‘I was just in awe': Grant Hill on beating the 1992 Dream Team and having to keep it a secret

CNN

14-02-2025

What would you do if you had just pulled off the biggest win of your career so far, one of the biggest upsets in basketball history, but you couldn't tell anyone about it?
That is the question Grant Hill – before he was seven-time NBA All-Star Grant Hill – had to wrestle with 33 years ago.
He and seven other college players had just beaten the Dream Team, the 1992 US men's Olympic basketball team made up of the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, in a scrimmage during the buildup to the Barcelona Games.
Described as the greatest team ever assembled in any sport, they'd been brought together to restore some American pride after Team USA has been beaten in five consecutive international tournaments.
Coach Chuck Daly, apparently wary of what the press would make of them losing to a bunch of college kids, made it clear that news of the result would be going nowhere.
'It was kind of like this sort of urban legend, a myth, like did it really happen?' Hill, who was managing director of the USA men's national team at Paris 2024, told CNN Sport.
'We talked about it amongst ourselves and just how amazing that was and how much fun it was,' he said. 'We just kind of talked about it like 'Man, we gotta do a documentary one day.' You know, not thinking it would ever happen.'
Nowadays, the secret is out. 'We Beat the Dream Team,' a new documentary which debuts on HBO and Max – which, like CNN, are part of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery – on February 17, is the first time all seven surviving members of the Select Team of college players have had the opportunity to tell the story.
'They couldn't have been happier to sit down and talk to me and tell the story from their point of view,' said the documentary's director, Michael Tolajian, in an interview with CNN Sport.
'When we reached out to Grant Hill, Chris Webber, these guys, they said to me, 'Mike, I've been waiting 32 years for someone to call me and say they wanted to interview me about that game. I've been waiting all this time to tell our side of the story.''
For Hill, that story began in the weight room at Duke University, shortly after he and his teammates had wrapped up their second straight NCAA title under legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski.
'Coach K told me that I had been selected to be on the Select Team, that would practice and help prepare the Dream Team out in San Diego,' remembered Hill. 'I was in disbelief. These were my heroes, these were icons. These were guys that, you know, I grew up and they inspired me to play.
'I tried to pattern my game and mold my game after a lot of them, and then at 19 to have an opportunity to go out and compete against them,' he continued, 'I was just in awe of the moment.'
Even then, Hill was still not entirely sure what his role would be.
'We were the Select Team,' Hill joked in the documentary. 'Selected to get our a**es kicked!'
'I thought we would sort of be brought in as, like, practice dummies,' he explained to CNN. 'I didn't know what to expect. Would they incorporate us in the practice and drills, you know? Would we be there to get them water and towels?'
It would soon become clear that he and his teammates were not expected to be mere assistants.
'I remember prior to us going out there, Roy Williams – who coached us and at the time was the head coach at Kansas – he was going over who was going to start and who was guarding who,' recalled Hill. 'And he said, 'Grant, you got Jordan.' And I'm like, 'Oh my.'
'It was one of those moments where time stood still. You just try to digest the fact that 'Here I am, about to compete against Michael Jordan.''
But, Hill explained, when the time came around, he and his teammates played with no fear.
'I think there was the nervous anticipation before the game and even up until we started. But once we started having success, and once we started seeing each other have success, I think we collectively gained confidence.
'Playing against the Dream Team, you're forced to bond quickly or it's going to be a disaster. And we did, and we had our moment which was so incredible.'
Only one camera was recording the action and only one tape exists of that game.
As Daly called time on the scrimmage, the scoreboard confirmed the shocking result – Dream Team 54-62 Select Team. But it did not stay that way for long. With the press about to make their entrance into the facility, the score was quickly removed from the board.
'I think once the media came in, if they knew that we had won that would have been a huge story, so it was smart to take down the score,' accepted Hill.
'You had these guys that were the greatest players who had been playing against each other all these years in the NBA. Now, they were coming together. It was like a Marvel superhero movie, all the greatest superheroes coming together,' explained Tolajian.
'There was all this attention like 'They're gonna destroy everybody. They're going to crush everybody by 60 points. We can't wait to see them all together.' And so, the very first game that these superheroes play, to have a college team beat them, it would have been everywhere.
'It would have been like 'Oh my God, what's going on? How could these guys have lost?' It would have been international news, I think, and caused maybe a lot of headaches for Chuck Daly and Olympic USA Basketball.'
The Dream Team played the Select Team again the next day and took their revenge in a 102 – 55 bloodbath, going on to crush the competition at Barcelona 1992 and winning gold at a canter. But maybe that would not have been the case had Jordan and Co. not learned that they could be beaten by anybody, even a bunch of teenagers.
There has even been speculation from some – including Coach K in the 2012 documentary 'The Dream Team' – that Daly intentionally threw the game by benching Jordan for much of the contest and letting the loss play out, in order to keep his players humble, to remind them that they were not invincible.
Hill is, perhaps unsurprisingly, unconvinced by the theory, and a portion of 'We Beat the Dream Team' centers on his friendly disagreements with Krzyzewski.
Tolajian, on the other hand, preferred not to be drawn on what he thought of the controversy.
'I want to withhold that so people will watch the film and make up their own mind,' he smiled. 'I have my own theories, but I try to tell it down the middle. I will say that I think both sides have very valid arguments.
'I'll let the fans and viewers watch it, and I encourage more debate about it, because the only guy that knows is Chuck Daly, and he's no longer with us.'
One fact, though, is not up for debate. Hill and his teammates really did beat the Dream Team. And now they can tell the world all about it.