Redeem Team: The Redemption of LeBron, Kobe, and the 2008 Gold

The “Redeem Team”: Beyond Kobe Bryant’s iconic moment

The iconic moment associated with the “Redeem Team” in basketball is, without a doubt, the image of Kobe Bryant with his finger to his lips. That defiant pose, after a crucial three-pointer and a foul at a decisive moment in the gold medal match, was loaded with symbolism. Bryant didn’t want silence in Beijing’s Wukesong Arena, even though his fervent Chinese fans were already ecstatic. His intention was to silence the doubts about American dominance in world basketball. This weekend, that moment will be relived in Springfield, Massachusetts, with the official induction of the 2008 United States men’s Olympic team into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Bryant’s 13 points in the last quarter of that day, especially the four-point play that impacted Spain, are pillars of that team’s legend. The redemption, after the bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics and the four years of subsequent frustration, is what defines that summer. It was also a redemptive moment for Bryant, posthumously recognized for the second time this week, considering the context of his career. Although the team’s celebration will focus on Bryant’s memory, the story of the “Redeem Team” is deeper than that last quarter or that summer. The gold medal was the result of a hard road, and many of the players who are now honored by the Hall of Fame suffered as much as they strived.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski was in charge of returning Team USA to gold at the 2008 Olympic Games.After his first training session as the new coach of Team USA in July 2006, Mike Krzyzewski made a tactical announcement in Las Vegas. Jerry Colangelo had taken over the leadership of the program as a savior and CEO, promising total control of the roster and a larger budget, agreed upon by the then-NBA commissioner, David Stern. Krzyzewski and Colangelo had been on a listening and preaching tour, promising to respect the international game, which had surpassed the Americans, as demonstrated in Athens 2004 and in the 2002 world championship, where the United States’ 59-game international winning streak ended with a sixth-place finish. The rules, opponents, and style of play would be respected. However, after his first training session, Krzyzewski declared: “Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t play zone.” Krzyzewski learned from Bobby Knight to play fierce man-to-man defense at West Point. Duke players in the 1990s under coach K were not known for hitting the floor and then falling into a 2-3. But that didn’t go with the spirit of embracing the international game he had been promoting; zone defense had been used effectively by European teams for a long time. In 2007, Team USA returned to Las Vegas, compelled to win the FIBA AmeriCup to qualify for the Olympics. The summer of 2006 had ended in another disappointment, when a renewed Team USA was humiliated by Greece in the world championship, in a match where their defense was torn apart by the pick-and-roll. As in 2004, they returned home with bronze medals that were stashed in a drawer and never seen again. In the first possession of the first game of 2007, against Venezuela, Krzyzewski’s team played zone defense. This moment is not as remembered as Bryant’s three-pointer, Dwyane Wade’s famous alley-oop in Beijing, or a LeBron James dunk. However, these tests and lessons are equally important in the history of what that group experienced before boarding the plane to China. There are four players entering the Hall of Fame as part of the “Redeem Team” this weekend who uniquely understand this journey. Wade, James, Carmelo Anthony, and Carlos Boozer were part of the bronze medal disappointment in 2004, which ended Team USA’s era of Olympic dominance. None of them played much, something for which the then Team USA coach, Larry Brown, was criticized, and they all disliked the experience.

“I’m sitting on the podium receiving the bronze medal like ‘this was a waste of time’,” James said in the documentary “Redeem Team” released by Netflix three years ago. “At that moment, I was definitely not going to play for Team USA again.

LeBron James

Three other players who won gold in 2008, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, and Chris Paul, joined Anthony, James, and Wade on the 2006 team in Japan for the world championship that was supposed to represent a return to victory. They were all part of a group of players who responded to Colangelo’s demand to commit long-term to the national team. For James and Anthony, it meant giving up summer months in four of their first five years in the NBA.

Instead of getting any reward in 2006, they were exposed by the Greeks, who showed the weak points in the American team, and despite the large number of stars and stellar coaches, Team USA seemed unable to do anything about it. There may have been some progress, some team building, but in the end, the atmosphere was, once again, terrible.

“When we lost to Greece, and I swear to you, no, we didn’t want to go home,” Paul said in the book “Basketball: A Love Story.” “I’m telling you we didn’t want to go home. It’s one of the toughest losses I’ve ever felt.”

