Charles Barkley recalls Dream Team egos, crazy welcome in Barcelona '92 / News - Basketnews.com

Charles Barkley remembered the crazy matchups in Dream Team practices between him and Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler and Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Scottie Pippen, and Patrick Ewing and David Robinson: "Every day was like a Game 7."

Credit: REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine/File Photo, AP-Scanpix Credit REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine/File Photo, AP-Scanpix

NBA and international basketball legend Charles Barkley remembered the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 when the USA stopped joking with the rest of the world and sent the Dream Team, a squad formed of the U.S. superstars, with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird headlining the 12-man roster.

Charles Barkley

Position:SFAge:59Height:198 cmWeight:113 kgBirth place:United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

Chuck appeared on the All the Smoke podcast, co-hosted by Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, and pointed out that nothing comes close to the competition he faced in the Dream Team practices.

"It was crazy. First of all, we all got tremendous egos. You got to have an ego to be great. So Magic [Johnson] was pissed because Scottie [Pippen] just locked him up in the Finals. He wanted revenge," Barkley started.

"Clyde Drexler kept insinuating that he was just as good as Michael Jordan. And Michael was ballistic. So you got those two matchups, you got me and Karl Malone, who were two best power forwards in the world. We are the best two, but [my mindset] is that I am the one. Then you got Patrick [Ewing] and David [Robinson] trying to prove who's the best center in the world," 11-time NBA All-Star continued.

"'I want you to know,' everybody was going at it like that and it was so intense. And it was so much fun because we had respect. Karl is one of my best friends, but I wanted him to know, 'I'm the best motherf***ing power forward in the world.'

And I get a chance to prove it. ... Yeah, we get to prove it every day. So every day was like a Game 7. I mean it was so intense, but we still remained friends after it was over. But man, our egos... I've never been in my entire basketball life in things as intense as those practices. Everybody had something to prove, but it was so much fun though," Barkley recalled.

Having the best players on the planet and tough practices, made Dream Team unbeatable.

They defeated Angola (116-48), Croatia (103-70), Germany (111-68), Brazil (127-83), Spain (122-81), Puerto Rico (115-87), and Lithuania (127-86) on the way to the grand final. Dream Team met Drazen Petrovic, Dino Radja, and Toni Kukoc-led Croatia for the second time in the tournament's finale, but the European power was no match for the U.S. again (117-85).

"Michael Jordan was a man who took us worldwide, and David Stern who is a genius made the NBA a real international game," Barkley said. "Because when you talk to great players like Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Detlef Schrempf, and Tony Parker, that [Dream Team] is the first they really knew about NBA basketball.

People think basketball has always been on television. There used to be one game a week on NBC. There was no ESPN, there was no TNT so most people in my generation, they couldn't get games overseas and things like that. All those [international] guys, when you talk to them, they are like, 'Dream Team was my first recollection of NBA basketball.'"

Charles Barkley also expanded on the special reception Dream Team got when arrived in Barca.

"It was so crazy [in Barcelona]. I'll give you an example. So in our hotel, you couldn't get in unless you were on the Dream Team, NBA, or part of Olympic thing. But three to five thousand people were standing outside every day just to watch us get on the bus. I mean like they could only see us like 20 feet to walk to the bus. It was like three to five thousand people out there every single day," Chuck remembered.

"Along the highway... This s**t is crazy, on the side of the bus, we had a cop with them on front and a guy with a machine gun. On each side of the bus, we had three police cars in front, three police cars in the back, and a helicopter above the bus the whole time. So people knew we were coming.

Along the highway, there must have been thousands of people just standing on the side of the highway, just holding up signs. It was the craziest thing... Like we're driving, and there are people on the highway holding up Magic, Bird, Jordan signs. I mean it was surreal," Barkley continued.

"We were kind of in shock, to be honest with you. Because we didn't know how big it was going to be. We knew it was gonna be something but to see it live, 'Yo, man, there are three thousand people standing outside the hotel just to get a glimpse of us.' Obviously, Magic, Bird, and Michael were the three guys, but we were in a flow," Basketball Hall-of-Fame member and 1993 NBA MVP concluded.

Barkley won the gold medal at Barcelona as the USA's leading scorer at 18.0 points per game and also reached the top of the podium four years later at the Atlanta Olympics.

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