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Currently I'm in the process of moving some of the old pieces over from my old site, and I found this. Rather than archive it, I thought it was worthy of another look. It's a conglomerative piece on the Original Dream Team vs the Redeem Team...
 The 2008 US Olympic Basketball Team - the Redeem Team - has restored Olympic glory to American hoops... and it's definitely an undertaking that everyone concerned has taken with a great deal of sincerity and application. Are they good? Undoubtedly. And by winning the Gold in Beijing they proved so... But, how good are they? How do they measure up against the yardstick of all basketball, the 1992 US Olympic Men's Basketball Team: The Dream Team...
The Rosters
'92 Olympic Team - Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Jr., Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Karl Malone, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, John Stockton
'08 The Redeem Team - Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Deron Williams
I asked some noteables around the traps what they thought of the match-up, what would the outcome be. I certainly enjoyed reading their responses, I hope you do to. First part of a 2 part series (Today: representation from CelticsBlog.com, Pyle of List, ESPN TrueHoop, Clips Nation, The Sports Hernia, MVN Lakers Library. Don't miss part 2 with input from TWolves Blog, MVN Born and Raised, Signal To Noise, Storming the Floor, Forum Blue and Gold, The Sports Lounge, All Ball Sports Blog, and from lil' ol' me)...
I don't even think this is close. The Dream Team wins in a landslide. 
It starts at the top with Jordan. He's simply got more insane, monomaniac on a mission type of drive that none of the current stars have. Kobe thinks he has it, but he'll always just be an imposter.
I could tick down the roster one by one pointing out the one-to-one advantages (who guards Barkley and Malone?) but to me it all comes down to the intangibles. The Redeem Team has come a long way in terms of adding guys that are a better fit together than previous teams, but you can't manufacture the stuff that Jordan, Bird, and Magic brought to that team (even if Bird and Magic were past their prime).
LeBron and Melo are nice, but they just don't have the experience factor. I just don't think there will ever be a team close to that Dream Team.
So the obvious answer is the Dream Team.
Not only was it the finest collection of basketball talent, it was certainly the largest collection of reputations ever assembled.
My only concern is that we never saw that team tested. They never had to play as a team against a formidable opponent so I think we'd mythicized the team since it occured during our younger, more impressionable years. They won games by the sheer force of personality of the superstars.
What would they do if they faced a young team of NBA superstars hungry to stake their reputations against their idols and put historical arguments to bed? 
Here's the roster I would roll with: Melo, Kobe, Howard, Lebron and Chris Paul to start as the best run and gun lineup. Kidd, Deron Williams, Dwayne Wade, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd.
I think they match up very well on paper with the Dream Team and could outrun them in an uptempo game. In the end, Jordan's hubris leaving Isiah off the team will cost them the game as Stockton and Magic can't carry enough of the scoring or defensive load at the PG spot. Laettner and Mullin leave them thinner on the bench and their age shows down the stretch.
112-109 2008 Olympic Squad.
Henry Abbott - ESPN TrueHoop 1992. They had this player called Michael Jordan that I have always kind of had my eye on. But it would be close.
I love 'Who would win'.
Who would win, Batman or Superman? (Superman, duh.)
Who would win, Ginger or Mary Ann? (Mary Ann is giving away a lot in reach, but I think she uses her farm girl savvy to kick prissy Ginger's ass. BTW, I'd pay to watch.)
Who would win, Alien or Predator? (See, this is where Hollywood starts stealing my ideas. Not even my good ideas.)
So when Don from With Malice asked me to opine on the question of Who Would Win? Redeem Team USA 08 or the 92 Barcelona Team, the original Dream Team, of course I wanted to play along.
Guess which team I'm taking?
There's really no comparison in my mind.
This one is as easy as Predator versus Terminator (If human Arnold can defeat Predator, then it is painfully obvious that Terminator Arnold can defeat Predator. Double duh.).
Ignoring Christian Laettner, who clearly doesn't count, 6 of the 11 Dream Team members won at least one NBA MVP during their career. Those six won 15 MVPs total, in a span of 16 seasons (only Hakeem Olajuwon, who was not yet a US citizen in 1992, broke the string; he joined the fun in 1996).