Chris Paul

But if there was a place where Team USA really began its path to gold victory in 2008, it might have been outside of Tokyo. The day after the loss to Greece, the team was down by nine points against Argentina led by Manu Ginobili, the 2004 Olympic champion who had defeated the United States on the way to that gold.

At a time when Team USA could have thrown in the towel, a trait the Americans acquired during a string of international defeats from 2002 until the day before, the players pushed themselves and changed the course of the game, achieving victory and slightly avenging the Olympic defeat against the Argentinians. Thus began a winning streak that would last more than a decade. Wade, James, and Anthony combined for 69 points and committed, practically on the spot, to return the following summer (although Wade did not play due to injury) to qualify for the Olympic Games, after failing to do so in Japan. They were miserable, but determined.

When the 2008 Olympic ‘Redeem Team’ ate at a gas station.

During the 2008 Beijing gold medal game, the experienced Spanish team got within two points of the Americans in the final quarter, and Krzyzewski called a timeout.

The legendary coach later said that, despite all the NBA championship rings, college titles, MVPs, and hundreds of millions of dollars in net worth at that meeting, he thought it was probably the most tense moment everyone had felt in their careers. Krzyzewski had prepared some things to say, but it was Bryant who took control.

“There are a lot of players here who are nervous,” Bryant said in the documentary about the situation. “I know they feel the pressure much more than I do. I know I’m ready.”

Kobe Bryant

Bryant’s following minutes on the court are etched in the history books. This moment of leadership will always be cherished by everyone involved in the program. But, although it may have been the most memorable, perhaps it wasn’t the most defining. Neither was what Bryant did in the group stage against Spain at the beginning of the Olympic Games. He surprised his teammates when he announced before the game in the locker room that he knew exactly which play the Spanish would start with and that he intended to intentionally collide with his friend and teammate from the [Los Angeles Lakers](/nba/team/_/name/lal/los-angeles-lakers) Pau Gasol, in an effort to send a message to everyone about his sincerity in this whole effort. Of course, he did, leaving Gasol stunned on the court with a frown seconds after the jump ball. But it was really the previous summer, when the Americans had to win that FIBA AmeriCup event to get the Olympic spot, when Bryant’s leadership campaign really began. Bryant’s example is legendary within USA Basketball, personified during the pre-tournament training camp, when Bryant made sure to be in the hotel lobby when his teammates returned from a long night at a Las Vegas nightclub so they could see him heading to the gym for a pre-dawn workout. It was during that time that James, eager to take the next step as a leader after his first experience in the NBA Finals months earlier, began to closely study Bryant’s habits and style. James later said that experience helped him find his voice and ethics as a leader, a trait that USA Basketball continues to benefit from in the modern era. Soon, James joined Bryant in those early workouts and other teammates followed. James led the 2024 Team USA that won a fifth consecutive Olympic gold in Paris, 16 years after the start of the streak, when James set the tone with a very serious and intense training camp again in Las Vegas. Somehow, part of this can be traced back to Bryant and the tone set in 2007.

When Team USA sang happy birthday to Kobe, who was turning 30.Anthony and Howard are double honorees in Springfield this week, entering for their careers as players and for their roles in conquering gold in Beijing. They will be the fifth and sixth members of the 2008 team to enter the Hall for their individual careers, joining Bryant, Jason Kidd, Wade, and Bosh. James and Paul, both still playing in the NBA after the age of 40, will make history by being the first active NBA players to be included. Krzyzewski and Colangelo have been honored, as has “Redeem Team” assistant coach Jim Boeheim, who, after three Olympic golds and two World Cup golds together, finally convinced Krzyzewski to play quite a bit of zone defense at Duke. In total, the “Redeem Team” is already one of the most decorated in history: the 1992 “Dream Team” had 11 Hall of Fame members and remains untouchable. His role in basketball history is secure, and his fingerprints are on the gold medals won in London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2021, and again last year in Paris. It’s been many years and many victories to process, and all the success can dull appreciation when taken together. This celebration seeks to ensure that uniqueness is properly recognized, but the reasons why the “Redeem Team” is indelible begin long before and continue long after 2008.

When the gold medals were distributed in Beijing, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played and the flag was raised, it was a moment of total culmination,” Colangelo said when the Hall of Fame honor was announced earlier this year.

Jerry Colangelo

“Rarely does someone have the opportunity to have a game plan, see it executed to perfection, and get the desired result. That’s what happened and put our U.S. basketball team on a path over the last 20 years towards many gold medals.”