Redeem Team BK: Before Kobe

our country minutes, especially special Lebron James. We look for an opportunity of the weekend on a flam and being the best in the world. I guess the Redeem Team is as it is right. We're the rest team in the world. We're the best team in the world. And we put Basketball America basketball wheat which is at the top. All Hello, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, all the

ships that see. Welcome to Kobe Lebron and the Redeemed Team, Episode six, which we're calling for reasons that will become clear. Redeemed Team b K Before Kobe, I'm Jack McCallum. You've already heard about the magnificent organizational job done by Jerry Colangelo, the Godfather. You can hear that Godfather music cued in by our wonderful technical person Mark Francis. The magnificent job that Jerry did in putting the team together, in the

choice of Mike Shooski to coach this team. But this episode centers on the year two thousand six, when the team finally gets together, shows a lot of cohesi and a teamwork, and promptly takes a nose dive in the two thousand six World Championships in Japan. We'll be talking about that, but I want to begin with an off the court moment that occurred in two thousand six during the NBA playoffs and before the Redeemed team got together for its first practice. I've been doing this journalism thing

for half a century now. There's countless games I remember, but there's also some great off the field, or in this case, off the court memories. I'm gonna tell you about one because it ties in so nicely to the story of the O eight Redeemed team. But first I want to introduce my co host j A A. Dandhee and wonder do you have any of those moments? J A One of those like wonderful off the court moments that occurred around two thousand six. Well, yeah, very far

from the court and very far from the NBA. In two thousand six, actually skipped out midway through the NBA playoffs to go over to Germany to cover the World Cup, the FIFA World Cup. I got a chance to go to Dirk Nobiski's home town in Wurtzburg. Actually watched the six game of the finals from a bar that they kept open all night because at the time difference uh and saw the heat finish off the Mavericks. A lot of the locals were saying nine nine every time Dirk

would miss, so I was over there. So I actually kind of missed out on the OH six playoffs. It's a little bit of a blur for me. But I had a great time. I went to the Offbra house in Munich. I got to see the Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens's name is still embedded all these decades after the nineteen thirty six Olympics. But those are my memories from two thousand and six. It's weird. It's one of

the few times that I wasn't actually at the NBA Finals. Well, mine comes from two thousand and six at around that same time. While you were drinking beer with all the Germans. I was actually at a dinner after the first round of the playoffs. I was working on a book about the uh the Phoenix Suns. They had just beaten the Lakers an amazing seven game series. I guess every series of Kobe's in has a way of being amazing. But they went to dinner at this great pizza place in Phoenix,

and at the dinner was Jerry Colangelo, the Godfather. We don't have to cue the music, but Mike Sawski and Mike D'Antoni. And it was the first time Colangelo had gathered the Redeemed team coaches together to talk about what was going to happen later that summer when they finally practiced. What I remember Jay was the excitement of these guys.

Uh Showsky just couldn't stop talking about d'antoni's offense, and he would say, so, you run the wings all the way to the corner right, and then D'Antoni would talk about spacing, and then Colangelo would talk about some of the players that he had already lined up and how excited they were to see Lebron and d Wade and they weren't going to see Kobe. You're gonna tell us why. And then uh D'Antoni would talk about international ball because

he had been over in Italy for twenty years. Meanwhile, the pizza, which is world class by the way, Chris Bianco's pizza is recognized all around the country. The pizzas flying back and forth, and I'm the only one eating because these guys are just talking basketball. And what struck me and that was the seeds of the Redeemed team, that kind of enthusiasm. Here's these guys with like a collective a hundred and twenty years of experience, and they

were just really, you know, anxious to get going. And the other weird thing was you think about these timelines, What a weird process this is to get an Olympic basketball team together. Jay Colangelo was named in April of two thousand five to be the new head of USA basketball. He finally selects Showsky in October of two thousand five, and you know, right at the beginning of that season, but the players they're not even gonna get together until

July of two thousand six. You know, it's like asking somebody to the prom in April of one year. And then we're not gonna go until June of the following year. A lot can go wrong, so what do The thing you have to remember was how many players are involved in this kind of program. You can't just say here's the twelve guys we want because you never know what injuries other circumstances are gonna take. So all these different people are floating in and out of the Olympic program.

