Text: Denise Mirás

At the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, the USA ‘Dream Team’ featuring some of the greatest basketball players of all time romped to gold with a string of performances that became part of global sporting folklore. However, a plucky group of Brazilian players had played a crucial role five years earlier in Indianapolis.

Going into the final of the Pan-American Games, the USA team had never lost a match on home turf. But on 23 August 1987, Brazil stunned the Americans, coming from behind with a barrage of three-pointers to win 120-115. It was a game that helped changed world basketball.

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It changed not only important tactical aspects of the game, but also how the Americans thought about their Olympic team, who had been amateur up to this point. This shocking defeat added considerable weight to the idea of calling up the best professional players, the cream of the NBA. When a USA team made mostly of college players lost to the Soviet Union in the semi-finals of the Seoul 1988 Games, the momentum became unstoppable.

Three-point revolution

The three-point shot, which had to be taken from outside the line that ran 6.25m line from the basket, was approved by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) in 1984. However, it was not a commonly used tactic in the USA, where it was often seen as gimmick. But for Brazil coach Ary Vidal, it was the perfect weapon to make up for the smaller average height of his players.

Vidal’s game-plan was to use the speed of the counter-attack, with quick centre Gérson scooping up rebounds off the backboard and feeding the ball back behind the three-point line to Oscar Schmidt, Marcel Souza, Cadum and Paulinho Villas Boas. Schmidt was particularly devastating, scoring 46 points as Brazil overturned a 14-point half-time deficit to win. The New York Times reported that Schmidt would live long in the memories of the 16,408 fans at Market Square Arena, saying the 29-year-old “shot three-pointers from practically every spot on the court.”

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According to Souza, their 1987 victory game changed world basketball. The game became more open, faster, and by 1989 “everyone was taking advantage of the three-point shot.” Schmidt said several NBA teams copied Brazil’s tactics, which had only been possible because of their intense training.

The Brazilian team held a 25-year reunion in São Paulo in 2012, when Souza (who scored 31 in the final) revealed that between the Wednesday and the Sunday of the final they trained in double sessions. He also admitted that during the game the Brazilians provoked their opponents: pushing, shoving and talking trash. The Americans “started arguing with us and forgetting to play, while we passed the ball around” and closed the gap.

Paulinho Villas Boas, who was Brazil’s small forward in 1987 and is now Rio 2016’s basketball manager, said he later found out why the award ceremony was delayed: there was no recording of the Brazilian national anthem in the gymnasium and the Americans had to pick one up from the football stadium. After 15 seconds of the anthem the recording ended, but the Brazilian players sang the rest out loud.

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Rolando, the centre who was a university student in Houston, paraded around campus with the gold medal hung around his neck for a week. Schmidt recalled their trip around the USA after the Pan-American Games: “I saw some kids playing on a court. There was a long-distance shot and a shout of “Oooooscar Schmidt!” imitating the commentator in the final. It made me enormously proud, because I was in the home of basketball.”

The stuff of dreams...

The Barcelona 1992 Games saw NBA players take to the Olympic court for the first time (Photo: USA Basketball/Andrew D. Bernstein)

From the disappointments of 1987 and 1988, an all-American sporting legend was born. Led by three of the game’s all-time greats: Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, the USA team took gold at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, beating its eight opponents by an average of 44 points. Off the court, the scenes were just as amazing.

“Travelling with the ‘Dream Team’ was like travelling with 12 rock stars. It was like Elvis and the Beatles put together”

Chuck Daly, USA basketball coach at Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games