La Busqueda Para El Oro (The Search For Gold)

our county man, especially special Lebron James. We look for an opportunity of the weekend on Athlema being the best in the world. I guess the Redeem Team is because it is right, we're the best team in the world. We're the best team in the world. We put Basketball America, basketball wheels debeat, which is that, yes, Carmelo Anthony. For weeks now we've heard you say we're the best team in the world. We're the best team in the world. And now at last we're gonna find out how that happened.

The place Beijing, the year two thousand and eight. The teams the United States Redeemed Team versus Spain, the Stakes and Olympic gold Medal. Welcome Do Episode ten of Kobe Lebron and the Redeemed team, which we're calling Labuskata pata l a, the quest for the gold that came after consultation with my son Chris, who's a Spanish translator. And wait, let's stand at attention. Okay, sitting at attention co host Jaya dandhe for a few bars of the Spanish national anthem,

watch real now that is one of only four national anthems. Incidentally, that has no lyrics. There were no bombs bursting in air, there's no rockets, red glare and after some international competition, the Spaniards were roundly criticized for not singing their national anthem, when in fact there is nothing to sing anyway. Two questions co host j adande, which language did you study

in high school? And more importantly, give us a brief sub up on how we got to this moment the United States versus Spain in the gold medal game in two thousand eight. Jack I studied French in high school, although I did take a little Spanish in college, and growing up in Los Angeles, as I did, you're surrounded by the Spanish language, so you absorb some words, so to speak. So I'm familiar with Spain. I I can

get it. I would try to go back and forth and joke with Palkasol and Spanish every now and then and sort of make fun of my limited Spanish abilities. But I can absorb it. I get. I get the title of the episode put it that way. How did we get here? How were they playing in the Olympics.

They've played seven games, including Spain before, So just give us a little sum up on how it's been going for the US in these Beijing Games, Jack, because you we watch the difference in the athletic ability is so stunning, and they'll get a breakaway and Lebron James or Dwayne Wade or Kobe will just soar through the air. There they're so fast too, and the moments when they're able to exercise and flaunt their athletic ability that there's just

nothing else in the world that's close to that. And so they haven't enough of those moments to really cruise throughout most of the competition. But against Spain it's a little more limited. And you really see the beauty of basketball in this and that there's these moments where the USA does have that superior athletic ability, but it takes more than that to win in basketball, and that's the beauty of the game. It does take strategy and skill

as well. And Spain, more than any other team throughout the Olympics, pushed United States to rely on all of its skill and coach k to rely on strategy and for them to come together and be more resilient. Uh. You know that they could have been challenged in the in the semifinal games against Argentina, but Monty Genoble hurts his ankle and doesn't get to play the rest of the game and US winds up playing pretty comfortable there. Sachefsky has defined his team and you see these roles

coming to play in the gold medal game too. So it's Jason Kidd comes in, pushes the tempo, sets other guys up. Isn't looking to shoot at all, Kobe Bryant's looking to shoot plenty, Kobe Bryant's taking three point shots. Dwayne Wade is amazing and is the leading score for this team and and has his moments in the gold medal game. So one thing about this game, you can see it, and you can see the best elements and

you can see how indicative this game was. Of what this team, how it was built, and how it played. You know, Spain, for its part, has had a good up to this point, has had a good but not a great Olympics. It included a hundred nineteen to eighty two loss to the United States in an early round game. It was a no contest. Eight US players scored in double figures. Lebron dominated the game with eighteen points eight assists, and Spain just didn't look like it came to play,

which it probably didn't. And here's Craig Miller, USA Basketball's public relations chief, who has been around international ball for decades on the well, let's just say the philosophy of some European teams in these preliminary round games. We had played Spain earlier in preliminary playing beat them pretty badly

as well. But you know, kind of the European teams have a tradition of when they start off these preliminary games and they get behind, it is kind of let up because there's nothing It doesn't mean that much whether they're the one seed or the two seeds to them, but you know they're going to have to play well and win or other games. But you absolutely could not count out Spain for this gold medal game, for the same reason that these international teams Spain, Argentina, Lithuania, Croatia,

sometimes even France presents such formidable opposition. As redeemed team assistant coach Mike D'Antoni points out, you have to understand all these guys Spain and every country, they started playing together, and they're like thirteen years old. Every summer they're together, and by the time you hit him, when they're like thirty years old. They played together fifteen twenty years and

