The average winning margin, rounded. Eight games, and not one of them was closer than thirty-two points.
Why the team existed
Olympic basketball had been restricted to amateurs, which in practice meant American college players against European and Soviet teams whose players were professionals in all but name.
In 1988 at Seoul, the United States lost to the Soviet Union in the semi final and took bronze. FIBA voted in 1989 to open the competition to NBA players. The 1992 squad was the answer.
The roster
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Clyde Drexler, and Christian Laettner, the one college selection.
Eleven of the twelve are in the Naismith Hall of Fame. So is the coach, Chuck Daly.
No timeouts
Daly did not call a timeout in any of the eight games. He was explicit about the reason afterwards: there was never a situation that required one.
It is the detail that captures the tournament better than any scoreline, because a timeout is what a coach calls when something has gone wrong.
What the opponents did
Players on other teams took photographs during games. Several asked for autographs immediately after the final whistle. Following the 116-48 defeat of Angola, Angolan players lined up for pictures.
Herlander Coimbra of Angola, who scored against them, was carried by teammates afterwards.
The two who were not well
Magic Johnson had announced his HIV diagnosis in November 1991 and retired from the NBA. Barcelona was, in effect, his return, and there was public unease about it from some quarters that now reads very badly.
Larry Bird's back had degenerated to the point where he lay on the floor during meetings. He retired immediately after the Games.
The one real game
The most competitive basketball the squad played was a closed intra-squad scrimmage during training camp in Monte Carlo, Jordan's team against Johnson's. There is no full broadcast. The people who were present have described it consistently as the best game they ever witnessed.
Why it goes on a wall
Because the story is usually told as domination, and domination is dull. What actually happened is stranger: the competitive frame collapsed entirely, and everyone involved, winners and losers, agreed to treat it as something else.
Nobody called a timeout.