It was 25 years ago that the Grand Canyon head coach won a World Championship gold medal as part of Dream Team II, which ended its eight-win run of tournament dominance with a 137-91 gold-medal game victory against Russia on Aug. 14, 1994.
Majerle was a member of a 12-man U.S. national team that included five future Basketball Hall of Fame inductees (Joe Dumars, Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O'Neal and Dominique Wilkins). Only Miller and Phoenix Suns teammate Kevin Johnson logged more minutes than Majerle during Team USA's first undefeated World Championship since 1954. Majerle appeared in the Dream Team II commercial for McDonald's.
It was personal for Majerle, who was part of the 1988 U.S. Olympic team that lost to Russia and settled for the bronze medal.
"KJ (Kevin Johnson) told me I could forget about '88 now and he's right," Majerle said after scoring eight points in 14 minutes of the gold-medal game, which was played in front of an international broadcast audience and 32,616 fans at the SkyDome in Toronto.
Majerle, then 28 years old, shot 46 percent from 3-point range during the tournament after setting the NBA record for 3-pointers during the 1993-94 season. The international 3-point line of 20 feet, 7 inches was a mid-range shot to Majerle, who pulled up far beyond the line for a half-ending 3-pointer that put the U.S. ahead 62-25 against Puerto Rico. Majerle scored 17 points in 16 minutes that game but also dished four assists on a team that was as unselfish as it was boisterous with the likes of Shawn Kemp and Larry Johnson.
"I've been coaching for 40 years or whatever, and it's probably the highlight of my whole career," Dream Team II coach Don Nelson told usab.com on the 20th anniversary. "It's something that we did for free. We did it for our country. We hadn't won a gold medal in a long time in the World Championship, and that was really a special time."
Majerle's team was only the third U.S. national team to win the World Championship, which began in 1950. Other than Dream Team I, no team had ever been as dominant. Dream Team II averaged 120.1 points and won by an average of 37.8 points with a fast pace and Majerle draining 46 percent of his 3-point shots with an 8.8 scoring average.
The U.S. did not win the World Championship again until 2010, once Jerry Colangelo led the restoration of USA Basketball as managing director.
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