FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 24th, 2017

MARV ALBERT RECALLS 1992 DREAM TEAM MOMENTS — OLYMPIC CHANNEL: HOME OF TEAM USA BEGINS “DREAM TEAM WEEK” PRIMETIME MARATHON MONDAY NIGHT AT 8:30 P.M. ET

“The first time they ran onto the court, I got the chills because I knew then that we were seeing the greatest group of athletes assembled in the history of team sports.” – Marv Albert

“It was extraordinary to see the reaction the team received…they were the Beatles. Even now when I travel around the country to call games, I’m constantly asked about it.” — Albert

Eight Consecutive Nights of the Dream Team Games in Their Entirety on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA

Labor Day Dream Team Marathon Features 11 Consecutive Hours of Coverage, Including 1992 Gold Medal Final vs. Croatia

Features Original Broadcasts With Game Commentary from Marv Albert, Mike Fratello, and Quinn Buckner; Plus Team of Chick Hearn and Steve Jones

STAMFORD, Conn. – August 24, 2017 – Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with “Dream Team Week,” presenting all eight original broadcasts on eight consecutive nights in primetime, beginning this Monday, August 28, at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The celebration of the Dream Team – arguably the greatest collection of basketball players ever to play on one team – on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA will be highlighted by an 11-hour marathon on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, culminating with the 1992 Gold Medal Final against Croatia. For most viewers, this will be the first time they can see all of the Dream Team games in their entirety, as NBC mostly showed only portions of the early games during its 1992 Olympics coverage.

Legendary basketball play-by-play voice Marv Albert handled play-by-play duties for NBC Olympics’ coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Games, and was courtside to chronicle the gold medal-winning run of the Dream Team.

Below are Albert’s memories and impressions of the Dream Team.

On his most memorable Dream Team moment: “The first time they ran onto the court, I got the chills because I knew then that we were seeing the greatest group of athletes assembled in the history of team sports – it was stunning.”

On the celebrity of the Dream Team: “It was extraordinary to see the reaction the team received from their time in Monte Carlo (where they trained) before the Games. They were the Beatles. This was a time when the league didn’t have many international players and we were taken aback by how much people knew about the team. They couldn’t walk the streets – although Charles (Barkley) did nearly every day with legions of fans who accompanied him along Las Ramblas.”

On the celebrity of the Dream Team (cont.): “There was a [pre-Olympics] game in Monte Carlo against France, and one of the guards on the French team was going against Jordan. He was playing him very rough, and Jordan was getting annoyed – they were taunting and pushing. The U.S. won, and at the end, the French player comes up with a photographer to take photos with Michael and puts his arm around him. You thought it was going to lead into fisticuffs during the game – but this would happen after every game, even at the Olympics.”

On the Dream Team’s impact on international basketball: “On opening day of the 1991-92 seasons, the NBA had 23 international players. Today, there are over 125 international players. This was so influenced by the Dream Team. Over the years after the ’92 Games, players from oversees would always refer to the effect watching the Dream Team on TV had on them.”

On having the opportunity to call the Dream Team games: “It was one of the great thrills of my career. The drama was seeing these guys together, and seeing them on the stand receiving the gold. Even now when I travel around the country to call games, I’m constantly asked about it.”

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Every Dream Team game from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics will feature the original commentary teams that called the action. Albert led NBC’s basketball coverage in 1992 alongside analyst Mike Fratello and reporter Quinn Buckner, while Chick Hearn and Steve Jones provided play-by-play and analysis for games that aired on NBC’s Triplecast, a pay-per-view joint venture between NBC and Cablevision during the Barcelona Games.

Each night, following game coverage from the Barcelona Olympics, Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA will present NBC’s Dream Team documentary that originally aired during the 2012 London Olympics, and includes interviews with Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Charles Barkley.

The 1992 Barcelona Olympics marked the first time that NBA players could participate in Olympic basketball. The Dream Team is widely credited with dramatically increasing basketball’s popularity around the world, and was collectively inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010. Eleven of the 12 players on the team are in the Basketball Hall of Fame as individuals, as well as three of the team’s four coaches. The Dream Team defeated its eight opponents in 1992 by an average of 44 points en route to the gold medal, and won every game by at least 30 points.

The full Dream Team roster consisted of: Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, and John Stockton.

Chuck Daly served as head coach, alongside assistant coaches P.J. Carlesimo, Mike Krzyzewski, and Lenny Wilkens.


COMCAST’S XFINITY BRAND TO BE PRESENTING SPONSOR OF “DREAM TEAM WEEK” ON OLYMPIC CHANNEL: HOME OF TEAM USA

Xfinity, the residential cable service brand of Comcast, will be the presenting sponsor of “Dream Team Week” on Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, both parties announced Wednesday. The agreement, which begins on August 28, includes Xfinity branding within billboards, bumpers, opens and closes, as well as presenting sponsorship status during Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA’s eight nights of Dream Team broadcasts, live streams, and social media content. This is the first presenting sponsorship for Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, which launched July 15. Click here for more information.

Following is the full telecast schedule of the Olympic Channel’s Dream Team marathon:

Date Game Network Time (ET)
Mon., August 28 USA vs. Angola (preliminary round) Olympic Channel 8:30 p.m.
Tues., August 29 USA vs. Croatia (preliminary round) Olympic Channel 8 p.m.
Wed., August 30 USA vs. Germany (preliminary round) Olympic Channel 8 p.m.
Thur., August 31 USA vs. Brazil (preliminary round) Olympic Channel 8 p.m.
Fri., September 1 USA vs. Spain (preliminary round) Olympic Channel 8 p.m.
Sat., September 2 USA vs. Puerto Rico (quarterfinal) Olympic Channel 8 p.m.
Sun., September 3 USA vs. Lithuania (semifinal) Olympic Channel 8 p.m.
Mon., September 4 USA vs. Angola (preliminary round) Olympic Channel 12 p.m.
USA vs. Spain (preliminary round) Olympic Channel 2:30 p.m.
USA vs. Puerto Rico (quarterfinal) Olympic Channel 4:30 p.m.
USA vs. Lithuania (semifinal) Olympic Channel 6:30 p.m.
USA vs. Croatia (gold medal final) Olympic Channel 8:30 p.m.

 

ABOUT OLYMPIC CHANNEL: HOME OF TEAM USA

Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA is a partnership between the International Olympic Committee, the United States Olympic Committee, and NBCUniversal. It offers fans year-round programming of Olympic Sports from around the world, highlighting their favorite American athletes and teams. Programming consists of live events from a broad portfolio of summer and winter Olympic sports. It also includes Olympic-themed original content produced by all three parties, such as original programs produced by filmmakers from around the world commissioned by the global Olympic Channel; rich archival footage from the IOC’s and NBCU’s libraries of Olympic features and documentaries; and original Team USA programming produced by the USOC that provides authentic, wide-ranging and athlete-focused coverage of the Olympic Movement in the United States. Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA is live streamed on OlympicChannel.com, the Olympic Channel app, NBCSports.com, and the NBC Sports app. Select replays and highlights is available on these digital platforms as well as TeamUSA.org.

–OLYMPIC CHANNEL: HOME OF TEAM USA–