After their dominating win in the Tournament of the Americas, the Dream Team proceeded to Monaco to spend their final preparations for the Barcelona Olympics . Aside from staying away from the public eye, USA Basketball looked at going to Monte Carlo as an opportunity for rest and recreation with all the exclusive casinos and golf courses.
But before the team traveled there, USAB Director Craig Miller led an advanced party to do a site survey on the hotel where they would be staying. During his recent interview on the Legends of the Sport podcast, Miller talked about how the Leows Hotel general manager underestimated the popularity of the Dream Team.
"We met with the people at the Loews Hotel, which is a pretty famous, very nice hotel in Monte Carlo," recalled Miller. "And the general manager was showing us around, and so this will be your ballroom space, and these are your rooms, and this is your dining area. And we started talking about security, and he said, he looked at us, and he was like, 'Security?' And we're like, 'Yeah, we're expecting a lot of fans, you know.' He says 'Oh this is Monte Carlo, he says 'There's kings and queens here all the time, they don't care."
Underestimating the Dream Team's popularity
Then-New York Giants co-owner Robert Tisch owned the former Loews Hotel in Monte Carlo. Tisch happened to be a friend of the late NBA commissioner David Stern, so he negotiated the Dream Team's stay there.
The general manager that Miller was talking about was Monaco artist Henri Lorenzi, who at that time was Vice President (Europe) for Loews Hotel & Casino Monte Carlo. According to Dream Team chronicler Jack McCallum , Lorenzi boasted to the USAB party that his hotel is frequented by royalties, politicians, movie stars, and even tennis legend Bjorn Borg so the people in Monte Carlo could care less about the NBA basketball players.
But as soon as the bus carrying the Dream Team arrived at the hotel's parking lot, it was mobbed by hundreds of fans, even if it was already past midnight. McCallum even wrote that some fans crashed through the glass doors at the entrance. And all Lorenzi could say was, 'I get your point.' That was just the beginning.
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It was like being around rock stars
When they got to Barcelona, the crowds got bigger. Miller talked about thousands of people outside their hotel just waiting to see the Dream Team walk 20 yards to the bus. He added that there were people camped outside the hotel 24 hours daily. It was so crazy that the late Chuck Daly , who coached the Dream Team, once described it as being around a collection of rock stars .
"It was like Elvis and the Beatles put together," Daly said . "Traveling with the Dream Team was like traveling with 12 rock stars. That's all I can compare it to."
But what was even more unbelievable was that it wasn't just the fans who were starstruck by the Dream Team. Even their opponents in the Barcelona Olympics were so amazed that it seemed like it was more important for them to take pictures with Team USA rather than beat them in the games. Ultimately, the Dream Team won the gold medal, winning by an incredible margin of 44 points per game.
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