Leading up to the 1984 Olympics, Team USA — consisting of college players Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Sam Perkins and Chris Mullin, among others — played an exhibition against a crop of certified NBA stars that included Magic, Isiah, Alex English and Larry Nance. Led by Jordan’s 27-point outing, the college kids won by double-digits.
If you put together a team of 2008 collegians and lined them up against a collection solid-to-star caliber pros, is there any chance the college kids steal a win?
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October 14th, 2008 at 9:31 am
yallallreadyknow says:
depends….
who’s officiating the game?
October 14th, 2008 at 9:46 am
chaos says:
no way in bloody hell! put kobe, AI, CP3, deron, lebron, carmelo, dwight and co vs college players and you would see an 80 point shellacking. those guys aren’t ready to go against seasoned full grown men
October 14th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Daily boy says:
No, Not in this day & age, with the players listed above in comment #2. I don’t no any college players who could even hang.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:10 am
MSkittle says:
Wow, awesome job. I never knew this game existed. Jordan’s shot form looked different back then too.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:34 am
the_don_mega says:
those are not college kids in that video!!! they’re from outer space!!! out of this freakin’ world!!! LOL!!! anyway… nah! Psycho T would get beasted if it’d happen…
October 14th, 2008 at 10:39 am
CDiz says:
Difference in back then and today is the amount of time kids stayed in school. Ewing was a senior, Jordan a Junior. I mean imagine if talents like Bron, Howard, CP3 all stayed until their senior years and played the NBA guys. Then I think it most certainly could happen no doubt. But with the state of the game today there is no chance in bloody hell.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:09 am
peoples champ says:
There’s no way Jordan shouldnt have been the number one pick I dont care if portland had drexler. They said jordan was playing the 1,2 and 3 .
That just dumb
October 14th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Big Sia says:
NBA would murk
October 14th, 2008 at 11:50 am
John says:
Wow, never saw this game, Jordan was amazing ,,, can you imagine if Jordan had played with a dominant center for his entire carrer ?? 9, 10 rings ,,,
October 14th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Ian says:
peoples champ
sorry but hakeem was the number one choice easy
u mean jordan should have been 2. but u cant blame portland they already had their hof sg.
now a team of college kids vs
paul
kobe
lebron
garnett
duncan
hell no
well if the ref is crawford they might have a chance.
in the mid 90s
college team of
iverson
pierce
marion
duncan
camby
vs
kidd
jordan
pip
malone
david or hakeem or shaq
would be a good game
October 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Ian says:
john
maybe he wins less then 6 maybe they win in 94 without him and we consider jordan overrated so dont assume he woulda won more because he did play with a power foward that did the job of a center on defense.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
the_don_mega says:
@ Ian…
Matrix was drafted in 99, that doesnt make him a college kid in the mid 90’s
list should look like this… (taken from draft classes 94 and 95
J-Kidd
Stackhouse
Grant Hill
KG
Sheed
throw in Finley,Joe Smith,Eddie Jones, Glenn Robinson and McDyess for bench power
“we consider jordan overrated…” - REALLY NOW????
October 14th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
John says:
@ Ian
Jordan would find a way to be champion ,,, If you put Jordan and Ewing on the same team ,,,, my God ,,, Thats what set Jordan apart, he always find a way to beat you ,,, I ‘m saying that with a dominant center, he would have won 9 or 10 rings … Took 7 years to win the first , if they won 2 back , is already 8 rings ,,,
October 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Mike says:
I really think that the worst team record wise in the NBA should have to play a game against the NCAA March Madness champ at the end of every season. It would be a punishment for NBA teams tanking to get more ping-pong balls.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Dagomar says:
That NBA team wasn’t head and shoulders better in terms of talent than the college kids. Right now the NBA team would be WAY more talented than the college team, know how to play together (many of them anyway, from Team USA and the all-star game), and be way more experienced.
That said, any team can beat any team on any given day. But today the NBA stars win 99% of the time.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Ian says:
don mega
sorry but if marion was drafted in 99 means he was in college the same time duncan was in 97
you made the mistake by listing kg. what college was he drafted from??
u apparently didnt understand what i meant with the jordan overrated part take of the jordan goggles and u will CLEARLY see what i meant.
john
team chemistry wouldnt be the same to many stars together sometimes doesnt work
laker 04 portland late 90s early 00s are examples of this.
another thing is that u might not get the other pieces that made the team work having another superstar.
besides u could really say the same thing about every other superstar with multiple chips
imagine duncan with a pippen type sf
imagine robinson with a kobe type sg
imagine hakeem with a kidd type pg
imagine wilt with a cousy type pg
October 14th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
doc says:
ANYBODY CAN BEAT ANYONE AT ANYTIME.HELL YEAH COLLEGE KIDS COULD WIN.IT MIGHT BE ONCE OUT OF 500 BUT IT CAN HAPPEN.USA TEAM AINT WIN EVERY SCRIMMAGE THIS SUMMER AGAINST MAYO AND ROSE.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Derik says:
LOL! I heard Michael Jordan could become the next Walter Davis…wow
October 14th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
chronically_ill says:
Hmmm, I dont know if the 2008 class can hang with All-Stars, but last year’s class can definitely give NBA All-Stars a challenge. D.Rose at point, Mayo at the 2, Rush at the other wing, Beasley at power forward and Kevin Love at center with Stephen Curry, CDR, Darrell Arthur and Russell Westbrook coming off the bench isnt a bad lineup at all.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
chronically_ill says:
Anyone know how good the incoming freshmen class is? Are there any one-and-done type players like Durant, Beasley, Rose in this class? Cuz most of the upperclassmen seem like they’ll be role players at best in the league (like Collison, Psycho T).