they knew each other inside out. I'm gonna push back a little bit on that because Ricky Rubio didn't look like he'd been playing with them for fifteen to twenty years. Because Rickey Rubio looked like he was fifteen years old at the time. If you go back and which step look at that footage, I mean he looks like a teenager. Yeah, he looks like a kid in eighties sitcom, you know, who's like getting mud all over the floor of his parents house, or like a ball boy. He had wandered

out onto the court. That doesn't mean he wasn't very effective, and that doesn't mean that the Spanish team the rest of the guys didn't have that that sort of spree to cord to use a French term on the Spanish team, but they had this this sense of belonging, this togetherness, and the USA had to sort of manufacture that and

jump start that. And but that was a big part of the reason why Jerry Colangelo, the Godfather, wanted that three year commitment, was that if he couldn't replicate the the effect of a team being together for a decade, he could at least have them be together through multiple iterations and have gone through some ups and downs and have the memories. That's why it was good that you had guys like Carmelo and Lebron who had been on

the two thousand four team that lost. They had that memory that had been on the two thousand and six team that lost in the World Championships and had that memory that collective experience together. And let's not forget a lot of these guys. People like to do ride the au culture in in American basketball, but in this case it helps that some of these guys had played together for a long time. Maybe they weren't on a national team together like players from Spain or Argentina, but Carmelo,

Dwayne Wade, Lebron, James. These guys knew each other, They've been playing with each other for a long time. They were familiar with each other. And again, I think all of that comes into play into this game, no question. And and even beyond this sort of this kind of unfactorable team cohesion and being together for a long time, Spain is just damn good, you know. So, as we're gonna say we're ready for tip off, US sends out its usual starting lineup, Kobe and j Kidded, guard Lebron

and Carmelo, Anthony and forward Dwight Howard at center. The gun Slinger, Flash the man. Coach k calls rocket Man. It's not gonna be long before he comes into the game. But Spain, okay, here's who they're sending out. K A Juan Carlos Navarro, who had just finished his rookie year with Memphis, although he did he did go back and play mostly in Spain. Ricky Rubio, the eighties sitcom kid who is a hell of a point guard, even though

he looks a little overmatched in this game. There were also two formidable Spanish league stars and Felipe A. Ray's and Carlo Simenez and off the bench Rudy Fernandez, who had just average eleven points per game with Portland, Jose call the Roun who's in the middle of a long NBA career, and a budding star in Mark Gasol, who's about as rough a dude as the Olympics could offer. And I think I'm forgetting the big one. But the

other starter for Spain, he's your guy. Tell him about it, j A. Tell us about pall Gasol, Pal Gasol, the recently minted Lakers. So that's the same year that he joins the Lakers in the trade, comes over from the Memphis Grizzlies, and he and Kobe immediately bond become a new dynam mcdouoh that goes to the Inn Bay Finals and gets stomped by the Boston Celtics, but clearly he had turned the Lakers back into a championship contender, along with the presidence of Kobe Bryant at his m v

P best form. And it's funny just watching some of the plays in this it reminds me of Pow in the Laker uniform. In particular is playing the second half where he post up and comes to the middle and then turns back and has this lefty hook shot that goes in. Uh. He had a great shooting touch. He was a deft passer as well. Uh. Really smart guy. It's funny. Kobe used to try to really push him. Remember the famous black Swan speech that I need to be more of the Black Swan, can't be the white Swan.

Sometimes Kobe thought that Poal needed to be a little tougher, and Kobe would do his best to bring that out of him. Phil Jackson wants punched pau Gasolt in the chest to try to get him to toughen up a little bit. That was actually when it phils last games with the Lakers in a in a playoff series lost to Dallas. So there was that need to extract a

little bit of the toughness from him. But the skill and the intelligence um and just a beautiful player to watch play basketball, if you want to use that word to describe it. Uh. For a guy that size, a guy that's tall, to be so skilled and have such a soft shooting touch. Was really a unique player. And again team with Kobe Bryant made the Lakers one of the best teams in the league. Did Kobe called Pale his favorite teammates somewhere along the line, or did I

