like babies,” Charles Barkley said in an interview with GQ. “We were like, ‘Hey, man, let’s don’t kill these little kids.’ And they were playing like it was Game 7. Before we knew it, they upset us.”

The next day, Team USA got their revenge.

The Dream Team reportedly beat the college players by 100 points in the next scrimmage and the college prospects struggled to get the ball past half court.

“The next day, we couldn’t get the ball over half court,” Grant Hill recalled.

“We didn’t score a point, Chris Webber added. “Not one point. Not a point on a free throw, not a point in the game. We were the perfect wake-up call for them, and they were the perfect reality check for us.”

Coach Daly’s plan had worked wonders.

The Dream Team realised their fallibility and were shown they were not invincible.

Without that wake-up call from a bunch of teenagers, they might never have won the gold medal that summer.

Shortly after that humbling scrimmage the Dream Team flew to Spain and put on a show for the rest of the world.

They went 8-0 during Olympic play that year and secured a 117-85 blowout win over Croatia in the final.

The Dream Team’s official record was unblemished but their unofficial record featured one defeat.

“We’re the only team to beat the greatest team ever assembled,” Hill proudly claimed.

“It was one of the highlights of my career.”