For the first time in two decades, since the 1992 transformation of U.S. Olympic basketball by the collection of NBA superstars dubbed “The Dream Team,” there will be one player on the Team USA roster with no professional experience. For 19-year-old Hornets rookie Anthony Davis, his journey with the current group of men's Olympians should be far different than the one experienced by the last collegian who was part of the '92 gold-medal winning team in Barcelona, Christian Laettner. Laettner, who had played for four years at Duke, was part of the 1992 USA roster that included Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson and other legends of the game. Though Laettner played in each game — the Americans won every game it played by an average of more than 43 points at the Games — Laettner was more a practice-session whipping boy. Davis, 6 feet 10, 230 pounds, is expected to shoulder a bit more in-game responsibility.
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.