Thirty years ago, P.J. Carlesimo was assistant coach of the greatest basketball team ever assembled. Now at age 73, he still travels the world to share his endless knowledge, writes ADAM PEACOCK.
P.J. Carlesimo is a walking library of basketball stories.
He’s seen it all. Coached in college, coached in the NBA.
And for one special month three decades ago, had a front-row seat to the greatest team ever assembled.
Carlesimo was assistant to Chuck Daly for Team USA at the 1992 Olympics. The Dream Team. Jordan, Magic, Larry and a supporting cast worth the world.
This week marked 30 years since the Dream Team won gold in Barcelona.
Time flies. And basketball has changed. It’s not just about the USA, then the rest of the world like it was in ’92.
It truly is a global sport, illustrated by a congregation of minds and talent this week in Canberra at the Basketball Without Borders (BWB) camp.
The bright shiny floors of the AIS basketball courts have been alive with elite youth from all over Asia. NBA scouts watched from the bleachers as current NBA stars and coaches helped the kids.
Carlesimo took it all in. At 73, he’s meant to be winding down. No chance. He drifted between courts, clipboard in hand, easily enthused by an impossible pass, monster dunk or brutal block.
And for anyone who wanted a story, he reached into his library.
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It will never happen again. Iconic players across eras, all in the one uniform, captivating the world.
In 1992 Carlesimo, then a successful college coach, was chosen to be an assistant to the late Chuck Daly to lead the Dream Team at the Barcelona Olympics.
The line-up of global icons coasted to gold, winning by an average of 44 points.
It looked easy, but what blew Carlesimo away was how the squad of squillionaires made sure it looked easy.
“In ’92 in the Olympics, the guys played their backsides off, you had seven guys on the team who never thought they’d get the chance to play in an Olympics,” Carlesimo tells CODE Sports.
“Magic [Johnson], Larry Bird, John Stockton, Charles Barkley. They were so pumped they finally got a chance to play.”
A week before Olympic competition, the Dream Team set up camp in Monte Carlo, the tiny enclave of the rich and famous, which Jordan and co. very much were.
But Carlesimo learned straight away the Dream Team wasn’t there to sink champagne on a yacht.
“All of them wanted to work,” Carlesimo says.
“David Robinson always wanted to know where there was a track, so he could run.
“Karl Malone, who always wanted to know where the gym was, so he could go lift his 900 pounds!
“Larry Bird, Chris Mullen, Patrick Ewing, would ask after practice to send the bus back for them later, they wanted to get more shots up.
“When we weren’t golfing, Michael (Jordan) would be shooting too.”
Jordan, whose popularity was soaring to the point of being the king among other royalty on the Dream Team, acts as the perfect example for Carlesimo for any player who wants basketball to be their calling.
“Michael’s path to greatness is a great story, because when Michael came into the league he was a good shooter, but not a great one.
“He got tired of getting put on his arse every time he came to the lane, he said hell, fix this, and he became great.”
After the Olympics, Carlesimo went from college to NBA head coaching at Portland, Golden State and Seattle, where he encountered a skinny rookie with serious intent, Kevin Durant.
In the present, Carlesimo doesn’t know “what the hell is going on” with Durant’s troubles at Brooklyn, but knew for certain he’d drafted a gem back in Seattle.
“We’d come back from a trip sometimes, I’d be in my office watching a tape, and it overlooked the court. If the lights came on, and I heard a ball bouncing I knew exactly who it was. Durant.
“He knew he got it.”
As generations have moved from one to the next, Carlesimo has noticed the constants and the changes.
The constant remains the work ethic of the greats, like Jordan and Durant.
The big change is the fact the world has caught up.
“In those days the international players were literally asking for autographs. They were in awe,” Carlesimo says.
“Now that’s out the window, those guys know they are just as good. No more fear.”
The story of Lithuanian Arturas Karnisovas doubles down on Carlesimo’s summation best.