Chauncey Billips, Shane Battier, Bruce Bowen, Joe Johnson, Brad Miller, and even agent zero Gilbert arenas Um. Now you have, you know the guys you want, Lebron and d Wade, and you certainly wanted Kobe, but for various reasons, Jay Kobe was not around for the two thousand and six

team for the initial practices. What was going on with him? Well, Kobe coming off what was his high scoring season of his career average thirty five points per game that year, but his knee wasn't quite right, so he goes to get some of the scar tissue taken out of his knee. He felt like he didn't have full range of motion and so he couldn't participate with anything. The team USA

did that year was recovering from the knee surgery. You couldn't even participate when Nike had a promotional event featuring FC Barcelona and Ronald Dino was there and and all the FC Barcelona players, and they wanted Kobe to kick around the soccer ball and play with them, and he couldn't even do that. And uh actually talked to him that day and he sort of gave me the update and how he's doing and what he thought about all

these rivalries that were brewing up. Remember, Shack had won the championship that year in Miami's first post Kobe championship, and that infamous video, that rap that he made about Kobe. Uh, So I got Kobe's thoughts on that and about Dwayne Wade. But what was amazing was how quickly there was a sense of normalcy for him playing with Phil Jackson. And as we went into deep detail how things ended between

Kobe and Phil in two thousand four. At that time, it seemed impossible to imagine that they could ever reunite. Phil had gone to management and asked for Kobe to be traded earlier in that season. Kobe really didn't put up a finger his instance, when Jerry bust. The Lakers owner said that he wanted to get rid of Phil Jackson. At the end of the season, they famously split up, and then Rudy tom Jonovitch has brought in to coach

the Lakers. He lasts about a half a season when, citing health reasons, he he steps down, turns the team over to assistant coach Frank Hamblin, who had been a long time assistant for Phil Jackson. And somehow the notion of Phil Jackson coming back to coach the team. A few people brought it up and it doesn't get shot down.

And when it first started circulating after Rudy tom Jonovich has gone Tim Brown, who was a Laker former Laker beat right at the l a times he emailed Phil Jackson and it turns out Phil was hanging out in Australia. Shout out to our producer Mark Francis from Australia. He's hanging out with Luke Longley, the Australian center who played for him in Chicago. And he responds in the email says asked whether he's gonna return, and Phil says, I'm mulling that over my mind. Luke and I are going

for a swim this PM in the Indian Ocean. Thanks for the up to eight, Phil. So that's an ultimate film meeting right there, the only guy, the only guy ever to be swimming in the Indian Ocean with his backup center while while the fate of the Lakers, you know,

the storied Lakers, is hanging in the air. A month later, Jerry Bust, the owner, meets with the media and it's clear that the door is wide open for Phil to return, and that it looks like it's going to be on the terms that Phil would want, which was about ten million dollars a year, and uh, but specifically doesn't say it, but you had the math and you connect the dots

and it's clear where this is leading. And then Jack I'm driving home on Lincoln Boulevard after leaving the Laker practice facility, and I look at my rear view mirror and there's Phil Jackson behind me in his dark blue Porscha, and I think, oh my god, I'm gonna follow him wherever he goes. I'm gonna follow him, pull out and get the scoop. This is gonna be the most talked about story in the NBA. Once I talked to Phil Jackson about coming back to the Lakers, and then he

gave me the slip. He somehow he was behind me and he turned as I was going through the intersection, and I tried to go circle back and try to see if I could catch up with them, and I lost him, but he was back for good. Soon enough, they announced that he was gonna come back and coach the Lakers, and improbably he and Kobe were reunited. Kobe signed off on it and went on to have again the high scoring season of his career, including the fabled

eighty one point games. So this was Kobe as we've never seen him before, and Donald did realize he could co exist with Phil Jackson. I think he also saw that Phil Jackson's triangle offense was better suited for him. Rudy tom Jonovic had Kobe in the middle of the court and the help defenders could come from either side. Under the triangle, Kobe was off on the wing and he had the whole side cleared off, so it was

