Team USA that went to Barcelona in 1992 is still considered by many to be the greatest basketball team ever assembled. The fact is that the squad led by the legendary Chuck Daly was filled with NBA champions, MVPs and All-Stars, but also a locker room full of egos.
Larry Bird and Magic Johsnon were teammates for the first time and Michael Jordan was trying to make a statement to both of them that summer. During one intense practice when David Robinson tried to block him, Mike dunked so hard on him that left the entire gym in awe. It was a message sent to all the greats who found themselves there.
"He just looked at me too, and let me know," Johnson said . "He said, 'I just want y'all to know: There's a new sheriff in town.' He said, 'It's my league now.' He said, 'Magic, you had your turn. Larry Bird, you had your turn. Now it's my league.' And we all bowed down."
Although Jordan came into that national team camp as a back-to-back champion and league MVP, he still wanted to establish the hierarchy because, for years, he had lived in the shadow of Johnson and Bird, knowing they were the players with the most titles on the roster and had long been the faces of the league.
The fact is that, even though he hadn't yet reached their levels in terms of accolades, he was so confident that he would match and surpass them, which speaks to the incredible self-belief and mentality of His Airness. Jordan knew that this was a group of players who had something to say to him basketball-wise and that they were all somewhere on the same level of skill level, but he wasn't interested in being one of the best – he wanted to be the best.
Just how far his obsession went to prove he was the best is best confirmed by one of his old statements about wanting to win his first championship against Magic and Larry in their prime .
"By going through the Lakers , there was nothing anyone could say," added Jordan. "If both of them had been gone by the time we started winning championships, I'm sure there would have been talk about how I hadn't been able to beat Magic and Larry in their prime."
While it can't be said that he beat them both in their true primes, as the fact remains that he conquered Magic's Lakers in the Finals, while Bird swept him twice – but at the very start of his career, when the Chicago Bulls still weren't competitive.
Maybe it's enough to just say that after 1992 in Barcelona, MJ went on to win four more titles with the Bulls and from today's perspective, it's almost unbelievable that he took a nearly two-year break from basketball, during which the Bulls didn't even reach the ECF, only to come back and complete another three-peat.
That span is probably the most dominant for a single player since Bill Russell and when we consider that on his way to those titles he defeated almost all his Dream Team teammates – Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Magic, as well as legends of the game like Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, all without ever reaching a Game 7, it's more than enough to confirm the level of his dominance after the Magic and Larry era.
In the end, he managed to surpass them both in terms of NBA championships and MVP trophies.
So, his words to Magic and Larry were true. It was his league.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
