Chapter 128: Big Brother Should Take Good Care of His Little Brother

If one considers that the swan song of an old era was played in late August when Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon both announced their retirements, the Dream Team—led by Bucks coach George Karl and filled with NBA All-Stars but lacking a consistently dominant superstar—facing two consecutive defeats at the World Championship held on home soil and finishing in sixth place changed Americans' perception of world basketball completely.

It seemed that the era when a group of American stars could casually outplay the second-best team in the world by a wide margin had ended.

"Reggie was injured, and we had a lot of problems, the players were not united. You should have heard the stories from here. Some wouldn't pass, some wouldn't defend, and some treated the game like an All-Star game. We didn't have Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady—America's top five players weren't on this team!"