Sure, the current roster will eventually win some MVP's, but the 1992 team had won 9 straight prior to the Barcelona Olympics. More important probably than MVP's is NBA Championships. The Dream Team featured the best player from 10 of the previous 13 NBA Champions. Compare that to 2007's 3 rings for Kobe, the SECOND best player on his Lakers teams (making him the equivalent of Scottie Pippen) and one each for Billups and Prince.
Again, this will change with time, but only five members of the Vegas incarnation of Team USA (Bryant, Billups, Prince, Jason Kidd and LeBron) have made it to the NBA Finals. On the other hand, five of them have never made it out of the first round, including one of the supposed cogs (Carmelo). Compare that to 4 champions at the time, two more eventual champion (David Robinson and Clyde Drexler), and 11 for 11 (not counting Laettner) players who made it to the NBA Finals in their careers (though in Mullin's case it was as a role player for the Pacers). 
This team was so loaded with champions that Jordan, Bird and Magic could afford to freeze out Isiah Thomas, the only other NBA player in his prime who had actually won a title.
So, in a nutshell, I'm going with the Dream Team, because that team was comprised entirely of WINNERS, which is far from certain in the case of the current Team USA. Jordan, Bird, Magic... these were the definitive basketball players of the last half century.
You want defense?
Scottie Pippen.
You want shooting?
Chris Mullin (not to mention Bird and Jordan.)
You want imposing post play? Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing.
You want pass first point play? Magic Johnson and John Stockton.
And here's the main thing: all of these players, massive mega-stars in their own right, were fully capable of playing a supporting role on a great team. You simply can't say the same thing about the current Team USA.
Moreover, while Isiah Thomas and Dominique Wilkins are the only players you could possibly call omissions in 1992, the current team is missing many of the best American players. Four MVP's are not on this team (Garnett, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal), not to mention Tracy McGrady.
For those who say that the Dream Team was too old at the time of Barcelona (and certainly Magic and Bird were past their primes), I say that the current team is too young. Does anyone remember why USA Basketball created the Dream Team in the first place? Anyone? It's because college seniors, who made up the US  National Teams prior to 1992, were getting their ASSES handed to them by Yugoslavia and Russia. Yet guys like LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Deron Williams and Chris Paul are barely older than college seniors. Sure, they're great players - but so was Danny Manning. There is clearly something to be said for experience and maturity, especially in this setting.
There's a final aspect to this topic that bears discussion. Look at the geo-political situation in the 1992 Olympics. It happened to be the first major competition after the break up of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. The silver medalist in Barcelona? Croatia, less players like Vlade Divac and Zeljko Rebraca who were Serbian. Third and fourth went to Lithuania and the Confederation of Independent States (remember that intermediary after the Baltic nations had left the Soviet Union but before the rest of its dissolution?). A couple years before, those two teams would have combined their talent.
The point is, the competition was a shambles just when the USA fielded the best team ever. You could point to this and say that the Dream Team's margins of victory were inflated; that they weren't really that good. But the simple fact is, they were that good. We never even got to see how good they could be. 
The 1992 Dream Team would win in a tutorial-like pillaging. Bird, Magic and Jordan could play three-on-five and still beat our current team. About as big of a mismatch as when a 275-pound Charles Barkley elbowed the skinniest member of the Angolan team.
I think what made the original dream team special were their ability to dominate individually, while still playing within a team concept. The had great size down low, Robinson, Ewing, exceptional point guard play, Magic, Stockton, great outside shooting Bird, Mullen and the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan, and lets not forget Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippin and Karl Malone.
Also, the age of the players was perfect as the veteran championship influence was clearly on the team.
Today's Olympic team is filled with much younger players that are still trying to prove themselves; the Dream Team was comprised of men.
Other then the token Christian Laettner, all of the players had tons of experience on the 92 squad. The 92 squad had more defined roles and much better outside shooting. All of the players had excellent all around basketball skills that would transcend any era.
Go ahead and match them up if you want, but to me there is no comparison. The 92 squad would win by 15 or more. The reason is, they were just plain better basketball players. I would give the overall athleticism to this current group, but the 92 squad could shoot, pass, rebound, and defend better then the current group of Olympians.
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