A name like the Dream Team understandably comes with baggage. Who could make up a roster so great, the result can only be described as a dream? In the basketball world, guys like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Karl Malon-shall I go on?
These men were recruited to represent the United States in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the first year in which NBA players would be allowed to play as Olympians. No pressure.
But as Michael Tolajian's new documentary WE BEAT THE DREAM TEAM showcases, pressure builds diamonds. Pressure, in this case, comes in the form of the Select Team, a group of collegiate players and future NBA superstars (Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway and more), tasked to stress-test the Dream Team before the Olympics.
And it's on a fateful day during the first scrimmage between this practice squad and their Hall-of-Fame counterparts that the unthinkable happens: The Select Team wins.
WE BEAT THE DREAM TEAM is part insider basketball, part history lesson, told 30+ years later with the same youthful exuberance by the gents who achieved what was considered impossible. The best teams internationally got whooped by the Dream Team to the tune of 30-40 point blowouts. These 19-to-21-year-old college students were the only ones who - ever - beat them. Talk about your underdog sports stories, am I right?
WE BEAT THE DREAM TEAM premieres on Max February 17th.---
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