The Dream Team

The proverbial term "Dream Team" has come up often recently in sports talk, more so than should be allowed. Why you ask? Well, sports experts nowadays like to prescribe sports teams with insurmontable labels in the hopes that their ludicrous headlines come to fruition at season's end. Does it ever happen? Sometimes. Is it safe to bet on it? Absolutely not. The term dream team was not really commonplace until 1992, when the United States Mens Basketball team sent a group of 12 men to the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. They dominated their opponents, winning by an average of 44 points on their way to defeating Croatia in the title game and winning the gold medal. The team featured 11 hall of famers, 2 of whom were just recently inducted, Dennis Rodman and Chris Mullin. Christian Laettner was the only member of the team who did not make the hall of fame. That team certainly deserved the label "dream team" and it has stuck since their victory in 1992. Sure, there have been excellent sports teams prior to 1992 like the great Yankee squads in the 1930's and 1950's and the dominating Celtic teams from the 1950's and 1960's. Yet, those teams were never designated "dream teams" primarily because the term had not yet been established by the press. In present day, where the press plays such an enormous role in sports talk and analysis, reporters are quick to pull the trigger on giving the label "dream team" to squads that possess what they believe are the capabilities to dominate their leagues. Of course, this does not always pan out and the Miami Heat are a prime example of that. Last summer, when the NBA still had an offseason, the league had perhaps its deepest free agent class in history. More than a dozen all stars were on the market and teams had been saving up for years just to get a piece of the prize. The undisputed winner of the free agent parade was the Miami Heat who were able to re-sign Dwayne Wade, and sign Chris Bosh and Lebron James, the most coveted player on the market. The second that trio came together, the NBA world quickly deemed the Miami Heat the dream team and the absolute team to beat for the upcoming season. Sure the Miami Heat had a good season but they did not break the Bulls 72 win record like many assumed they would, they did not win their conference like many assumed they would and they did not even win the NBA championship which seemed like a certainty when the trio joined forces. So clearly "dream team" does not always equal immediate success. In fact, the Heat went through a number of struggles during the season and in no way did they fulfill the definition of "dream team." Why am I telling you all of this? Well, the NFL is back and since the lockout cost the league a lengthy amount of free agency time, it was compounded into a short 2 week period prior to the start of the preseason. The undisputed winner of the NFL free agency game? The Philadelphia Eagles, who are receiving laudations from every corner for their team roster. Let's just point out that like the Miami Heat, the Eagles were being branded the dream team prior to any actual games being played. As the Miami Heat showed, it took an incredible amount of time for their lineup to mesh and it's safe to argue that they have still not completely jelled into a complete team. The Eagles shocked the football world when they swooped in and nabbed the prize of the free agent market Nnamdi Asomugha and traded their backup QB Kevin Kolb for Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and a draft pick, among other moves. Quickly, analysts were labeling the Eagles as the dream team for the upcoming season without a game even being played. If the past few years of the NFL has taught us anything, it's that any team can get hot at any time and surge into contention for the Super Bowl. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who chose the Green Bay Packers to win the title in the preseason and even more hard-pressed to find anyone who chose the Green Bay Packers to win the title during the season with the number of injuries they sustained. Yet, the Packers got hot when it counted and were Super Bowl champions in the end. So ultimately, dream team can be a curse more than a blessing. The 1992 Men's Basketball roster was a dream team because it featured 12 of the best players in the world. That distinction cannot be given for the Miami Heat or the Philadelphia Eagles. Sure, they've got star players who've proven in the past that they can perform. But is every player on their team sure-fire hall of famers? Absolutely not. In fact, more players on those teams are not potential hall of famers than are. If history has taught us anything, you'd be hard-pressed to find a real dream team other than the 1992 Men's basketball team. Until a roster like that is emulated again in professional sports, let's just leave the term dream team on the sidelines until it deserves its proper use. For now, let's just watch some damn sports.