Transcription
So for the first time since the NBA players participated, the United States then failed to win it all at the Olympic Games. There'll be no golden Athens, and there's the exclamation point for Argentina. No gold medal for the United States men, and many saw this happening. You might be starting to say there's a new era in Olympic basketball, and it's one in which the United States is no longer dominant. Greece has stunned the United States of America. The Papaloukas kicks the ball up to the Spanoulis. Greece, they've won the European title. They've beaten the United States 101 to 99.5. The state of USA basketball in 2007 can only be described with one word: disappointing.
The glory days of the Dream Team were long gone, replaced with the bitter feeling of failure that had taken place in the 2004 Olympics and 2006 World Championships. We were losing from 2000, like '04. We lost in Athens, then we lost in the World Championship in '06. So at this time now, it seeped into the hip-hop culture. Yep, you can't even beat the Europeans in basketball anymore. The Dream Team is dead. Everybody wants to play in the NBA, right? Everybody's goal is to make it to the NBA. We're the, we're the, we're the top. And so for us to be the best in basketball and to lose when it comes to the world, we felt a certain way about ourselves.
And so once we got to 2008, it was no games to be played on that basketball field. You know what I mean? We knew that the world was catching up when it comes to talent. You know, we couldn't just show up anymore. We had to actually play as a team and win, and not just be a bunch of individuals. When we lost in 2004, it was a heavy blow for us. You know, this is a sport that we've dominated for years. And I think, you know, there's a lot of beauty in the fact that we lost because it means that the game is growing so much, and there's so many countries out there that are playing and playing at a high level. But Jerry Colangelo said, you know, Mike, we need to win the gold medal, but we need to win the respect of the world and our own country.
After a 22-year absence, the Boston Celtics are NBA champions once again. The greatest single season, number 17, soon to be raised to the rafters.
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Kobe, how do you make your team mentally tougher next year? I think experiences do that. I think once you go through your ups and downs and you struggle a little bit, taste defeat, I think that makes you a little tougher.
Following a loss in the 2008 finals, Kobe Bryant was at a crossroads in his career. After winning three finals alongside Shaquille O'Neal early in his career, the Black Mamba found himself still searching for his first successful title run as the top dog. He had fully emerged as the NBA's best, a lethal scorer with an already growing aura surrounding his work ethic. Although Kobe and the Lakers had reached the finals that year, falling short to the Celtics, it had shown Bryant there was still something missing, a character trait in himself that needed to be unlocked for him to fully take on his Renaissance Era.
When Team USA came calling that summer, it offered the reigning MVP exactly what he needed in that moment: an opportunity to prove to himself and the world that he was capable of leading a group of men to their ultimate prize, a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. He was the last piece that we needed. Yeah, and we knew, we knew all in order for us to make a stance and like show the rest of the world what type of time we needed the heavy hitters. Kobe was also trying to transform himself. He wanted to win the respect of his peers, and so he showed himself at the level that you're saying, like he's the most prepared guy that I've ever seen.
Fueled by the motivation of his recent loss, as well as pride for his country, Kobe began to set the tone immediately upon arrival. 2008's roster was one of the most talented ever assembled, being coined the "Redeem Team" thanks to the team's clear mission, featuring new and established stars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Carmelo Anthony. The team was loaded with star power but was just missing a veteran example to follow.
So I'm with my staff in Vegas a couple days before the team comes in, and all of a sudden, there's a knock on the door. It's two days early, and it's Kobe. He said, "Coach, I need to ask you a favor." And I said, "Yeah, what is it?" And he said, "I want to guard the best perimeter player on every team that we play." Now, he's the NBA scoring champ. He's the best player in the league at that time. And he knew that he would have to change a little bit and be a leader. And then he pauses, and you know, his eyes, he and Jordan have the same, had the same eyes. They killed you with their eyes. And he leans forward and he said, "I promise you, I'll destroy him."
