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Team USA Basketball: Exploring The “What If” Dream Teams Of Yesteryear

By Ray Petree

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The 1984 Team

Starters

G: Magic Johnson

G: Isiah Thomas

SF: Bernard King

PF: Larry Bird

C: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Reserves

SG: Sidney Moncrief

SG: Michael Jordan

SF: Julius Erving

SF: Adrian Dantley

PF: Kevin McHale

PF/C: Ralph Sampson

C: Moses Malone

Head Coach: Dean Smith

Assistant Coach: K.C Jones

Ahh, the ‘80s. The beginning of the so-called “modern era” of basketball. Financially speaking, sure. As far as quality? Certainly not. For basketball fans, this team certainly has the most name recognition, but ‘84 may have the most shallow talent pool of all the era’s observed. Of course Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar jump off the page, but who else really shined prior to the league’s massive talent boom?

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Constructing the starting lineup was tough for this team. Magic and Larry were no brainers, but I can’t say the same for the other three spots. At that point and time, no shooting guard appeared to be a shoe-win for the starting job.

Sidney Moncrief was a lockdown defender and capable scorer, but not a standout player. You could have Dr. J start at shooting guard, but by ‘84 Father Time had started catching up with him. But, what about Isiah Thomas?

Of course Zeke was the quintessential point guard, but he was more than capable of getting buckets when he was called upon. EDGE: Zeke

Then, at the small forward position you have Bird, King, Dantley, and the aforementioned Dr. J. In Bird’s case, the league was devoid of any transcendent power forwards at the time, so we’ll move Bird to the four to clear up space for the other great wings. As I stated earlier, the Good Doctor was starting to lose his step. And, while Dantley was an incredible scorer, it seemed like King had a million-and-one ways to get buckets. EDGE: King

Lastly, there’s our center. Of course, there’s really only two options. The ageless wonder known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the rebounding machine Moses Malone. I’m not sure whether it’s how far removed we are from Moses, or a lack of long term coverage by major sports outlets – or possibly a little bit of both – but Moses has been forgotten by the average fan.

He won three league MVP’s, a Finals MVP, and was apart of possibly the greatest team of all time. He famously promised the world that his Sixers would go a perfect 12-0 in the postseason, and almost did!

Sadly, his competition simply isn’t human. By ‘84, Kareem had already won three championships and six league MVP’s, and wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. Kareem was/is just an alien, and not even Moses’ profound advice or knack for crashing the offensive boards could compare to being an alien. EDGE: Kareem

So, with our starting five complete, how does the rest of the team fair? Well there are the aforementioned Moncrief, Dr. J, Moses, and Dantley. Then there’s Ralph Sampson, an incredibly skilled 7-foot-4 center who just completed his rookie season in Houston. And, the dominant post player Kevin McHale.

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Who inhabits that last roster spot though? Michael Jordan? Who is that? He’s the kid from UNC; why is he on the team? Let’s just say head coach Dean Smith knows something the rest of the world doesn’t yet.

Jordan is coming.

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