October 14th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Scottie says:
Dont any of u guys remember 1996 when Tim Duncan and company on the USA Select team of college players gave the 96 Olympic team a major scare in a warmup exibition.
Duncan took it to the Admiral and I remember Brevin Knight haveing one hell of a game
I cant remember who else was on the USA select team but the Olympic team had Pippen,Barkley,Payton,Robinson,Hakeem,Shaq,Malone,Stockton,Ritchmond and Miller
They had to fight hard to squeeze out the win
Peace
Scottie
October 14th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
junior says:
like someone pointed out earlier this couldn’t happen to day because the good kids leave after 1 year.
Magic was a beast on the break. watching this just made me go search for that highlight vid of his. No one even comes close to his skills running the break
October 14th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Red says:
Ian= jordan hater
This is classic.. another FAN tortured by the 90’s bulls team..lol.
“Led by Jordan’s 27-point outing, the college kids won by double-digits.” JUST another reason jordan is considered the best.
October 14th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
John says:
From what I saw of Jordan, whoever you put at his side, the team was in the W list ,,, I’m just saying that every team that went to win NBA Championship in the last 30 years , won with a dominant Big men ,,, except ??? Chicago Bulls ,,, So , what a take from this, is that Jordan won with small foward being the nunber 2, can you imagine with a center ? I have a lot of respect for Scottie, but I’m not buying the argument that CHicago was special because of Pippen. Chicago was good because Jordan. Take out Pippen and put Ewing with Jordan ,,,
Harper
Jordan
Kukoc
Rodman
Ewing
I rest my case ,,,
October 14th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
justin says:
Thank you Dimemag. Crazy video. Never know this game took place. I hate Billy Packer but what he said at the 4 minute mark about MJ was classic. MJ was so damn good! That high arching shot in the last seconds was insane.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
BrickLayer says:
Does anyone have a clip of duncan’s team giving the dream team fits?
October 15th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Ian says:
red
stfu
jordan hater???? im a spurs fan fool i dont give a fuck about the 90s bulls
so please if u dont know what john and i are talking about just stfu.
john
u are taking out pippen
hell man maybe they dont even win one
remember pippen was prob the best defensive player in the league and could play anyone
hes ranked higher than ewing in almost every alltime list i have seen.
its like i said imagine if duncan had kobe instead of jaren jackson in the late 90s ?
October 15th, 2008 at 4:21 am
kowtz says:
Please… the 84 draft was out of this world… much like the 96 and 03 draft…
Take the 96 college team and they could have, and I stress could have, beaten the 96 Allstar team…
96 amateur team:
C - Zydrunas Ilgauskas / Marcus Camby / Ben Wallace
PF - Jermaine O’Neal / Lorenzen Wright
SF - Antoine Walker / Peja Stoijakovic
SG - Kobe Bryant / Ray Allen
PG - Allen Iverson / Steve Nash / Stephon Marbury
96 Allstar Team:
C - Shaq / Olajuwon
PF - Kemp / Malone
SF - Pippen / Hill
SG - Jordan / Drexler
PG - Penny / Stockton
* Before you react… just take note that the Allstar team thrives on set offense… would have probably been outrun by the amateur team…
October 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
CJ says:
I don’t know if anybody mentioned it, but a lot of those guys on the 84 team went to college for 3-4 years. with the high schoolers and early college entrants dominating the draft as they’ve done in the past 10-15 years, it’s not a fair comparison. to make this a fair argument, guys like KD, Oden, Bynum should be thrown into the equation. What would make it even more interesting is if we go back a few years earlier. how would guys like LBJ, Carmelo, Howard and CP3 fair against pros if they stayed in college for 4 years?
October 27th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Billy says:
Very good topic- My friends and I debate this question all the time.
Football - NFL vs College
Take the Bengals, Chargers or another lower NFL team vs the best college teams - Texas, Alabama, Penn St. The NFL would crush the collge kids. Texas would lose 87-3 vs Chargers.
Baseball - MLB vs College
Every year the Atlanta Braves play exibition pre-season games vs Georgia Tech. I think Georgia Tech was ranked #1 two years ago when the Braves beat them something like 12-1 then 15-3. If you’d have the Phillies play the College World Series champion in a seven game series, the Phillies would dominate every game…not even close, maybe 18 to 0 or 20 to 1 in every game.
Basketball - NBA vs College
I know every one says the college kids wouldn’t stand a chance. But think about this, Our best… Team USA, up until this year, struggled with international teams. Puerto Rico beat us and Mexico scored a 100 points on us. Nothing against neither team,Puerto Rico has some awesome players and Mexico can flat out shoot and run the ball, but having said that, we should have crushed these guys by 30 or 40 points…correct?
If you took, lets say Germany with Dirk, and played North Carolina at the Dean Dome playing college rules, N. Carolina wins hands down.
I think college kids would have a shot at winning against an NBA team, more so than any other of the professional sports. Last year if you would have played a seven game series between the Miami Heat and the Kansas Jayhawks, the Heat would have won the series no questions asked, but Kansas would have won 1 if not 2 games in that series. True, no college team or college all star team could beat a NBA team in a seven game series, but again THEY WOULD WIN A COUPLE OF GAMES against the worst of the NBA. IF YOU’D HAVE TAKEN THE CELETICS AGAINST KANSAS? BLOWOUT EVERY GAME BY 25 OR 35, EASILY.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Dream34 says:
All this Without the Best college player!!!He wasn’t a citizen at the time. #1 draft pick that year.