1992 Dream Team vs. 2024 Team USA competition

In 1992, the non-USA field only had 6 active NBA players. Today? More than 6x that.

A young Toni Kukoc attacks Larry Bird and Michael Jordan in Barcelona. (Photo by Manny Millan /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

Inevitably, some comparisons will be drawn between the 2024 Team USA squad in France and the 1992 Dream Team that enchanted the world with Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Magic Johnson and company.

To that end, I want to take a swing at something that caught my eye recently:

The drastically different level of competition.

On Wednesday, Team USA will tip off against South Sudan for its second game in the Group play round.

Don’t listen to Gilbert Arenas — South Sudan is a formidable Olympic opponent as well as an inspiring story. They absolutely belong in the tournament, flexing three current or former NBA players. Wenyen Gabriel, Carlik Jones and Marial Shayok have all suited up for NBA teams in recent years. Others on the roster could eventually make it to the league soon.

This is not 1992 Angola. To put it in perspective, the South Sudan team boasts more NBA players than almost every opponent of the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona.

The 1992 Summer Olympics is often cited as the big bang for international basketball because of the star power of the Dream Team. I hadn’t quite realized how shallow the global talent pool was until I dug into the rosters for the 1992 Olympic squads.

Here’s what I found: Only one team, Croatia, boasted multiple players who was actively playing in the NBA in the summer of 1992, and they only sported two such players, Drazen Petrovic and Stojko Vrankovic. Three others on the roster — Toni Kukoc, Dino Radja and Zan Tabak — would come to the NBA later.

Think about that. Croatia, which took home silver in Barcelona, represented the stiffest competition for Team USA but they only had two active NBA players and five total when we look at the roster’s entire careers.

Do you know how many non-USA teams in the 2024 men’s basketball field have multiple NBA players? Not one. Not two. Try eight. That’s right, eight of the 11 USA opponents today have as much active NBA players as the strongest non-USA team in 1992.

A reminder: here’s how many NBA players are on each men’s squad in 2024.

If we are more charitable to Croatia and just look at players who would eventually play in the NBA (five total), Croatia would have ranked tied for eighth in today’s field in terms of players with NBA experience.

Take a look at this chart below (link).

Only one 1992 team — Croatia — cracks the Top 10 in terms of NBA players among 1992 and 2024 competition. And that probably overstates Croatia’s talent level considering it’s forward-looking. We don’t know how many international players on these rosters will eventually break into the NBA at a later date like Kukoc did in 1993. If/when they do, Croatia’s team would likely be bumped out of the Top 10 above. On that note, South Sudan’s Khaman Maluach, who is a 7-foot-2 tall 17-year-old, is playing at Duke next season and projects to be a lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

In 1992, there were eight active NBA players on non-USA teams. This year there are 42 by my count. That’s over five times as many NBA players. In fact, Australia alone has as many NBA players than the non-USA field in 1992 (eight).

Again, South Sudan is legit. Looking at total NBA players, South Sudan (toggle to the next Page in the chart above) has as many players with NBA experience (four) as the 1992 Unified/Russia team did and more than Germany, Lithuania, Brazil and Spain. Assuming Maluach makes it to the league, South Sudan will have as many NBA players as the team that silvered in 1992, Croatia.

I should note that this isn’t a perfect measure of NBA “talent” considering that Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt never played in the NBA though he was considered one of the greatest international talents ever. Also, Arvydas Sabonis didn’t count here as an active NBA player though he was undoubtedly good enough to play in the league but didn’t make it over until 1995 when he was past his prime.

But even still, the lesson here is that the 1992 Dream Team, as good as they were, faced nothing like the competition of the current 2024 squad. Americans only have ourselves to thank.

A little update from the Editor (me): Olympics data from 32 years ago can be a little tricky especially when you’re dealing with foreign languages. Post-publish, I realized I missed a couple NBA players from the 1992 Olympics because of nicknames/alternate spellings of their name: Brazil’s João “Pipoka” Vianna and Unified/Russia’s Alexander “Sasha” Volkov.

Vianna played one game in his NBA career. Volkov played two seasons in the league, his final season coming in 1991-92 just before Barcelona.

So that brings my total to eight “active” NBA non-USA players in the 1992 Olympics, which is equal to the 2024 Australia team count. The previous edition had just six active NBA players in the 1992 field.

I also missed J.T. Thor from the South Sudan team. The Charlotte Hornet was left off South Sudan’s preliminary list and I had forgotten to add him back on. Thor makes it 42 active NBA players on non-USA teams compared to 1992’s total of eight — a 5x difference.

Here’s the full list from 1992 (if I’m missing anyone, please let me know!):

Croatia - Active NBA: Drazen Petrovic, Stojko Vrankovic; Not active NBA: Dino Radja, Toni Kukoc, Zan Tabak

Australia - Active NBA: Luc Longley; Not active NBA: Andrew Gaze, Mark Bradtke, Shane Heal

Unified/Russia - Active NBA: Sasha Volkov; Not active NBA: Gundars Vetra, Sergie Bazarevitch

Germany - Active NBA: Detlef Schrempf; Not active NBA: Uwe Blab

Lithuania - Active NBA: Sarunas Marciulionis; Not active NBA: Arvydas Sabonis

Brazil - Active NBA: João “Vianna; Not active NBA: Rolando Ferriera

Venezuela - Active NBA: Carl Herrera; Not active NBA: None

Puerto Rico - Active NBA: none; Not active NBA: Ramon Rivas, Jose Ortiz

Angola - Active NBA: none; Not active NBA: None

Spain - Active NBA: none; Not active NBA: None

China -Active NBA: none; Not active NBA: None