imagine that? I don't. I don't know if he actually specifically said that, but they had a very very special bond. Kobe probably doesn't think of any teammate as his that's his favorite. Maybe it's probably somebody on this team. It's probably somebody from the two thousand eight or two thousand twelve Olympic teams. But so we're all set. You got the you got real NBA, true NBA talent on the floor, and the game j A is hardly highly charged from

the beginning. This ain't no aliminary round. And Coach K interestingly goes early. I think it's one of those games where people were going to be losing a little bit of their wind. You know, it's so fraught with tension, these gold medal games. So Coach K goes early to a combo Chris Paul, Darren Williams, Chris Bosh and Tayshawn Prince, and that really ups their energy a little bit. What it kind of looks like a modern team a little bit. You know, the way they played, what is the what

did they give him? Well, for one thing, you get you get a point guard or point guards, and Chris Paul and Daryn Williams who can attack. And and Jason Kidd again he set the tempo. He was looking to set other guys up, but he's not gonna be on the attack. And there's a couple of moments where Spain actually goes up by five points to go up nineteen fourteen. They go up seventeen and both times Chris Paul answers. He gets to the basket and he's got an answer

for that. He goes on the attack, and that's not something that you would get from Jason Kidd. So you have that, you have the defensive presidents, you you have even some offense from from from Tashaun Prince. Um. You know he makes three shots that there's one shot the Tasha makes where his arm extends on a layup and it looks like his arm goes up to the rafts. When you talk about the definitive qualities of Tashawn Prince, it's those long arms, and you see that come into

play in the first half of this game. Competitive The USA goes up by thirteen points at one pot three after a rugged first quarter twenty three free throws were shot in the first quarter. It's pretty rough and tumbling

their physical game. Um, you get Wade and Kobe both then for a little while in the second quarter, and that's when they take that big lead, and you think about it, the majesty of having what we're clearly at the time the two best shooting guards in the NBA, Kobe Bryant, and it was really it wasn't one and two, it was one A and one bat that that's how good these two guys were, and that's how good Twyne Wade had become that soon in his career. And to see both of them on the court at the same

time on same team was pretty amazing. And it pushes the USA up to lead, but uh, they can't hold it, and it's down to single duds before halftime, one at halftime, and then the United States. We had mentioned this before. It's just basketball. I mean, people go, how do they how are they so good? And then they fall asleep. It's basketball. The other team kind of wakes up and in the third quarter they come out a little tepid. The play that struck me the most j was uncharacteristically,

somebody just wrenches the ball out of Lebron's hands. I mean, you know, normally that would take like four people. So Spain cuts the lead seventy one with about six minutes left in the third quarter. Now and Coach K goes all Chicago on their ass. You know, I can't exactly everybody can look at this game, by the way, go to go to YouTube and google USA versus Spain. As I've said before, we're not allowed to play clip from

the game, but it's a fantastic game. And Coach K, I think, says, start playing fucking defense, like I know you can, and and sure enough what had happened was one Carlos Navarro got loose on a high pick and roll that was played unaggressively by h. Dwight Howard. But it's one of those coaching explosions. You know, I love coaching explosion stories. You've got you have any from your from your career, any you remember I've got two When was John Thompson. It wasn't a verbal explosion in the

huddle like that. It was a physical explosion where they're playing a nonconference opponent, they're blowing them out, and one of his players on the court gets a breakaway and does a three sixty dunk, and John thinks he's showing up the competition and he can't wait to get him out of here. And he just goes down the sideline, reaches down, grabs the nearest player he can find. I don't even think he looked to see if it was

the right position to replace his player. He wanted to get out here, grabs a kid by the jersey, throws him down to the scorer's table to check it. I'll never kid just reaches out, grabs his kid's jersey, throws him the scores able to check in and get this

kid out of there. Another great coaching showdown moment involved Phil Jackson actually backing down the middle of Game seven Western Conference Finals two thousands, two Lakers at Sacramento Arco Arena, packed its noisy, It's one of the tensest games I've ever covered. And Robert or is running down court and Phil Jackson yells at him for some defensive mis Q. And Rob's point was that he was covering up for somebody else's mistake. It wasn't his fault. Phil should beyelling

