The United States and Spain were the odds-on favourites to win gold in men’s basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The United States team featured stars like as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant. Pau Gasol was probably Spain’s best player.
Kobe Bryant treated Pau Gasol like a brother. But Bryant enjoyed winning more. His teammates on the 2008 US men’s basketball team witnessed this firsthand as they prepared to face Gasol and Spain in the Olympics in Beijing. Bryant knew that in America’s first meeting with Spain, the Spanish team would start the game with a play that required Gasol to screen him.
Bryant made it clear to his Olympic colleagues that he would not spare their “brother”. “First play of the game, I’m running through Pau Gasol,” Bryant stated. Nobody believed he would do that. And then he repeated it. “I’m running through that motherf—-r,”.
According to Dwyane Wade, Bryant said and did just that. It’s one of the more riveting scenes from “The Redeem Team,” a documentary that will be accessible on Netflix on Friday.
The entire story revolves around USA Basketball’s redemption after winning the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. That team contained veterans like Allen Iverson and Tim Duncan, as well as young players like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, and Wade, who became laughingstocks after finishing third in Athens and failing to perform well in foreign competition.
The tale of the 2008 group, called the Redeem Team, is captivating on its own. Bryant’s story, which ended in a helicopter crash in January 2020, is particularly compelling in the documentary. The details about Bryant’s intensity, quirkiness, and inclusion on and off the court are given with reverence, honesty, and care.
“I’m grateful for Kobe’s story arc throughout this documentary,” Wade, who also acts as the film’s executive producer, told The Athletic. “It’s a beautiful story that’s told — to be able to talk about the rise and what redemption really meant for us.”
Production on the film began at the end of 2019, however Bryant died before he could be interviewed for the project. Given Bryant’s importance to the Redeem Team, filmmaker Jon Weinbach stated he needed to find footage of Bryant discussing the Olympics.
Bryant had already won three NBA championships with the Lakers when he joined Team USA for practice in the summer of 2007, but his most recent win had been five years ago, and his reputation had suffered. He was blamed for Shaquille O’Neal’s 2004 move to Miami. He had wanted a trade in 2007, when the Lakers had fallen from title contenders to a playoff team with no chance of winning the championship.
Bryant, like Team USA, sought redemption. And he needed his teammates on the national team to help him achieve that goal, even if many of them were unsure how to approach the notoriously aloof player.
The documentary depicts how Bryant affected his teammates over the course of two summers, teaching them not to be awestruck by his presence or intimidated by his notoriously tough early morning exercises.
The early half of Bryant’s career was riddled with rumours about his not fitting in with his teammates, but the film depicts how a group of players worked together to make him part of the squad.
“They were in awe of him, but it also felt like he was human,” producer Greg Groggel explained. “They admit he was a quirky person like the rest of us; he wasn’t perfect, and they accept that. LeBron discusses what he tried to do to make Kobe feel like a member of the team, as Kobe was a bit of an oddity. He was a bit of a lone wolf, and they wanted to pull him in and make him feel comfortable.”
Wade writes in 2008 that several of the key players — James, Anthony, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, and himself — were still in the early stages of their careers. In 2006, Wade won a championship with Miami. Jason Kidd, another veteran with a significant history, joined Team USA, as did Tayshaun Prince, who won the championship with Detroit in 2004.