Documentary filmmaker Michael Tolajian travels back in time with his newest film about a basketball game that became an urban legend in “We Beat the Dream Team.”
Tolajian describes the film as one of those fantastic, true found footage scenarios. “We went back and tracked down the raw, actual old VHS tape that existed, and we had that transferred,” says Tolajian. “It was amazing how well it still holds up. It was still kind of grainy. But we thought, hey, now’s a chance, because there’s been a lot of debate and controversy about that game.”
Basketball fans know about Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and other NBA superstars bringing home the Gold. But before they won Gold, they played the Select Team consisting of college players during their training camp in La Jolla, Calif. Much to everyone’s surprise, the USA Select Team defeated the Dream Team 62-54 in the 20-minute scrimmage on June 24, 1992. Was it a miracle or did the Dream Team let them win?
The USA Select Team roster that took on the Dream Team consisted of Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Bobby Hurley, Jamal Mashburn, Allan Houston, Rodney Rogers, and Eric Montross. Both Hill and Hurley were coming off back-to-back NCAA championships with the Duke Blue Devils. Webber was on the Michigan Wolverines team that finished as the runner-up in the 1992 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Rogers and Montross rounded out the ACC players. Rising junior Jamal Mashburn led a revitalized Kentucky Wildcats program during his sophomore year in 1991-92 season. The Wildcats lost the Elite Eight regional semifinal in a heartbreaking loss to Duke and a few months later, Mashburn was playing on the same team as Hill and Hurley. Houston, a Louisville, Ky. native playing for Tennessee, joined Mashburn as the only other SEC reps.
Mashburn, Hurley, Hardaway, Webber, and Montross were named to the 1992 NCAA All-Region Teams. Hurley, Hill, and Webber were named to the All-Tournament Team. All but Mashburn and Hardaway had previously been named as McDonald’s All-Americans.
University of Southern California head coach George Raveling, who had previously served as an assistant coach for the 1984 and 1988 Olympic teams, served as head coach. University of Kansas coach Roy Williams was the team’s assistant coach.
Following its February 17 broadcast on HBO, We Beat the Dream Team is now streaming on Max.
Awards Focus: What was the genesis behind We Beat the Dream Team?
Michael Tolajian: Well, this past Olympics, 2024. Obviously, the US put together unbelievable basketball team, men’s national team with Lebron, Steph, and Kevin Durant, and many people called it another dream team. Back in 2022, 23, I was talking to some of my colleagues at the NBA and were saying, Hey, what kind of a film project can we do that kind of coincides with this upcoming Olympics?
They had done a Dream Team documentary, maybe a dozen years ago, that kind of covered the whole Dream Team, so we knew we couldn’t do that again. But we had remembered this one little—it was kind of a footnote of this one game, the original Dream Team allegedly lost. It had been talked about a little bit and touched upon, but it never had been fully dove into about this game. We came up with the idea of going back and interviewing the original Select Team—the guys that were on the original college Select Team—who played and beat the Dream Team, and to get their point of view of what that was like, what happened, why, it happened.
Grant Hill, who was on that select team, is now the head of USA Basketball Men’s National Team. He’s the guy who was picking the Dream Team or the Olympic team for this past Olympics. We thought, hey, this all has come full circle. Grant now can look back at when it all started for him when he was a college player playing against the Dream Team.
AF: At what point in the process did you find out about the single surviving VHS tape?
Michael Tolajian: Oh, yeah. This is one of those fantastic, true found footage scenarios. As part of the original Dream Team documentary, they had some footage from that scrimmage, but they only used a couple minutes of that. We went back and tracked down the raw, actual old VHS tape that existed, and we had that transferred. It was amazing how well it still holds up. It was still kind of grainy. But we thought, hey, now’s a chance, because there’s been a lot of debate and controversy about that game.
People have been clamoring to see the actual footage, more of that game. Once we had that tape, we knew we had archival gold as you will, and we really dive deep into that game. We have a lot of new eyewitness accounts. The full footage, even some footage that wasn’t on the court, that’s kind of in and around that whole training camp. It was exciting as a filmmaker to get my hands on that.
AF: How did Grant Hill end up serving as the film’s narrator?
Michael Tolajian: Well, like I said, once I realized, hey, here’s Grant, now 30 plus years later, being in charge of the men’s Olympic team, I thought, hey, this is a way into the story. Grant, in the first person, can tell us as we filmed him in in 2024, in charge of this past Olympic team, with Lebron, Steph Curry, all those guys. As he’s watching them train. I thought, well, this is natural for him to reminisce and think back 30 years ago, when he was part of the college team that helped the Dream Team train. I thought well, we could tell it through his eyes and through his voice.