harder for the double team to come. And Kobe flourished obviously had the best season of his career, but it became evident that he was only going to sign off on this if certain conditions were met. And Phil Jackson told us about the meeting that he had in the in the terms that were set for him to come

back and coach the Lakers with Kobe Bryant. The Lakers made a novature and uh, you know, there are other teams in the market New York, Sacramento, Cleveland, some other teams that were, you know, kind of knocking at the door and of interest. But I always said, I have talked to Kobe first before I, you know, even think about coming back. So we talked and I just said, you know, what's the deal are you? Are you willing to come back and play, uh and team up together

with me? And it's kind of an adventure. And he said, yeah, but let's just keep everything between us. I know you a lot of times use the press to talk and use motivation by using the press to send a message to players. Let's just keep it between us. And uh, I said, okay, I can do that. So we came

back and literally formed a very strong bond. I was giving him about leadership and uh, there's something I talked to him about previously, um as as he grew up through the game about his leadership and about being a guy that you know, would be able to eat last and let his uh his teammates go to the banquet table first, so to speak. And you know he was

picking up on that idea. But it was always it was always difficult for Kobe to put others in in in front of himself, and we had to have a number of talks during the course of those next two years, but you know, it ended up we were usually sitting on the plane across from each other and spending time talking about the connection or the team or what was needed to do to be the best we could be. And uh, I really honored that and Jackie did hold

to that. So right before it turned out to be the last game, Phil Jackson coach in the playoffs, I'd noticed that he never bad mouth Kobe in the press, which was very unusual for Bill. And I said, did you have a deal with Kobe that you wouldn't talk about him in the media, And he admitted, yeah, he did, and uh he held to that he didn't talk bad about Kobe publicly. That whole second run that they had together. That Kobe in that oh five oh six season was

just crazy. It was Kobe unleashed. Yeah, he was on another planet. And I went out to l A to do a story on, uh, the scoring race, because it really wasn't a race. We knew Kobe was gonna win, but Iverson was coming into town, and the idea of the story was this kind of two guys that just score the freaking ball and we don't care, you know. So I talked to Kobe about it and Kobe is kind of smirking at me, you know, the Kobe smirk. Oh,

this is a race now, huh is that what it is? Well, he gets in there on Friday night, goes for forty eight against Iverson the next night, he's playing against the Clippers, and he's got uh ten points at halftime, and I'm thinking, I got this story done. You know, I'm staying at a hotel. They closed down the restaurant early. I got this story done. I can sneak out of here. You know, Kobe's just mailing this one in. As I go out and start to go out the door of the Stable Center,

Kobe starts going nuts. He gets forty in the second half and ends up with fifty. I come back into the uh the Stable Center, and someone who shall remain nameless, although it's Rick Buker. Buker tells Kobe later, hey, you know Jack left, you know, before you before you finished, and Kobe was just heats so enjoyed this moment. I mean, he was smirking about, oh yeah, oh this is a race, so I'm really not thinking about that. And then he gets out and goes for forty eight and fifty into

uh in consecutive nights. I mean, he was just he was just a machine. But Mike Saski didn't have him in the summer of Oath six. And one of the guys that, uh, he's really counting on, you know, obviously is Lebron. We're gonna talk about him. But one of the other guys you mentioned before, and that is d Wade, the guy Flashes he was known then, or the guy Mike Shaski calls a calm rocket man. He just came in and exploded offensively and defensively. He was remarkable, really

on that team. You're listening to Kobe, Lebron and the redeem Team will be back in a minute, So talk a little bit about Wade that season, Jay and the conversations we've had off zoom I admitted he caught me a little by surprise with that memorable two thousand three draft. I guess I saw him as a little bit position lists because although his size translated obviously to a guard, it didn't seem like he was a shooter at all. You know, I can't picture Dwayne having this knockdown jump

shot like most shooting guards would have. But you were a little bit higher on his game when he came into the league. Yeah. I love the fact that he had taken Marquette to the Final Four. And I put a big premium on college success and what you do in an somebody's tournament. I know a lot of talent evaluators and general managers in the NBA, their their work has done a lot of times. At the time they get to March, they're not gonna be swayed by a

few games here there. But to me, if you can succeed under that pressure and under uh that situation where all the lights and attention are on you the best that there is at your level, that means something to me.

