"I know the team in 1960 was a hell of a lot tougher than we were" - Bird on whether the Dream Team was better than the 1960 U.S. Men's basketball team

In 2010, the 1992 Dream Team was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame together with another Olympic team that was as dominant as them.

The 1960 U.S. men's basketball team at the Rome Olympics was a star-studded group led by Oscar Robertson and Jerry West . Like the Barcelona-bound 1992 squad, it massacred its opponents by a winning margin of more than 40 points per contest en route to the gold medal.

Before their Hall of Fame induction, the two teams did not avoid intrigue as they were compared against each other. Karl Malone said they would beat the 1960 team by 20. Jerry West disagreed. "No chance," said The Logo. Larry Bird had a safe answer.

"I don't know who had the best team, but I know the team in 1960 was a hell of a lot tougher than we were," said Bird. "Because I couldn't imagine the '92 team getting in them covered wagons for eight days, going across the country, jumping in the Atlantic Ocean, swimming for six days, then walking 3,000 miles to the Colosseum in Rome — for a dollar a day."

The 1960 team was also a Dream Team but without the fanfare

Bird's description of the 1960 team's Olympic journey was an exaggeration except for the $1 per diem, which West confirmed was true. But without a doubt, Pete Newell's all-amateur team didn't enjoy the luxury and style that the 1992 team enjoyed on their way to Spain. Yet the Big O says they were a Dream Team , too.

"We didn't have all the publicity that the guys did. We didn't have the guys with Nike and these types of shoe companies and doing all these types of things all over the world and whatnot and riding on private planes," Robertson said .

Oscar's team used the American military academy West Point as its training grounds. They lived in dormitories and ate at mess halls. The team flew to Geneva for their exhibition games via an overcrowded plane that carried other American athletes before heading to Rome via train.

Related: Phil Jackson on race differences he saw in players' approach to the game: "White players are more often willing to work collectively"

They were as dominant as the Dream Team

However, once there, they accomplished the mission as dominantly as the 1992 Dream Team did. The 1960 U.S. men's basketball team swept their games and defeated their opponents by an average winning margin of 42.4 points while scoring an average of 101.9 points per game.

Robertson and Jerry Lucas led the team in scoring at 17.0 PPG apiece. Three other players scored in double digits, including West, who averaged 13.8 PPG for the team. They defeated the U.S.S.R 81-57 in the quarterfinals, Italy 112-81 in the semis, and Brazil 90-63 in the gold medal game.

The 1992 U.S. men's basketball team is considered the original Dream Team and the best assembly of hoppers in history. Their 1960 counterparts were, without a doubt, the best amateur basketball team ever assembled and had a legitimate claim as the first Dream Team. As to who was better, we will never know, but they could have beaten the 1992 version because they were indeed tougher and arguably played with more pride.

Related: Oscar Robertson claims that a 1960 'Dream Team' would beat the 1992 Dream Team in a hypothetical showdown: "They never would have beat us, how could they?"