We go and we have a team meeting. In the first practice, he doesn't take a shot. He does not take one shot, and he's playing defense. So I call him over afterwards. I said, "You know, yo, this destroy thing." He says, "Coach, I promised you, I'll destroy him." I said, "Look, I've seen you destroy teams offensively. Will you shoot the freaking ball?" And he smiled. You know, he had that smile. And he said, "From then on, I was the only coach ever to ask him to shoot." And this is when I knew Kobe was a monster. Though you hear about it, you hear about it, but you really, if you don't see it, you really don't know.
And so we get into a city, one of these cities, very late. And immediately, we all go to the gym. You know, all my guys, it's Melo, it's me, it's Bron, it's Kobe. Like, we all go to the gym. We all get our work in. It's real late. And so after we get done getting our work in, me and my guys, we said, "Hey, like, let's meet for breakfast in the morning. If you can't sleep, whoever first wants to wake up, hit us up. We're going to go eat." And so we do that. We probably get like three hours of sleep. You can't sleep much when you're traveling across the world. You know, like we were traveling, and we get probably like three hours of sleep.
And we wake up, we go down to where the food is. As we're walking down, you know, sling with sleeping eyes, Kobe Bryant is sitting there with ice on his knees already. Right? So we walk up to Kobe like, "Co, what's up?" And he was like, "Oh yeah, man, I just finished the workout, and I'm about to go do another one." And at that moment, I was like, "Wait, hold on. We just worked out about three hours ago." You know what I mean? And like, you've done another workout and you're about to go do another one? That's when I was like, "Okay, I got to get my stuff together because this dude right here is on a whole different level than even I'm on, and I'm supposed to be great."
Our first practice, it's kind of a surreal moment because everyone's like kind of watching to see who's going to do what. What's LeBron going to do? Kobe going to do? And my job was to get those two to talk. They're both irking each other. They want to win. But I think with LeBron and Kobe, it was the 4:00 workouts that Kobe did. LeBron sees that, okay, you're working, I'm going to work. It's contagious. You know, when you see, at the time, he was probably, him and LeBron are the best players in the world, arguably. It's kind of one of those battles went back and forth at the time. You see this man, the work he's putting in, the hours he's putting in in the gym, the extra shots he's getting up. You can't help but feel like you're not going to go sit down on the sideline while he's still out here at 30. You know, see him doing that, and I'm, you know, I'm 20, 23 years old. You know, I got to get up there too. You know, and so it was great. It was great being able to work out with him, to learn from him, to talk to him, pick his brain about things, and then have a chance to compete with him.
While Kobe had been named MVP of the league in 2008, LeBron James had quickly made his rise as one of the NBA's best, living up to the hype that had followed him early in his career. This created a unique power dynamic as the Redeem Team prepared for the '08 Olympics in Beijing, a relationship that could make or break the team's success.
Like, they were great friends, right? And their action was amazing. But you, it's hard not to see that they had a little bit of a, because it's like two alpha dogs being in the same room. You know, they want to assert their dominance. And LeBron is different to Kobe. LeBron is more playful, a little less serious, but works just as hard. And Kobe is more just about his business. He and LeBron developed a relationship that was needed to create the culture. LeBron did something every morning that I don't think a lot of people understood. He was funny. He was a comedian in the morning when he would do impersonations of introducing someone, you know, Kobe Bryant. When he would do these type of things, and people would laugh. Kobe, you could see Kobe normally would be serious in warm-ups, but then Kobe started laughing, and then Kobe started joining. And it was like, okay, all right, we're going to be just fine.
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I remember being very excited. I had never experienced it before. And so coming into the opening ceremonies, I was just like, this is amazing. Because you have all the top athletes, the best in the world at what they do. So for me, that's even more special than being the best basketball playing country in the world.
Seven turnovers for China. Oh, oh. Strong finish for Kobe Bryant. Back to James. Oh, Bo. United States could not turn them over. Here's Wade once again with the steal. Throws it. Kobe came to me as he knew I was coming off the bench, and he said, "Hey D, when you get in, I'm going to pick up the defender 94 feet. I'm going to harass him. I'm going to turn him. I'm going to turn him. I'm going to turn him. And once they get to half court, I've turned him enough." Kobe knew I was fast. He knew I was quick. And so he was like, "I want you to..." That's exactly... Here's Dwyane Wade once again. This guy, for me, I looked at that, and I'm like, I'm the younger guy. I'm the least accomplished guy in this group. I should be the one that you said he should have told me, "D, you go pressure, and I'm going to do that." But his mindset wasn't that way. And so to be able to play with a guy who had everything offensively, who could have just demanded us to give him the ball every time down, was worried about defense in the Olympics. Come on, bro. What am I going to do? I'm going to follow suit. Well, he got got hammered there. LeBron James got away with it. Stolen by Jason Kidd. Ahead to Kobe Bryant.
