USA - Dream Team, Pippen go into Hall of Fame

SPRINGFIELD (Hall of Fame) - Their victory at the 1992 Olympic Games was one of the most famous moments in all of basketball history, and on Friday night the United States 'Dream Team' took their rightful place in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The Dream Team was enshrined alongside their 1960 United States counterparts as well as Scottie Pippen, a member of the 1992 team as well as a six-time NBA winner alongside Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls, and Karl Malone, another member of the Dream Team who was also a 14-time NBA All-Star.

In addition to Pippen and Malone, the Dream Team included the likes of Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley.

"We had fun every day," Barkley said of the Barcelona Games. "There were no egos."

Jerry West was on hand to represent the 1960 team - featuring Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas and Walt Bellamy - that won gold in Rome.

"It's so gratifying to share this with my teammates," West said. "The greatest thrill of my life was to win a gold medal."

Pippen was the star of the enshrinement ceremony, and he paid tribute to his former Bulls teammates.

"Nothing sticks out more than winning a championship in 1991," Pippen said. "When you're with your teammates for so long and so many years and you have that one common goal and you finally achieve it, it's definitely much more special to me than winning a gold medal.

"I went through ups and downs as a young player dealing with criticism, and to finally win that first NBA championship, it was definitely a relief of a lot of pressure and frustration."

This year's class also included Brazil tar Maciel "Ubiratan" Pereira, an Olympic bronze medallist in 1964, high school coaching legend Bob Hurley, five-time NBA All-Star Gus Johnson, four-time WNBA winner Cynthia Cooper, former Seattle SuperSonics star Dennis Johnson, and Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss.

FIBA