at the other guys. So you see Phil yelling at rob Ory, and then Rob yells back at him, and then Phil just says, okay, and it's over. My favorite guy, don't. Did you ever have the pleasure of watching uh Doug mo coach the great Denver? Yeah, I remember watching him coach. Yeah, Doug was Doug was insane and I and I loved watching Doug. And Doug would be there before the game, like you could be talking to Doug to set before the game and he could be making a joke the

minute the game started. And I was there one night and Wayne Cooper, one of the one of the best guys ever to play, real good natured and a real good defensive center for Doug. The game starts, Doug shirt immediately like comes out of his pants. He starts going crazy. Ten seconds into the game. Ten seconds Doug screams, Coop, you're playing with your head and your ass, and Cooper goes, there wasn't even time. There wasn't even time for me

to take a defensive position, you know. So I just love Doug went from zero to sixty better than anybody. But anyway, so the United States responds to this a little bit, but this is a tough team they're playing. They recovered to lead to eight two after three periods, So this sort of this sort of non double digit lead, you know, would continue the first period, the second period and the third period. Space stayed in the zone most

of the game. And it's one of those games, Jay, when they just you know, you were draining jumper after jumper. I mean that rarely happens in those high pressure, high high stakes games. It was a spirited effort by both teams, you know. And in Spain, Man, they don't get enough credit, you know, they do not get enough credit for how good that that team was. I mean, you know, they

had five or six guys, probably seven or eight. I'm sure I'm missing a couple, um that had NBA experience, they played in the league, and those guys have been playing together since their fifteen sixteen years old, you know, so their their effort doesn't get enough credit because I remember, like we kept you know, you make the adjustments in game.

Usually we'd have a bit more breathing room, you know, Okay, if it was closed to be like okay, eighteen, we need to close them out, you know, a single possession game coming down to the wire. I don't think any of us expected it, but um, you know, in those moments, you just have to uh do what you're taught, play the game and stay the course of the game. And that was Chris Boss reflecting on his memories of that game,

And yeah, it was tough. And one thing you notice is that it seems like every time the American players try to drive, two or three Spanish players collapse in the lane and and it's just crowded and there's bodies bumping, people getting knocked to the ground a lot. Of course, Dwayne Wade going to the ground, that was what he was known for, even had a commercial like that. So

Dwayne Wade's on the ground a lot. All that stuff's going on, and then Spain goes on a run and they're only down by two points and then coach k remembers that moment. Specifically, the most pressure moment I've ever had as a coach was the gold medal game with eight minutes to go, a little bit over it, when Spain had stopped about seven of our fast breaks with that stinking international intentional foul, you know, like when you they just follow you at half court and they're not

held accountable. It's really one of the bad rules of all time. So we should be winning by a lot, but we've we've not gotten fourteen sixteen points on that and obviously they're good, and it feels like all the momentum in the world is there and all the that so called game pressure, it was more than game pressure. It was Olympic Gold Medal game pressure. And that time out we got together and our guys started talking, and we had kind of built that where they could talk.

Wasn't just me talking and and and I didn't diagram anything or we just talked and we'll be all right that you know, Kobe, we got it. It was around that same moment that Sean f Or, the team's director of operation, he remembers that scene also, and this really struck me that years later the memory of for him of looking at Kobe and Wade is just seared into his brain pan and here he uh he talks about it.

There's a time I think it was somewhere around the eight minute mark, could have been a little bit less than that in the gold medal game and Coach k called the time out. It was like a prize fight, and you just in between rounds and Kobe and and Dwayne sat down next to each other on the bench and just stared across. You know, I think coach talked to him a little bit, but I don't even think that they were listening. They were just so I've never

seen two people so locked in in my life. They just went and sat down and they were just like, you know, like they were just so focused. You're listening to Kobe Lebron and of a deem team. We'll be back after this. Okay, So we don't have time for a play by play here, but a couple of things stand out. Jake, it's nine, US is up by two in the gold medal game and Kobe. I don't know whether a set play was established, but Kobe breaks the U S night would they ridiculous? Shouldn't have taken it?