We made the commitment to ourselves and to our country to not worry about, focus about how we played with our teams in the NBA. This is not that. This is a different team. So we have to play a different way. We have to play in whichever manner individually is best suited for our team here.
Having reached the gold medal game, the last remaining team between USA and their goal was Spain. We're playing against Spain, and you know, Spain, they're very, very tactically sound, very fundamentally sound, extremely intelligent. You know, they grew up playing together, so they all knew each other extremely well. So that was a strength that they had that we didn't, because we just put a collection of guys together and tried to get to know each other over two years when they've been playing together since they were 10 or 11 years old.
The talented Spanish squad was led by the Gasol brothers, one of which had been Kobe's running mate during the Lakers' run to the NBA finals that same year. However, on this night, Bryant was out to prove that nothing would get in the way of Team USA capturing the gold, not even his own teammate.
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He just tried to set up the tone, the physicality of the game. He just wanted to send a message to his team. Yeah, this is my brother. You know, he's, we play together in the NBA, but right now, I'm trying to beat him, and we're going to beat him, and I'm going to run through him or anyone that gets in our way.
Short ball deflected all the way out to Kobe Bryant. Uncontested chance as Kobe came to go work on the offense against the zone. Paul throws it ahead. Kobe, a huge fight. Just very competitive, very physical throughout the 40 minutes, back and forth. We never gave up. Obviously, they didn't want to lose. Base trying to finish in traffic. Not there. Paul with... and focus on those X's and O's. Don't get too excited about, oh my, you know, we got one team. I think that was probably as good or better than the potential original Dream Team. I think my job, because I had been there before, I was the only one on the team that far. I had won championships. And so they looked for me to really have that poise in those type of situations and not get rattled, not get flustered about it. It is what it is. And so just to kind of keep that composure was part of my job.
Stained right back in the thick of this one when he cut it to two points like three minutes to go. I mean, this is so much fun. You know, I remember wanting the ball in those situations. On the penetration, kicks it back out to Bryant. Bryant hooks up the three. That's good. Kobe Bryant from downtown and the foul. Is there anybody in the NBA who loves these moments more than Kobe Bryant? Those guys were really, really talented individuals, some of the best in the history as well. A lot of people think of that game as one of the best basketball games in the history of the game. So that's something to be proud of.
When the buzzer went off, we all just ran to each other because it had been a really long, long journey for us, and it was something that was very personal for us to put our country back on top for the red, white, and blue. A long journey back to the top. All the hard work, all the questions, could they do it? Had the world really caught up to the best players in the world? For me, it was special. It was one of the most special feelings that I was a part of when I stood up on that podium and I got a chance to sit there and listen to and just kind of look around and kind of see, like, USA basketball as the world's leader on the hardwood. They overcame the previous years of disappointment, bringing together one of the most talented rosters ever assembled to bring gold back to North America.
To have Kobe Bryant, at the time, who was a little older than us, but still was in his prime, we needed his lead. You know, his leadership. He's won three championships by this time. We knew that we needed to do this, and this was not just for us. This was for the future of the Olympics. You know, we lose two years in a row, it's over for us. And so I'm proud when I look at the guys in the Olympics and get a chance to play now because I know what we went through to get that respect back. Before the USA, at the center of it all, behind the team's run that summer in Beijing, lies a more detailed story of how the experience rejuvenated Kobe Bryant entering the back half of his career. In the same way that Kobe had been able to motivate the players of Team USA, showing them exactly what it takes to win, they had also shown him that he had what it takes to lead a team to the finish line. Now, after adding Olympic gold to his already growing list of accolades, the Black Mamba was ready for a new mission: his pursuit of another NBA championship.
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