AF: I previously watched the NBA TV documentary and read Jack McCallum’s book on the Dream Team around the 20th anniversary.
Michael Tolajian: Right.
AF: I had completely forgotten about any mention of this game.
Michael Tolajian: Yeah. Yeah, well, exactly. That’s why some people, through that documentary or through the book—there’s a little chapter about it, but for some reason, they just remember it as almost urban legend. Did that really happen or not?
Those are always great stories to tell when you kind of maybe had heard something about it, but don’t know for sure. It allows the audience to kind of discover something new or to think twice about an opinion they had or heard about. I think this is the definitive film on that game and we put it all in there.
AF: What was the one thing that surprised you the most when it came to making the documentary?
Michael Tolajian: Well, there’s a lot of things. I think one of the things that surprised me was pretty much every one of these Select Team players—Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Bobby Hurley, Penny Hardaway, Jamal Mashburn, Rodney Rogers, Allan Houston—all the guys we interviewed, they were all kind of like, Man, I’ve been waiting 30 years for someone to come sit me down and ask me about this game. They were just so excited and burning to tell their side of it, because people have heard a little bit about it from the Dream Team players mentioning it or Coach K. The select team guys were very eager to tell what they went through, their feelings, their thoughts, and how that training camp—those few days with the Dream Team—impacted their whole careers. It’s always great to interview someone that’s highly motivated and excited to tell their story.
AF: Yeah. I wish I had read the book and seen this film back in 2012, when I was interviewing Jamal Mashburn.
Michael Tolajian: Yeah, I see your UK t-shirt. Yeah. Jamal, obviously a Kentucky legend. It’s interesting, because if you remember, that was 1992. A few months before the Select Team-Dream Team game, that was March Madness. That’s when Kentucky went on that great run. Jamal Mashburn was leading the Wildcats and they lost that heartbreaking game against Duke on Christian Laettner’s miracle shot. And then, a few months later, here’s Jamal teaming up with Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill, guys that had just knocked him out of the tournament, so there’s a lot of interesting kind of coincidences.
AF: You could have easily edited out all the Christian Laettner footage. I would not have been opposed!
Michael Tolajian: Yeah, I’m sure that’s a tough memory you guys down there in Kentucky don’t want to see again. But Christian was great. He’s a character, and I think he adds a lot of fun perspective to this film. So sorry, UK fans. But hey, look, UK is looking good this year. Maybe they’ll get back to the Final Four.
AF: Yeah. I’m sure scheduling would have made it impossible, but was there any attempt at setting up a Select Team reunion?
Michael Tolajian: Just like you said, it’s always challenging getting all these guys together. All of them are super busy. Obviously, Grant Hill, Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway’s coaching Memphis, Bobby Hurley’s coaching Arizona State. It’s not so easy to get these guys together, but I know they all stay in touch with each other and anytime they run into each other, the first thing they start talking about is is that Dream Team experience so there’s a brotherhood there without question.
AF: Yeah. Another connection to the film—Allan Houston and I both went to the same high school, obviously different years.
Michael Tolajian: No way! That’s fantastic. Yeah. Allan was fantastic and a little known fact, in that scrimmage that the Select Team beat the Dream Team, Allan Houston was the leading scorer.
AF: That’s amazing! Other than nostalgia for a different time in basketball, what do you hope audiences take away from watching the film?
Michael Tolajian: I’ve done a lot of films in the past that had really heavy themes. I did a film called Q Ball, which was about the basketball team at San Quentin Prison. I did a film called Once Brothers about Dražen Petrović and Vlade Divac, and the Civil War in Yugoslavia. Those are very heavy themes and a lot of documentaries now are heavy stuff. True crime and serial killers and all that stuff’s entertaining, I guess. But I want people with this film, really, just to have fun, really, just to look back at a time. Learn a new kind of underdog, David-Goliath story. It moves fast. It’s 80 minutes and I think it’s super entertaining.
One person that had seen the film told me, Mike, from within the first minute till the end credits roll, I just had a grin on my face. It’s that kind of film. I hope you felt that way and I just hope people enjoy it. Well, really, for the entertainment value, but also to learn. You know that on any given day, nothing’s impossible.
AF: Aside from the Laettner footage, I did have a grin.
Michael Tolajian: Awesome. I love it.
AF: Thank you so much.
Michael Tolajian: Yeah, you’re welcome. Great meeting you. Appreciate it.