Paul Pierce Shares Polarizing Take On The 2024 USA Men’s Basketball Team

Many consider the 1992 USA men’s Olympic basketball team to be the greatest ever assembled.

Former Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce is not one of them, however. During a recent episode of FS1’s “Undisputed,” Pierce boldly stated that this year’s USA men’s Olympic basketball team would easily beat the ’92 Dream Team, which boasted a roster of many of the top NBA players of all-time including Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Scottie Pippen and more.

“This team would dominate the 1992 team,” Pierce said . “Larry Bird couldn't play no more; he was done. Magic was done, pretty much. Who was their best player, Michael Jordan? He wasn't even the best player in the Olympics. The best player was Charles Barkley.

“This team this year would dominate that team. Who's going to guard LeBron? First of all, style of play would've been too much for the Dream Team. They couldn't shoot the 3. Who did they have down low? They had David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, and Charles Barkley. We can counter that with Embiid, [Anthony Davis], and Bam (Adebayo). Who's going to guard Kevin Durant? Who's going to guard Steph Curry?”

Pierce’s remarks are as just as puzzling as they are bold.

The 2024 USA men’s team has had a few close calls over the last few weeks. It edged Australia by six points on July 15 then barely squeaked out a 101-100 victory over South Sudan on July 20.

Conversely, the ’92 Dream Team, which was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009, won its games by an average of 44 points — the second-largest margin of victory in Olympics history — was the first to score over 100 points in every game and easily cruised to a gold-medal win.

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