And most great players in the NBA had great success in the n C Double A tournament, at least up until the high school or the one and done era of the last twenty or so years, and Wade was one of those guys who we maybe hadn't heard of him much before the tournament, but we certainly heard of

him after the tournament. And then within a couple of years in the NBA, after Michael Jordan's advocated that the title of best shooting guard the best perimeter player, and it was still a big man dominated shack and and uh, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett were the focal points of the league, I'd say, but there was a battle for the best perimeter player, and Wade had definitely inserted himself

in that conversation. During the two thousand five playoffs, I went down and actually talked to Eddie Eddie Jones, who was on the on Miami at that point, but it played with Kobe since Kobe's rookie year in l A and I asked him to compare the two and he started squirming and he said he really couldn't pick between

the two of them. And then in two thousand and six, of course, Wade wins the NBA Finals and his the Finals MVP, and he's, uh, you know, he's he's up there it's a legit conversation that we're having, So that's sort of the backdrop as we get into that. Wade had a stat where only he and Larry Bird we're

the only player is to put up. I think the thresholds are like average twenty five points, eight rebound, seven assists, and shoot better than and not one but two series in the same postseason, and some of the other guys who have done it in a single series, we're like Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan's. So Wade's in that all time company with the way he's playing, and he's certainly in the conversation for best perimeter player

with Kobe at that moment. He almost created In the two thousand six finals j which I covered, he almost created this new position. It was like not shooting guard, he was like slashing guard. They got they were down two oh to the Mavericks. Game three, Wade gets forty two points. Game four he gets forty three. Game six, close out he gets thirty six. And the amazing thing was the number of free throws he shot twenty five in that game five, the exact total shot by the Mavericks.

You can imagine what Mark Cuban was like after that. Then next game, the closeout game, he shoots twenty one free throws, which was only two fewer than the MAVs, who you know, kind of depend a little bit on Dirk's. It was explicable, but Mark Cuban was just going insane. But oh my god, but I have I've honestly rarely seen maybe a couple of Jordan's. I've rarely seen a championship series where you could say one guy really did it. Shack was on that team, but he was smart enough

by then. If Dwayne has gone to the basket, get the hell out of the lane because he's going to get it there or he's going to uh, you know, or he's going to get fouled. And and that was Dwayne Wade around this time. Now you know he's coming in also. But there's also Lebron there, and Lebron's coming off a monster season like thirty one point seven rebounds, six and a half assist. He's going to be a leader. And while establishing exact team chemistry isn't possible since Kobe

isn't there. It's kind of like planning a dinner party when you don't have the entree uh there yet to bring in some food network. Uh, you know, action to it. You can at least start to form. Lebron was always a team guy. You know, Look, Lebron is going to come in and uh and be a team guy. And and that that forged. They started to forge a very tight team. We're gonna talk in the next episode about how that potentially could have changed when Kobe came in.

But Craig Miller, who has been the USA Basketball's head of public relations since before the Dream Team, he reflected on how really tight that team seemed to be. The redeem Team seemed to be right from the beginning. I think that in all my Olympic experiences from two thousand and sixteen, it would rival the ninety two Dream Team. And and they're very different because the ninety two Dream Team didn't have a lot of guys that knew each

other really well, and they became close. But then the two thousand and eight team, you know, d Wade, Lebron, Chris Paul Carmelo, Anthony, Chris Bosh, they were already friends. Um, and there's others. I'm probably missing a few that I'm not thinking of, but the bonding of that team just from the start, and part of it again was, you know, they practiced together in two thousand and six. For the most part, you had the same court group. Two thousand

and seven. You had eight of the players that would go on to the Olympics were on the two thousand and seven team, So you had a really really tight team that liked each other. And you know, sometimes teams jaeled differently. There's other teams that I remember that we're very successful, but they didn't have maybe the chemistry. So Jay, everybody's happy with or without Kobe. We're all together. It's on to Japan, to the World Championship, where we're going

to kick ass. But well not so fast. We're going to get to the game in a in it. But there's something gone on around the league around this time, Jay, and that is the adoption of the dress code before the oh five oh six season, and it plugs in to something that happened at these World Championships in Japan.

