This topic may have been discussed on the board before, but I was watching Mike and Mike this morning, and Eric Kuselias (sp?) was sitting in for Greenberg, and him and Golic were discussing who would win in a 7 game series, the Dream Team vs. the Redeem Team. After much discussion, Golic reluctanly picked the Dream Team, while Kuselias was pretty adamant about thinking the Redeem Team would win. Some of his reasonings were that Bird and Magic were way past their primes, that no one on the Dream Team would be able to guard Chris Paul or Deron Williams at the point, that Kobe Bryant would be the best defender Michael Jordan has ever seen, and that Coach K would be able to make better adjustments than Chuck Daley.
I'd like to know everyone's take on the subject. I, for one, think it would definitely be the Dream Team winning that series. In terms of Kuselias' reasonings, while Bird had the back problems and ended up retiring after the '02 season, he still put up 20-10 numbers that year and could still hit a shot from anywhere on the court. With Magic, he wasn't even far past his prime. If not for being diagnosed with HIV, he would've still been in the league, and putting up 20 ppg and 10 apg. And while it would be tough for Magic to guard Paul or Williams, the same would be true on the other end. Also, I didn't watch the game that closely in the 80's or early 90's, but I find it very hard to believe that Kobe Bryant would've been the best defender MJ had ever faced, and I doubt he would be able to stop Jordan, or even slow him down any better than guys like Dumars had done in the past.
Looking at the Dream Team advantages, aside from having the best player in the history of the game in his prime, they had two legit HOF centers on their team, also in their prime, in Patrick Ewing and David Robinson. Dwight Howard is a great young player who is only going to get better, but he's not a true center and he still has a ways to go on the offensive end; and whoever the team decided to put on Barkley would have their hands full all game. The Redeem Team also just doesn't have the outside shooting ability that the Dream Team had. They have gotten better over the past couple games, but not on the same level as the Dream Team.
If I had to pick, I would take the Drem Team in 5. The trio of LeBron, Kobe and D-Wade would have to lead them to a win, but I wouldn't see much more.