Comparing the Dream Team to the 2024 Team USA men's basketball team

This year's USA men's national basketball team has some extremely high expectations as we look ahead to the Paris Olympics beginning next weekend. Rightfully so, considering they have four of the top ten scorers in the NBA from last season (Devin Booker, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Jayson Tatum). Most basketball minds anticipate that Team USA will come out with the gold for a 17th time, and will do so in dominating fashion. That is yet to be determing since the world has caught up with the United States in basketball.

With so much talent on the roster, it's only right to compare to who was once viewed as the greatest Olympic men's basketball team of all-time -- the Dream Team. Analyzing both rosters, there are definitely some eerie similarities. As most of us are aware, the Dream Team went undefeated at the 1992 Olympics Games in Barcelona, Spain, and destroyed their opponents. The closest game was the game against Puerto Rico, Team USA defeated them by 38 points in a 119-81 rout.

Comparing The Dream Team To the 2024 US Men's Team

Let's travel back to 28 years ago, when the Dream Team was announced. That team ended up consisting 11 Hall of Famers. While this year's Team USA likely only has seven, and it's still early for some of them. Those players would be LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, and Anthony Edwards. The jury is still out on a couple of these names, and even other players on the roster.

While the Dream Team has the upperhand in the future Hall of Famer category, they don't measure up to the amount of championships the current team has as a collective. Before 1992, Magic Johnson had the most rings with five (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88), Larry Bird had three titles (1981, 1984, 1986), while Jordan and Pippen had just won their second consecutive title in 1991-92. That gives the Dream team 12 titles before the 1992 Olympics.

This year's Team USA has 14 championships as a unit. James and Curry have the most with four titles each. With the Boston Celtics 2024 NBA Finals Championship, that gives guard Jrue Holiday two NBA championships (Milwaukee in 2021 and Boston in 2024), which ties him with Kevin Durant who won two with the Golden State Warriors (2017-18). Davis and Tatum's one title win each puts this year's team ahead of the Dream Team by two.

While the two teams are similar in terms of talent and championships, the biggest difference is age. The best players on the Dream Team were typically 30 years old or younger. This year's team has three players who also happen to be the best players on the team 35 years or older (James, Curry, Durant). Holiday almost cracked the list at 34 years old.

Considering that this year's U.S. Olympics team has more years played, The Dream Team has the edge in NBA MVP awards. Johnson, Bird, and Jordan had nine MVPs, while this year's team totals one shy with eight. James has four, Curry has two, and Embiid and Durant have each won one (Embiid should have two but that is an argument for another day).

The two teams will go down in history as some of the best the United States will ever have to offer. It is good to see the games' best representing the red, white, and blue and playing against all of the talent all around the world. As mentioned earlier in this piece, the game is different today, and there is tremendous talent all around the world. It will make things a lot tougher for this year's US Olympic team, much more so than the Dream Team.

They are quite the same, yet they're two very different teams and eras.