I was around the Suns at that time, and I remember Mike D'Antoni making a joke about Steve Nash, and his joke about Steve was Steve is gonna be in violation even when he's under compliance, meaning that Steve's geen and T shirt kind of punk rock look, you know, really should be against the spirit of the dress code. But I don't think the dress code was put in for people like Steve Nash. It definitely wasn't aimed at

the Steve Nashes of the league. It was more about the Allen Iverson's and trying to curtail the impact of the Allen Iverson and what he represented, which was really the hip hop influence and the hip hop generation taking over the n b A. And it really was about the NBA's i'd say, their last efforts to appeal to the the white baby boomer generation and that element of the fan base, and and the corporate sponsors of the

league who were uncomfortable to hip hop element. And and you mentioned that it comes into play in the in the oh six uh international competition. But also like this entire redeemed team and this entire podcast has some roots in two thousand four and that two thousand four Olympic team, and reportedly there is a dinner. The Washington Post wrote about this. In two thousand four, the Serbian national team invited TEAMOSA to a dinner and serving players all show

up and they're wearing these matching sport coats. And the Americans roll in and they've got baggy jeans and sweats and loose clothing, clothes hanging all off of them. And word got back to David Stern, the NBA commissioner in New York, and he was not happy at all. And this has been building, This sense has been building for a while that we need to do something about the image of our players and how they're presented. Because we're long past the era of Michael Jordan's and Scottie Pippen

showing up to games and immaculately tailored suits. Guys are dressing the way their generation is dressing now, uh, the way the hip hop generation is dressing. And the league thought it was a bad look, so they put in the dress code formalized things a little bit. Of course, there's there's all this backlash because of of the racial undertones to this story, but I was actually okay with it. I called John Thompson, the Georgetown coach who used to make Alan Irison wear a coat and tied two games

and whenever that team traveled. When Iverson was at Georgetown, and John's message that he thought the players would learn is that, look, somebody's always in charge, and it ain't always you, and so sometimes you gotta get in line and do what the boss tells you to. And for me, it was about not the players and the image that they project, but the impact they could have on young young African Americans who were going to be entering the job market and didn't have the luxury of dressing however

they wanted if they wanted to be employed. But as I recalled, Jay, you were a suit. You were aware of suit to the game guy, right as I recall, definitely I would wear suits. And that was sort of a black sportswriter thing, going back to my early days and seeing the way that Michael Wilbon dressed or or the black sportswriters that covered the New York Knicks. They were always well dressed, and so that's what I adopted. But also from my early internships, I've been told, hey,

where a tie. If you're a young black male trying to get into this business, you need to look the part. Where a tie? And so even though the players fought back about it, and yes, there were racial undertones to this, and it was about trying to satisfy one aspect of the fan base that they were probably in the process

of losing anyway. Uh. But to me, the unintended edging cation that was John Thompson's freeze, the unintended education, UH, could benefit young people who are watching this and would say, you know what, this is the way you stress when you're going to work. Because for the young people that weren't gonna make it to the NBA, that was the way they had to dress if they wanted to get

a job and be employed in corporate America. Meanwhile, I remember an All Star weekend where I was at the NBA party and I had on a sport coat, but underneath I had on a T shirt, which I thought was like appropriate dress T shirt, you know what I mean, one of those class a silk T shirt. Maybe, yeah, I guess you know. I thought I was rocking it pretty well. I swear this is true that I took one of my friends to it, and he still brings

it up to this day. I'm walking through the party and from across the room Stern goes David Stern goes McCallum. Nice T shirt. But I thought I don't know. I just thought I was kind of a uh. I just thought I was kind of a happening guy. But but anyway, this whole collision of dress code and the new generation led to a bit of a showdown during the World Championships in Japan when old school Jerry Colangelo, who I'll

