The Day the Dream Team Debuted and Cuba Left With the Tournament's Best Quote: 136-57

On June 28, 1992, at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, the greatest team ever assembled played its first official game. It won by 79 points, shot 72% from the field, and left a scene that summed up the entire tournament: opponents asking for a photo before tip-off.

The photo before the game

Before tip-off, both teams lined up together at center court for a team photograph. The idea came from the Cubans. David Aldridge reported it in the Washington Post, in a chronicle that opened with the irony that Cuba's defense had managed to hold Michael Jordan to just two points in the first half.

That photo became the symbol of the summer. Cuba was the first of a long list of opponents who arrived at the game more focused on the camera than the scoreboard.

Nineteen weeks of preparation, nineteen seconds of game

Cuba had trained for nineteen weeks for the Americas Tournament. The game, wrote the Baltimore Sun, was decided in about nineteen seconds. Larry Bird opened the scoring with a mid-range shot after working in the post, and from there the script never changed: full-court pressure, steal, fast break.

At halftime, 67-27. The United States finished shooting 72% from the field. Clyde Drexler, a Trail Blazers player and therefore the local favorite, closed out the game with a dunk at the buzzer that set the final margin at 79 points in front of his own crowd.

Barkley, the 6.25-meter line, and the cover team

Chuck Daly started with Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bird, Charles Barkley, and David Robinson. Within minutes the score was already up by twenty.

Barkley finished with 22 points and was the leading scorer for a team that got seven players into double figures. Drexler, with 20 points and 7 assists and 8-of-9 shooting, was the game's standout performer. John Stockton dished out 12 assists and Magic had nine. Jordan finished with six points and didn't mind one bit.

https://youtu.be/W3EiPxGxb2g?si=zWtd6x1ZRNJ7b2q9

There's a technical detail that explains part of the onslaught: the FIBA three-point line was at 6.25 meters, nearly a meter closer than the NBA line at the time. For shooters like Bird or Chris Mullin it was a Christmas gift in June.

The quote

Miguel Calderón Gómez, Cuba's head coach, summed up the night with a saying that became one of the most memorable quotes of the summer of '92: you cannot cover the sun with one finger.

His center Félix Morales was equally honest. He said he had seen them on television, but seeing them in person was something else entirely, and for him it had been an honor. Marv Albert, who called the game, compared it to watching a high school team face a professional squad.

Barkley, true to form, entered the press room asking them to hurry because he had a tee time reserved. Later he admitted that no athlete likes to embarrass another. Daly, who was the group's official pessimist, warned that there would be close games ahead.

He was wrong. There weren't any.

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