In our own time, the 1984 U.S. Olympic team is widely regarded as the best team until the 1992 Dream Team, the first year NBA players became eligible.
You could make a good argument for the 1960 team, though.
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This group includes names that most of us won’t recognize, like Jay Arnette, Burdette Haldorson and Lester Lane. They came to the team through AAU teams, and by AAU teams I mean the old-school, adult AAU teams, not the youth farm system we have today.
In addition to such players, the team also featured Walter Bellamy, Bob Boozer, Terry Dissinger, Dalal Imhoff, Adrian Smith, Jerry Lucas, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, all of whom went on to have outstanding careers in the NBA.
Their coach was Pete Newell, one of the greatest minds in the history of the game. That team won by an average of 42.4 points.
The team was so deep that John Havlicek and Lenny Wilkens were relegated to the bench, while four players went on to become NBA Rookie of the Year: Robertson in 1961, Bellamy in 1962, Dissinger in 1963 and Lucas in 1964.
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Put it this way: Jerry West No Win Rookie of the Year. That team was just that good.
In this video, West talks about the joy of winning the gold medal and how excited he was to hear the national anthem played. He called it “the most special moment of my life.”
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