But I did it? So f you pump line drive across the lane and assistant coach Jim Beheim remembers that moment. I probably wasn't a big fan of Kobe maybe, but when we were we were in trouble and we were I don't care what the revisionist history is, but Spain had us in Beijing. We were up, they were coming, they came back. They were ten. It's two points and Kobe's got the ball. Nobody wanted the ball. I'm doing you. He went into the lane and he double pumped almost

and he got it and made it. Okay, we've alluded to this before, but how many how many times have you seen some of that ridiculous shot making from Kobe over the years? So many? And one that stands out to that stands out from the same game, the last

game of the regular season in two thousand four. They're in Portland's and they need a three to first cent in and overtime, and then he's got a chance to win the game with one and he's being guarded by Ruben Patterson and there's not a lot of time left. He can't dribble go around him. He just gets the ball and somehow wriggles his way free and throws in a three pointer contested. He made one against d Wayne

Wade in Miami. Uh going across left to right, curls his body like it's a parentheses, like an opening parentheses, and throws up this shot, banks it off the glass. And I'll say it again, if there's only one second left in a game, I could pick Kobe Bryant. If I get my choice of anyone I'm taking Kobe the best bad shot acre of all time and this one that you just described, Jack is certainly a bad shot. You're wondering, that's what they get out of a time out?

Is Kobe driving through the lane contested hanging jumper, not even really squared up to the basket. But guess what it pays to have the best bad shot maker of all time. That was a bad shot and he made it, that's for sure, you know. So, So now we are in stretched time and an interesting question arises. J This kind of fascinated me from the beginning. I could have

spent two hours talking these guys about that. So you've got the number one big shot, bad shot dude on the planet, which you just describe, but you also have in Lebron James, the number one multi talented distributor in Lebron um to make decisions for you. So who you gonna call? And we put that question to a few of our interview subjects, And keep in mind we have to say that some times the answered to who are you going to give it to Kobe or Lebron is

Dwayne Wade, and it has been throughout this Olympics. But here we framed it as kind of do you want to give it to Kobe or do you want to give it to Lebron. First, here's Jay Kidd. I've always thought Lebron is always gonna make the right play because he's he can find the open guy. He can make the game so easy. Um, so I would lean towards to giving him the ball, letting him decide who's going

to make the play. But you can't go wrong because Kobe is coming off and you you know in that game against Spain he made some big shots and uh, and that's just who he is. And so, um, to answer you a question, you give it to both of them, because you can't go wrong. Um, Lebron again, Lebron is gonna find the open guy. He makes the game so easy. He's gonna draw attention and get two or three guys on him, and it's up to the guy making the open shot. And so they both in their nature are

our winners. And uh, and so I would say, you can't go wrong because you know, if you get the ball to Kobe, he's gonna do something magical with it and and find a way to win the game. And next Mike D'Antoni we all know Kobe, he's not He's not gonna be shining away from that moment. So I don't think it was a collective right, let's get the ball to Kobe. He was like, Hey, I'm doing this, and I think as it goes on, you know, his personality, he just he's coming at you, and it just out.

You know, we always use the phrase the ball finds energy. At that moment, his energy is off the chain. So I don't think it was consciously but subconsciously, Yeah, you gotta you gotta kill her over here on the left. Let's get the ball right there. I don't think anybody had to say anything. Chris Boss's answer was a little more direct, Kobe and get out of the way. You know, I've never, uh just to ask my own philosophy, you know, I've never I never wants to make the game more complicated,

um than it needs to be in that situation. You know, I just feel that, Um, that's what he's always done. That's what Kobe does. And you know, I just get him in a straight up I self situation and you know, ask him where he wants it. Count the clock down all the way to you know, and get the last shot if possible, and let him do his think. And finally here's Darren Williams. There's no disrespect to Lebron, because of course Kobe. Kobe's covered up and there's somebody else

there is going to Lebron. But as far as just getting the bucket, I mean, it's I don't Besides, Jordan's hasn't been anybody better in the game. Uh, you know, that's what he does. It was the moments he loves for. He's so comfortable with three hands in his face being found. I mean, it just it didn't matter with him. I've seen it s up close and personal, you know, put me out of three playoffs in a row, you know, and that that gets back to that bad shot maker

with one second left. He's just undeterred by that. And what was interesting though, was that this this was a question that was going around at the time. And I'll never forget one NBA source that used to talk to regularly that year. He tells me the answer to the Kobe Lebron debate, which was in full fury at that time. He said, Okay, in crunch time, with the gold medal on the line, who did they go to Kobe? Lebron,

