Magic Johnson, the co-caption of the ‘Dream Team’, had previously expressed how iconic it was to form the team for the 1992 Olympics. Magic, who had the task of recruiting his co-captain Larry Bird and one of the biggest stars of the game, Michael Jordan, did not expect the reception the team USA would receive in the European country. But their presence had the team witnessing two different emotions directed towards them.

Speaking about the reception and the behaviors of the opposition, there was one man who had arguably the best seats in the whole world. ‘The Voice of Basketball’ was doing the commentary alongside Mike Fratello, and Quinn Buckner. Marv Albert handled play-by-play duties of the 1992 Barcelona Games and a few memories ought to stick with him.

It was during the practice games, Albert recalls on the Mark Jackson Show. The NBA players were making it to the Olympics for the first time after the 1989 amendment to allow professional players on the big stage. And the opposing teams were naturally excited to see them off-court. They surrounded the Dream Team, posed for pictures with them, and were friendly enough to have the Bulls legend putting his arm around his opponents. But as soon as the game started, the environment shifted. Albert believes it to be because of the dominance the Dream Team exuded.

“In the game, these guys end up pushing and shoving each other and then going crazy… There were really hard feelings for some reason, probably because the game was a blowout.” But once the game ended, it was all back to normal. The players took more photos with Team USA and once again the Dream Team obliged. Albert revealed that it would happen after every game because that’s how much-loved NBA superstars were.

Magic Johnson too shared a similar story about being overwhelmed with love. He even shared that some opposition players had their photographs at home which was unexpected for him and the team. Amidst all this love, there was a controversy in the game one of the Olympics.

Michael Jordan was upset by his then best-friend’s action

Before going to the first game, Magic Johnson described the euphoric moment when there were approximately 50,000 people to celebrate. They could feel the love of people. “As we went by they just was cheering but they were all of other countries, nobody from America, and it was the greatest moment for all of us to say wow we’re kind of special. Some people like us.”

The first game was against Angola, and at the time it was only the question of how many points would Team USA win by. However, during the game, Charles Barkley got physical and elbowed an Angolan named Herlander Coimbra. Barkley claims that he was frustrated by the Coimbra and he was the one who instigated it. But Chuck made things worse during the press conference when he poked at the massive famine problem of Angola.

“People told me to hit a fat guy next time, not a skinny one. That guy probably hadn’t eaten in a few weeks.” Micahel Jordan spoke to NBC after and was unhappy with how the first game played out. “We all tried to talk to him and say, hey, we still want to be liked,” Michael Jordan continued. “That’s one of those moves that wasn’t quite smart. Hopefully, we can get past that mistake.”

Barkley claimed that it was nothing personal and even befriended Herlander Coimbra. The team beat their opponents by an average of 43.8 points, which only added on to the love they received back then that still continues to exist.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr.”