tell you what, j Jerry is never caught. I'm not sure I've ever seen Jerry without at least a sport code on, you know, never mind, uh usually even has a tie. And this caused uh an interesting collision. Here's coll Angelo talking about it. The Godfather I had one rule, no headphones on your head in in uh in public, and no scrapped you know, the strapped undershirts, none of that. You know, you have to look appropriate when you're out

in public. So we're in support of Japan and that was the site of the preliminary ground and I'm there with the coaching staff and here Dwade, Wade, Carmelo and Lebron with headphones and there the strap hundred shirts that we didn't want. And so I was pretty upset about that because that was the direct slap in the face. So later that night, back at the hotel. We had we had a meeting and you know, the three players, coach k and myself. You know, that was that was

that was an insult. That shows a lack of respect. Because as soon as they walked into the building with the headphones on and dressed the way they were, a couple hundred media turned around, and you know it's going to be all over the world. And that's not what I wanted. You know, I was trying to stay away from that kind of thing. So at the meeting, um, you know they're they're saying to me, know your relaxed, cool, you know, we're you know, it's not a big deal. No,

I said, no, it is a big deal. When I say we're gonna have one rule and that's the rule, and some people choose to break it. You don't think that's a big thing. I said, it's a big thing. I said. Now, let me ask you a question, Dwayne, do you want me to to to do put some rules in like you have done in Miami under pat Riley. Oh no, no, no, you didn't want that. And Carmelo had the same kind of response, and I said, and then Lebron in Cleveland, come on, give me a break.

So we have a rule. It's not asking too much, and you guys let me done. Everybody apologized. That was the end of it. I never had another problem. You're listening to Kobe Lebron and the Redeem Team. We'll be back in a minute. Team USA did have a problem on the court in the semifinals of the tournament when they were playing Greece, and Greece played a fantastic game. The US was mediocre at best team says fourteen and

thirty four free toes. They made only nine of the three point shots, whereas Grease made shots over the last three periods. At one point, the lead was up to fourteen, US got it down to five. Greece come down, hits a three pointer and that was basically it. And they just they killed the US, particularly in the third quarter. They kept running the pick and roll and the US just looked helpless defensively against it. They ran it over

and over again. And here's Chris Boss describing that helpless feeling. It was so embarrassing losing to Greece, and hats off to them. They played a great game. They ran one play to close out the game. And as a player sometimes you get into this situation to where it's like, where is it's tenor and where are they coming from? We gotta stop the bleeding, you know what I mean? And we were just behind and everything that we did. You can't be in between going you know, oh I'm

gonna trap, but I'm up, but I'm back. You know, you have to make a decision. And after getting used to seeing a lot of picking rolls, I said, you know, let me be I remember Coach k says until me one time. He probably doesn't even remember, but he was, You're on the screen and roll you armed was so long, man. Oh, I said, Okay, that's how I'm gonna play. So because of that game, the US change its defensive strategy and

Bosch as We're Gonna see became increasingly important. But in retrospect, though as depressing as the loss was, maybe it was crucial. As Mike D'Antoni says, that was a big deal. And uh, but we knew that it was gonna be hard. I mean, you know, every game wasn't like it's not like you're just gonna win by fourteen. When you play a forty minute game with the three point line that close, Um,

that's what makes it exciting. Anything can happen, you know, forty eight minute game and you you know, got a longer three. Uh, it's a little bit the talent really at the end of the game kind of comes out and the best team, best talented team wins. But when you were you know, spread like that, and uh, some team could get hot, and uh that's what Greece did to us. You know, we probably underestimated how they just carved us up with a pick and roll. And that was one thing that we had to sob in two

thousand and eight. Um, but it was a little bit of a wake up call. So it might be cliche, but it was a wake up call and it was a memorable moment. And if you look around in it, there's images of Carmelo, Anthony and Lebron James walking off the court dejected lee while you see the Greeks gathered in a circle happily celebrating, uh their victory, while the