and the answer was Kobe. And and it wasn't just that that hanging shot in the lane that we just described. He comes down and he drives, and then he he hits Darren Williams who makes a three pointer, and then it's Kobe did Dwight Howard for a dunk. So he's just in the middle of everything going on right there, and he wasn't about to let them lose that game,

you know. I was just thinking about this yet when and we're probably gonna have a of we we might have the greatest of all time discussion somewhere down the road. Yet we don't put We don't and I never have. We do not put Kobe into the greatest player of all time discussion, do we? He he was for a long time. And then it was Kobe versus Jordan's for a while, in particular at this time. But you know, I don't think one and two though, do you do you think they were? I'm not sure they were one

and two. Ever, it was for especially when Kobe was scoring eighty one points and doing some things that Jordan never had. It was Kobe or Jordan's And then Lebron entered the chat so to speak. Lebron had to win a championship first. You can't be in this discussion until you win a championship. And Kobe gets up to five championships, you know, right, he's equaled Magic Johnson. He's one behind Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. You get five. No, I understand, I'm gonna I did a By the way,

I'm sure you've done this in your career. If you want to get into trouble, try that all time top fifty or all time a hundred lists or something like that. I may have to recalibrate a little on Kobe the last time I did it. Um, I have somebody that if to this day, if he if he knew where I lived, Uh, he would come after my ass because I just had Kobe way too low. But anyway, this is another two hour discussion. But with three ten left, the US is leading by only one oh four. Now,

everybody on the team remember this moment. Kobe hits a jumper and then puts his finger to his lips as if to quiet the crowd. I I'm not I'm not the connoisseur of the collector of the first time something happened. But the finger to the lips is a pretty good taunt, about as good as you could do. I guess that's in the annals of taunting. J A. I guess that's an acceptable one, right. It's certainly totally takes some balls. It seemed a little weird though, because it wasn't like

he was quieting the whole crowd. Because if you if you watch the crowded, I think it's mostly locals, and so they don't necessarily have a stake in it, and they're applauding good plays on both sides. Um you know, there's a USA contingent there. There's a lot of dignitaries

there who are making no noise. But there is one angle when you see uh when there shooting free throws at the other and you look back and you notice that there's a bunch of Spanish fans behind that basket that the USA was shooting at in the second half, and so I think Kobe was directing it specifically to that section and he told them, you know, they had their flags and everything, and they're they were making noise, and he told them to quiet down, you know, time

to go to sleep. Little cys. The time, right, the game is over when it's not, and uh that you know, I like the quiet be quiet um Kobe. Kobe used to kind of do a tumble like finger wag and say no, no, no, if you'd hit a big shot on the road. Of course, Sam Casselle all had the big Balls Dance that that was a class se Unfortunately the NBA band they also banned the throats last remember, yeah, you know you Reggie Miller had a great Reggie Miller was a throat slash guy, I believe, But I I

wish there was video for this to you. You skip right over the Sam cassel Big Balls Dance because that that is a moment for mel A from NBA history that I will never forget. The only strange thing about Kobe was, uh, there was still three ten left. I mean it was you're you're probably right. It was more more assigned shut up to that section of the crowd rather than the games over because we got a waste

to go, honestly. But on that play, Kobe was also fouled by Rudy Fernandez, who, by the way, is enough of a hot dog that he just had Rudy written on the back of his Jersey like he's like Ronaldo or neymar or something right exactly one name. So he got fouled by Rudy on the play. It was his fifth foul. I think in that game game Rudy is not as good a player as Palca Soul, but in that game he was. He was really good, probably the best player. So uh, you know, Kobe also made the

free throw. So it's a four point play, but one final play. And note a huge wing jumper by Dwayne Wade with two oh three left. Probably that's the killer. And what I have to note in my current you know, continuous sermonizing about Lebron as a distributor. I watched that play a couple of times. Lebron plants himself at the elbow with his back to the basket. He is calling for he wants the ball somehow, he knows he's gonna

get it. Definite point of distribution. He gets the past, he's triple team by you know, he's forcibly triple team. Now doesn't bother him, finds a wide open Wade, who finishes, finishes with the jump shot, and who, by the way, finished with twenty points. Uh, Kobe had twenty although the majority of them were in crunch time and uh, that