Back in 1992 in Barcelona, the Dream Team smashed Lithuania in the semi-final, but as time wound down, Karnisovas could be seen near his team’s bench, in full playing kit, with a camera, taking happy snaps.
Karnisovas is now the Chicago Bulls’ Executive Vice President.
From papping Jordan to presiding over the house he built.
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Even before the Dream Team, Carlesimo sensed the value of looking beyond US borders for players.
Through the 1980s, Carlesimo coached Seton Hall, a college in New Jersey not known for basketball success.
“We couldn’t get the elite US kids, so we had to look outside, from Puerto Rico, Italy, even Australia with Andrew (Gaze),” Carlesimo says.
“We’d just go and identify a kid, we didn’t recruit against anybody. Just picked the guy!”
Oddly enough, Karnisovas, the amateur photographer from Lithuania was actually a Seton Hall player at the time, scouted by Carlesimo.
There wasn’t a place he wouldn’t go to find talent.
“I was in Israel once for 18 hours. Saw a huge game in Tel Aviv, was on a flight the next day, and we got the kid!” he says, still impressed with himself.
Carlesimo had little inkling at the time, but his little secret of farming for international talent ended the moment the Dream Team draped themselves in American flags on the gold medal dais in Barcelona.
The world’s eyes were widened about the gaggle of superstars in the one uniform. So did the NBA’s. Then-Commissioner David Stern saw the possibilities, with both revenue and reputation. Why not make the entire NBA into one big international festival?
At the start of the 1991-92 season, which led to the Dream Team’s showing in Barcelona, just 23 players from outside the US were on NBA rosters.
Last year, that number hit 107 on opening night.
The NBA’s emerging superstars are every bit as likely to be from any number of nations, not just America.
The 2022 MVP race was won by Serbian Nikola Jokic, followed by Cameroon’s Joel Embiid and Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Carlesimo thinks the latter can be beyond special.
“If Giannis gets to the point where he’s making his threes, and free throws, forget about it. He’s going to be illegal,” Carlesimo chuckles.
As for Australia’s healthy NBA contingent – which stands at 10 players for the coming season – Carlesimo loves what he sees.
“Australia has been ahead of the curve for a long time,” he says.
“Better coaching in Australia than almost every country internationally for a long time.
“You get an Australian player, you know exactly what you’re getting. Wants to win, team player, do what you need and not be bent out of shape because he didn’t get 10 shots. Willing to play defence, accept coaching.
“Literally almost every single one has those characteristics. It’s a great trait.”
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The day Carlesimo stops talking about basketball will coincide with his last breath.
The enthusiasm in his voice when talking Dream Team is matched when describing what he’s seen in Canberra this week at the BWB camp, where he’s passed on advice to the 64 hopefuls gathered from across Asia.
The kids are just 15 and 16 year olds and are the best in their respective nations. Putting them in one place creates a special environment where everyone learns.
“The kids realise they are not the only special thing, seeing guys from other areas just as good as them,” Carlesimo says.
“It’s great to see the friendships they make and also the improvement, which you notice in just three or four days.”
One day, a few of them might end up on an NBA or WNBA roster, or go to the Olympics to stop USA winning Gold.
The gap has narrowed between the best of the USA and other nations in the 30 years since Barcelona.
But how much?
Carlesimo is as good as anyone to ask, so may as well hit him with a hypothetical.
Would a present day all-star team made up of the best international NBA players get close to the 1992 Dream Team?
“It’d be infinitely closer. But they couldn’t win. The Dream Team was just a freak team,” Carlesimo says after a moment of consideration.
“Some were nearly in their prime, some absolutely in their prime, like Michael (Jordan). And a couple toward the end, but it was Magic and Larry!
“It would be a good game. But those Dream Team guys were absurd.”
“That team was the perfect storm.”
Starting as a cadet, Adam spent nearly a decade at the Seven Network, before a 15 year stint at Fox Sports covering football, tennis, cricket, Olympics and jousting. Fave teams are the Socceroos, Matildas, Newcastle Utd, Manly, while hobbies include watching sport, eating food, sleeping and waking up to do the same.
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