We Beat The Dream Team is a fantastic documentary about the college kids who were selected to practice against the greatest collection of NBA players ever, the first Dream Team in 1992. One player was missing from that team, and his absence then has led to his absence from the show… and it’s adding insult to injury. Shaquille O’Neal is one of the great players and one of the greatest personalities the NBA has ever seen, so it was a bummer when he wasn’t chosen as the lone college player to be included in that legendary lineup in 1992. Shaq didn’t play with the Select Team and I can’t help but think about how much more fun an already really fun documentary would be with the legendary Hall of Famer and broadcaster for Inside The NBA.
The Choice Of Christian Laettner Was Understandable But Frustrating
If you don’t remember or weren’t around three decades ago when the NBA decided to allow its players to play in the Olympics, the selection of the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team or the soon-to-be-named “Dream Team” was a huge deal. Then the names started coming out. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton… the list was incredible. 12 players in total, 11 of whom were, at the time, well on their way to the Basketball Hall of Fame. One player was chosen from the college ranks to more or less pay tribute to the previous Olympic teams that were made up entirely of college amateurs. Other “Dream Teams” have come and gone, but none quite like the first.
Christian Laettner was the one college player selected. It wasn’t a horrible pick, and it’s easy to understand why. Laettner was coming off back-to-back NCAA Championships as the leader of the Duke Blue Devils. But — and there is a big “but” here — he was not the best player in the college ranks in 1992. No, that honor went to LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal. When the decision by USA Basketball came down to take Laettner over O’Neal, it was understandable, but I was left frustrated. Shaq was incredible and his selection as the #1 pick in the draft in June proved how dominant he was in college. Alas, he was left home (and spending money). The documentary, which is streaming with an HBO Max subscription, doesn’t get into why Laettner was chosen over O’Neal for the team, or why O’Neal wasn’t even at the practices.
Shaq Wasn’t On The Select Team, So He Wasn’t In The Documentary
For reasons only known to USA Basketball and O’Neal himself, he wasn’t one of the eight college players chosen to play as “crash test dummies” in the practices and scrimmages for the Dream Team before the Olympics in Barcelona. It’s likely a simple explanation, Shaq was on his way to the draft later in the same month so it didn’t make sense for him to be part of the team and risk injury or anything. Alonzo Mourning, another future Hall of Famer left off the Dream Team and Select Team would go second in the draft.
The Select Team was also pretty stacked with college players like Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, the late Eric Montrose, Penny Hardaway, and Allen Houston, among others. But no Shaq. And so that meant when this documentary was made, we weren’t graced with O’Neal’s wit and charm, and for that, we missed out on all that he brings to something like We Beat The Dream Team. Some of the best anecdotes in the documentary are about the trash-talking that went on between the All-Stars and the college kids. Those are the kind of stories everyone wants to hear about Shaq and it’s a bummer we didn’t get to because of a controversial decision made 30-plus years ago.