was the ball game. Yeah, it was over and then it was just a matter of counting down the time and Jack the elation on the American ball players faces after it was over, and the joy that they felt they weren't mercenaries. Um, it was something that there was a lot of pressure on them too, and they finally delivered. And you see Kobe holding up his USA jersey, uh, you know, thumping his chess basically like that. They're skipping around, they're all they're jumping together at half court. They do

a USA channel. It's kind of cool, you know that that that's their chance one two three USA. It was one last moment for for America. And Mike Schowski is there. It's kind of cool. He's standing on the sidelines looking at them and applauding them, just applauding their effort. It's a great moment for him. But I like the fact that in that moment he's locked into them and it's happy for them and their accomplishment. And he described his

thoughts looking out at that scene. What a joyous celebration afterwards, you know, the Uh, it's a moment in time that you know, some of the greatest players in the history of our game could share together. You're listening to Kobe, Lebron and Redeemed Team Jay and I will be back

in a minute. Let's remember Jay that this two thousand and eight win was the first of three in a row, a trifecta for the Showsky I guess we could call the Showski administration, which in all three of those Olympics included Lebron, d Wade, and Carmelo, and assistant coach Jim Beheim puts, that's what this wind in Beijing in historical perspective, particularly remembering the World Championship loss to Greece in two thousand six and the two thousand four Olympics. Here's bee Hund.

I mean there was a lot where I winning the Olympics. I mean if we lost to Spain, I don't even know if we'd have been back, we might have been done for sure. If we lost to Greece and then lost the next year to Spain in the Olympics and they we probably would have been all done. So Ja, that puts a rap on the two thousand and eight Olympics. Uh, We're gonna be back for a bonus episode or two. But I just have one final thought, and I know

you have one too. It's my particular sermon on to repeat it on Lebron moving up to two thousand twelve in London, which we're not going to talk about, but I'm just gonna bring this to your attention. Lebron has now won a championship, uh, coming off a championship season. But on that team, here's Lebron again. Kevin Durant average as he should, great score, probably without injuries, may have finished the greatest score ever. He averaged nineteen point five

points per game. Carmelo Anthony, who by then you would think had been kind of reduced to a little bit of a secondary role, is second with sixteen point three. Lebron James the champion, probably not probably definitely the best player in the game at that time. Thirteen point three points per game, nine shots per game is all. He took six shooting, he got five point six rebounds, he

got five point eight assists. That's just the kind of player that Lebron James is was, and is you get him on your team, you're gonna be a better team because he's gonna do everything he can to be that team player. And that's what I take away from, uh, from these Olympic Games. You looking back on that moment when they received their gold medals and the Nason anthem, and I was struck by how much less complicated the

time that was. In two thousand and eight. Were a few years away from Trayvon Martin and Mod Aubrey and of course George Floyd and and all these things that have have changed the discussion and forced people to think

about America. We're eight years away from Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem and protesting police brutality and not being able to stand at attention for the flag and the anthem of a country that continuously kills black men with with no consequences for for for those who abuse or kill them. And those things all existed in two thousand and eight, but they weren't at the forefront of the discussion. It was a much more optimistic time. Think about two

thousand and eight. That's the year that America goes on

to elect its first black president. And so this sort of unqualified patriotism by all the players on the team, all of whom were African American, and the they're all holding their hands over their hearts, and Kobe in particular is singing along to the national anthem, and they had put pay traatism and representing the country at the center of that team, and here it was and they were reveling in it at this moment, and you could see the pride that they had in being American, and at

that point in time, it just wasn't this this cognitive dissonance, this duality, and it was it just seemed a purer time. We don't think of the two thousand and eight is being purer, but compared to today, a moment like that, you could just see them feel patriotic and that was cool. And Kobe in particular, seeing him that happy and that giddy.

And he'd been an NBA champion before, but now he was an Olympic champion, a gold medalist, uh, something that he hadn't had the opportunity to do before, and now he's one for one. He finally gets his chance. We've gone over some of the reasons why he couldn't or didn't participate in the past, but he gets his chance and now he has a gold medal around his neck and he's giddy. He keeps kissing the gold medal. He can't stop smiling, He's pumping his fist, and it was

cool for me to see that moment for him. I think of some of the moments at the very very top of his career. I think of him leaping in the Shack's arms after they win their first championship together in two thousands. I think of this moment when he realizes he's about to close in on his first championship without check in two thousand nine, and there's a time out.