Americans slink off in defeat. And then Carmela actually stuck around a little bit longer and just kind of biting his lip and looking around in the stands, and he shared with us his memories of what that moment was like for him, I'm standing on the court after the game. Lebron is like, we're both standing on the court, and I just remember like looking up and looking at the stands and just seeing the crowd going crazy and things being thrown on the corner. Just it was it wasn't

even a check to gold medal game. So but we were the gold medal were the gold medal game for them. So I really stand on the court and I looked we we looked at each other, man Braun. It was just like, yo, we gotta be back right. We are never and we never want to feel that have this feeling ever again. And the Godfather remembered too. And so we lose the game, but it kind of made us more committed, if if there's such a way to be more committed coaches, chefs. He came off the floor, met

me eyeball to eyeball and said, I'm sorry. I apologized, Hey, start your fault, but you know what we're this is going to make us even more committed to what needs to be done. I refused to look at the replay of that game. I just did. A year later, in oh seven, I'm on a plane going to China, in terms of preparation for OH eight, and Sean Ford had a copy of the game and he knew I hadn't watched it. He says, do you want to watch it? I said, no, I don't want to watch it. I

remember everything. I don't need to watch it. It's a long fight. So eventually I watched it, and I was just as upset after watching it as I was when it happened originally. But it made a point and we were all refocused, recommitted, and I think it helped us tremendously. And Mike Schefsky had a couple takeaways from this loss. The first was a lesson in international etiquette. Let's say

a protocol. And Jack, I don't know if you've experienced this, but for example, college basketball coaches if they're playing a nonconference opponent or if they're playing an incidable tournament, and I think we see this sometimes in international basketball as well.

But what they'll do is, because they don't want to confuse their players when they're going through the scouting reports or watching film, they'll just refer to the opposing players by numbers because they don't need to clutter the minds of their players and having them thinking who's who and trying to learn all these different names, many in foreign languages.

So rather than confuse them, they'll just use the number and say number twenty two likes to shoot from the left corner, or you know, switch when we've got thirteen and fifteen on the pick and roll, so they'll just

go over like that. And Sawski was following that that typical behavior, and so after the loss to Greece, when he's meeting with the media in the press conference, he's just referring to the players by their numbers, and the international media in particular, they don't operate that way, and they found it incredibly disrespectful for the United States coach to not actually use the names of the Greek players who just beating his teams. So Showski kind of got

beaten up over that. So he learned his lesson and going forward, when whenever team you say it was an international competition, he made sure that he used the names of players when he was talking about the other team. But the more important takeaway for him was learning and being reminded that the team and the players felt this way, that they would win together or lose together. And the best part for coach k was that this was not something that he had to instill. He saw them take

ownership of that himself. So that was one of the things that he took away from that two thousand six loss and took us losing in two thousand six to learn. And but I'll tell you one thing from that. I can remember after we lost to Greece, sitting at the press table and their coach and a player and I'm with Carmelo, and they asked them losing player first, and Carmelo set the tone for what proved to be one of our foundation blocks for the redeemed team, and that

was collective responsibility. He gave credit to the Greek team, no excuses, and for the next few months there was never any finger pointing by anybody. And I can remember getting together to qualifying two thousand and seven, and I told them how proud I was of him about collective responsibility, and I said, one of our goals should be, now, let's be collective responsible for winning. In other words, we went and we lose together. That's collective responsibility. Let's just

win together and be collectively responsible. Okay, the game is over. Two thousand six, summer has ended, on a bummer, but a big change is about to come, Jake. Can you hear it? Can you hear the noise? Can you hear somebody coming? And they're sitting in the fields? Man, this is real. You know, Uhhobe is playing. Kobe is here. You know it's and you know you have to even though you play against them. He has an aura. So when you know he walked in the room, you're you know,

everything stops. I'm Jack McCallum, I'm j Thanks for listening to Kobe Lebron and the Redeem Team and remember Season one of the Dream Team Tapes, which talks about the Dream Team in Barcelona, is still available on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your favorite podcast. 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, where wherever you get your podcast. This season is written and hosted by me, Jack McCallum and j A. Dandee, Executive producer Scott Waxman and Mark Frances for Diversion podcast and Sean's High toned for I Heart Radio. Our editorial director is John Tuttle. Supervising producer Brian Murphy, legal producer Freddie Overseteghen Editing,

mixing and sound designed by Mark Francez. Verna Fields is our technical producer, and our director of Marketing and business Development is Jacob Bronstein. Diversion Podcasts