Saturday, August 9, 2008

Dream Team (No Pun Intended)

In honor of the Olympics starting this weekend, but mostly because it's 4:30 in the morning and I can't fall asleep (I inexplicably fell into a 3 hour coma after my round of golf this evening, and since my usual naps are like 7 minutes long, I'm totally screwed now), here is my USA Basketball Dream Team, if I was making a team based on NBA Live '95 for Sega Genesis:


Starters:

C- Shaquille O'Neal- he was an absolute force in that game. He'd shoot approximately 100% from the floor.

F- Chris Webber- ditto Webber. His back to the basket game was phenomenal. How would anybody handle those two down low?

F- Scottie Pippen- doesn't need to score much, but probably could, since his mid-range jumper was unstoppable in this game. He'd also guard the best player on the other team at all times, and play a little point guard if needed, since we're only carrying two on the roster.

G Reggie Miller- wouldn't need to do anything besides sit in the corner and hit open 3's.

G Mark Price- arguably the most unguardable player in this game. If any team tried to double down on Shaq and C-Webb, Price and Miller would hit ten 3's each.

Bench:

C- David Robinson- could possibly sneak in and end up leading the team in scoring or something weird like that. He would always put up a rather quiet 40-20 in Live '95.

G- Gary Payton- doesn't have Price's shooting, but is a better passer and a much, much, much, much better defender.

F- Larry Johnson- I originally had Grant Hill here, but then I remembered he wasn't in Live '95, so I added LJ for a little more size and toughness.

G- Dan Marjele- another shooter. A little more streaky, but when he's on, he gets the green light once he crosses half court.

F- Shawn Kemp- he'll give Webber and Shaq a breather, and we need someone for Payton to throw alley-oops to when we're up by 45 in garbage time.

G/F- Stacey Augmon- role player. Really doesn't need to do much but shut down the other team's scorer and dunk during blowouts.

G- Isaiah Rider- the 12th man really doesn't play anyway, so we're taking a flier on a headcase. One time I dropped 42 points in one 5-minute quarter with him.



What's more sad, the fact that these are the things I think about when I'm trying to fall asleep; the fact that when I googled 'nba live 95' and saw the above picture, my first thought was "C'mon, Mookie, throw Koncak the alley-oop, nobody's guarding him!"; or the fact that it only took me like 1.5 seconds to determine that it was Mookie Blaylock and Jon Koncak in the picture? Quite frankly, it's a toss up.