He's on his way back to the bench and he just bends over like a ski jumper, and he's just pumping his face like he can feel the moment's already here, almost here, and now this time, after everything he's been through and he's back on top. He is on top of the world. And he has shared this experience Jack, and we've chronicled how he sort of got to know his teammates and became a part of the team and bonded with them. And I just want to get back

to this Carmelo Anthony sound that we had. We played some of it for you in the very first episode, and we're gonna play it in its entirety or more full version of it now and and Carmelo talking about how they were a to bond with Kobe, and he

says that was his number one takeaway from that Olympic experience. See, the one thing I would say, like the vivid memories is just the way that especially speaking on keeping it on Kobe, like the way that he like bought himself to become so comfortable with us, you know, and the players on the team and you know, really understanding like okay, like this is the band of brothers here, like you know in the Lakers, he was, he was who he was right he would you know, he he come in

early in the morning, he come in late at night, and he's working and he's doing his thing, and he's out when people coming there and there it was you know, he never let nobody in there with him like he was. You know, he was very you know, secretive in stand office with us, Like you saw him like slowly letting his guard down, even on the buses, you know, even going to the Olympic village and going to others sporting in these bands, like you saw the guard coming coming down.

You saw those bricks falling, and he was fully immersed in and what we was doing and being there with us, and that was something that was like, Okay, he finally like, okay, we got the last brick down, like we you know, he the wall is down, Like it's down, y'all. Damn we did a good job. Like it was. You almost felt like a sense of victory seeing him laugh the way that he was laughing and you know, talking and communicating and stories, and just like you, we felt that.

I think we gave him another egge and we gave him another level of sharpness because he knew like how sharp we were on that team, you know, from us getting up early in the morning and training and working out and talking and can you watching film and and you know, having fun too. But he saw the sharpness that we had on that team everybody and and what what I used to say was iron sharpens iron. And he understood that. He understands that language, and he also

understands something that we submit him. We always say, lions don't hang with others, don't hang with nobody other than lions, right, so he he when you when you put it that way to him, and you messed with the you know, the the cerebral part of it. He locks in, and I think that's what that's what he was dealing with, Like he knew like he was being sharpened by us and we was being sharpened by him. We understood that.

And I think after oh eight, even the next year when we played those guys in the Western Conference finals, you just saw the sharpness, like you saw the mentality, the mentality like, oh, I was missing this gold medal, Like this is what I was missing. I was you know, I was three p I three ted, I won, but I never had this. Now I can say I have a gold medals. And I think that's that's also why he approached it the way that he approached because that's

what he was missing. All right. So that's a wrap for Kobe Lebron and the redeem Team, the story of the two thousand and eight Gold Medal winners. There's a lot we talked about the organization of the team by Godfather, Jerry Colangelo, Mike Shasky, bringing them all together, the personalities on this team, and I certainly think about Kobe myself, and I just think about the uh, the defiant Kobe that the story I told you about about going to do a story on him, about the scoring race and

him telling me, Oh, it's not a race. What are you talking about? Man? He goes for forty eight and fifty on that weekend and then just stares at me with this kind of smiling contempt as he walks off the floor. And I'm sitting at the at the press box. So it's been great going through this with you. We hope to have a couple of bonus episodes. And uh,

I'm Jack McCallum signing off. And Jack has been great doing this with you, and I always love hearing your stories, and you're expertise on the history of basketball, and it's been fun to revisit this this time and this somewhat overlooked team, and hopefully people have a better understanding of them. I certainly do, and we certainly want to thank all of those who took time to share their memories of this experience with us. It's been a pleasure for us

to pass that along to you. Thanks for listening. The Dream Team Tapes, Season two, Kobe Lebron and the Redeem Team is a production of Diversion podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. This season is written and hosted by me, Jack McCallum and j A. The executive producer Scott Waxman and Mark Francis for Diversion Podcast and Shawn's

High Tone for I Heart Radio. Our editorial director is John Tuttle, Supervising producer Brian Murphy, legal producer Freddie Overstegen, Editing, mixing and sound designed by Mark Frances. Verna Fields is our technical producer, and our director of Marketing and business Development is Jacob Bronstein Diversion Podcasts