For those who weren’t around, it’s hard too describe how the eyes of the world were on the Dream Team during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. The energy and fanbase were truly international. This 1992 Skybox USA set is not rare, but it’s important. It’s the only complete set dedicated entirely to the Dream Team. The 1991-92 Skybox set had a USA subset that featured these players, and they are some of the most popular cards in the set. But between ’91-92 and ’92-93, this 1992 Skybox USA Basketball set was released.
The set was structured in an interesting way. Ten players were featured with nine cards each (coincidentally, they fit nicely in binders with one page per player). The nine cards were meant to give an overview of that particular player and the topics are the same for everyone. Let’s clarify with this card specifically. This is the #2 Charles Barkley. Barkley started the set off, he’s the first nine cards. The topic of this card is titled “NBA Rookie” and no matter which player you look at in the set, the topic of their second card is always this same “NBA Rookie.” In addition to these 90 cards for the ten players, ten more cards are dedicated to the coaching staff and ten “Magic On” cards give Magic Johnson’s thoughts on the ten players. This focus on Magic Johnson was nice since he didn’t get to play that much during the 1992 Olympics because of knee problems.
The fronts are minimal in design and a nice contrast to the computer-generated backgrounds of previous Skybox cards. The full-bleed action photos are from regular basketball seasons, which is a point against an Olympics set, but there really isn’t a choice since these cards were produced before the Olympics began. Another photo and information pertaining to the topic is on the back. This info is my favorite part of this card. Fitting in with the idea that these cards are meant to give an overview of a player’s career, this Barkley card moves from his rookie season into his second season. By comparing his stats, it shows how much he immediately improved and how his career was taking off. The 14 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game of his rookie year increased to 20 points, 12.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in his second season.
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