Jack McCallum is an excellent NBA writer and his ability to get on conversational terms with guys who are so accustomed to giving stock answers is as impressive here as it is in his :07 Seconds or Less. In commemoration of the 20 year anniversary of this unparalleled superstar team, to whom McCallum helped assign The Dream Team moniker, he describes the personalities that made this team gel and why there won't ever be another team like it. The main reason the Dream Team will never be repeated as that the world knows about the NBA (thanks to the '92 Dream Team), but also because these players were at the end of a glorious era of the NBA. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird would not return to the NBA after the Barcelona games (save for an unfortunately brief comeback by Magic). Michael Jordan was still an ascendant superstar whose supremacy is question by Magic, who rightfully earned the titled of the best player in the universe for a short while, but M.J. is also second-guessed by Clyde Drexler - during a 2011 interview. Despite the competitive nature of these guys, there's also a team-first ethos that McCallum describes in various off-court scenes at The Ambassador Hotel in Barcelona, but also on golf courses, drives returning from golf courses, walking around Las Ramblas, and also their interaction with other players who frequently asked for autographs.

The book could have lasted another 300 pages with a little more detail from the actual games, and a lot more after-the-fact analysis of how basketball talent exploded worldwide after the Barcelona Games. Alas, the unfortunate decision by McCallum to request a re-assignment from the NBA seems most telling in why the book is set most notably during the 1992 games, but also from a poignant interviews conducted in 2011 that reflect what impact the 1992 Dream Team had on the remainder of their careers.

It's amazing that in the storied, championship-filled careers of players like Magic, Bird and MJ, this tour of 50-point wins would be considered one of their greatest achievements, but The Dream Team by Jack McCallum goes a long way in explaining why it mattered.