SH Blog: Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan laugh at Kobe Bryant’s opinion

Kobe Bryant got bold yesterday during an interview, stating that the current USA Team would edge out the 1992 Dream Team, widely known as the greatest team ever assembled. You can’t blame Bryant for sticking up for his team, but even he sounded rather skeptical of what was coming out of his own mouth.

Bryant’s statement received notable attention from Charles Barkley, who went on The Mike Missanelli Show on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia to discuss how wrong Bryant was:

I just started laughing, because, how old is Kobe Bryant, 36? 34? And he’s calling us old? At the time we were only 28, 29 if you remember correctly. Michael Jordan and me are the same age. He’s two days older than me so we were both 29. Listen, other than Kobe, LeBron and Kevin Durant, I don’t think anybody else on that team makes our team, to be honest with you… That’s no disrespect. I ain’t got to badmouth them. But like I said, their point guards weren’t going to beat us. That’s a no-brainer.”

David Robinson also briefly chimed in on twitter:

Even Michael Jordan had to step in on Bryant’s opinion, saying he “absolutely laughed” at the notion that today’s team is better than the Dream Team, from Steve Reed:

“For him to compare the two teams is not one of the smarter things he ever could have done…

“I heard Kobe say we were not athletic,” said a smiling Jordan as he sat in a golf cart puffing on his cigar while waiting to tee off. “But we were smart. He said we were too old, but I was 29 and in the prime of my career. Pip (Scottie Pippen) was 26 or 27, (Charles) Barkley was 29, Patrick (Ewing) was 29 and Chris Mullin was 29. Almost everybody was still in their twenties.”

“Most of us were in the prime of our careers, at a point where athleticism doesn’t really matter,” said Jordan, the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. “You have to know how to play the game.”
Jordan shook his head when asked why he thinks Bryant made the comments.

“I imagine he’s trying to say it to legitimize his own Dream Team,” Jordan said. “But to me it’s not even a question what team is better.”

Jordan said Bryant is certainly entitled to his opinion – even though he said it’s just plain wrong.

“For him to make that comparison, it’s one of those things where it creates conversation,” Jordan said. “I guess we’ll never know. I’d like to think that we had 11 Hall of Famers on that team and whenever they get 11 Hall of Famers you call and ask me who had the better Dream Team. Remember now, they learned from us. We didn’t learn from them.”

So, who had the better team and who would have won?

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