Duke basketball guard selected to honor 1992 United States Dream Team

A Duke basketball guard will be honoring the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. 

Jaylen Blakes was the forgotten man of the 2021 Duke basketball recruiting class but the sophomore guard will be gearing up for a huge summer before his return to Durham.

Blakes has been named to the East Coast All-Stars, a team comprised of college basketball players that will be traveling to Barcelona, Spain to play exhibitions this August.

The roster was first reported by Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.

Not only will the East Coast All-Stars be playing exhibitions but the team will be honoring the legacy of the 1992 United States Men’s Basketball Olympic squad that won the gold medal in Barcelona.

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The 1992 Dream Team is wildly considered as the best professional basketball team ever assembled and was the first time the United States sent NBA players to compete in the Olympics.

Led by the talents of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Charles Barkley, the Americans won six games en route to its gold medal and its smallest margin of victory was 38 points.

Former Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski was an assistant coach on the Dream Team while Duke superstar Christian Laettner was the only college player selected to the team.

The East Coast All-Stars will train at Columbia University on the first two days of August, according to Zagoria, before boarding the plane to Spain.

Specific opponents have not yet been released for the group of college players.

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Jaylen Blakes did not commit to Duke until April 2021 and only saw minimal time on the court during his freshman season as he appeared in 21 games but only averaged 4.5 minutes per contest.

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The Blair Academy (NJ) standout posted just 1.0 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.5 assists in his debut year with the Blue Devils as the 6-foot-1 guard will be looking to serve as the backup point guard behind Jeremy Roach for Duke in the 2022-23 season.

Two other players from the ACC were named to the East Coast All-Stars roster in JR Konieczny (Notre Dame) and Bennie Williams (Syracuse).