The Redeem Team (2022) Movie Script

- What's up? How you feeling?
- Chillin'. What's going on?
Bron, you're
on that side of the couch.
- Bron right here.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- Bron right here, Kobe on that corner.
All right, Kobe.
So you won the gold.
Where would this stack up?
Well, it's a higher priority.
You're representing your country,
and you're competing
against basketball players
who are the best in their country.
To me, that holds a greater significance.
When did it sink in this is
something much bigger than yourself?
You know, it's, uh... to me,
it's just walking around every day.
Just, you know,
whether I'm going to the grocery store
or going to pick up coffee
or whatever it is,
people just coming on the street
and just saying, "Bring back the gold."
You see a guy with a Celtics jersey
at Disneyland, I'm ready to kill him.
'Cause he's wearing
a Garnett jersey, you know, I'm pissed.
I'm thinking he going
to say something smart about the Finals.
"Bring back the gold for us."
Enough said.
Enough said. Bring back the gold.
Welcome to Beijing,
the Opening Ceremony
of the 2008 Summer Games.
The moment has arrived.
And the focus
of China and the world
is on the National Stadium.
If you follow basketball, then you know
the nickname of this year's squad.
The Redeem Team.
They've been dubbed
the Redeem Team.
The Redeem Team.
The Redeem Team, because of
the past failures internationally.
There's a new era
in Olympic basketball,
and it's one in which
the United States is no longer dominant.
The money
and the greed of the NBA,
is that having an effect
upon our competitive nature?
Yeah. You could write that.
We'd lost respect internationally.
We had lost respect for ourselves.
Melo,
what happened out there?
I don't know. I wasn't out there.
There wasa snowball effect
of just negativity.
Into this mess,
they all brought
their own individual stories.
Kobe
was keeping to himself.
He never seemed to find any common ground.
I felt like I was
the best basketball player in the world,
but I still hadn't proven enough.
There's a ghost
haunting every play.
The ghost of defeat.
There was a hunger about that '08 team.
There was a hunger.
We had a lot of things
that we needed to show the world.
And it wasn't just basketball.
Get out there, Mike!
Okay!
This is the most important thing
that we will ever do as coaches.
The thing that I've learned
over the last two years
is what great heart and courage
all of you guys have.
This team has been
put together to win internationally.
We have the three best point guards
in the world.
You have Dwyane,
Carmelo, LeBron,
and Kobe.
This team has 12 guys
who can fucking win
an Olympic championship,
and you don't know which one of you
is gonna be called upon
at a moment
to play a significant role in a huge win.
I got you outside!
A lot of them were not known
as great team players.
Kobe was individual.
LeBron still hadn't proven himself
to anybody as being any kind of a leader.
All run by a coach who was from the army.
And it was the challenge of their lives.
Way to run the floor, boy!
How are we gonna win?
What are we gonna win?
What are we gonna establish?
Is it just to qualify
for the fucking Olympics?
If that's the only reason we're here,
that's too shallow.
Mind you,
from '04 to that point,
we was losing.
Team USA Basketball was at the bottom.
When you're on the US team,
you're supposed to win all the time.
You're supposed to be perfect.
These guys were not.
The scoreboard
tells the story in a nutshell.
USA 89, Russia 55.
And America holds
the world championship of basketball.
Gold medalists,
the United States of America.
The United States of America.
The United States
capture another championship
without loss of a game.
Basketball at the Olympics,
the gold medal was America's to lose.
It was news if it was even a close game.
US basketball
always was so dominant,
and we had the big stars of the game.
But, you know, also we came to the notion,
"Just because we're Americans,
we're better."
You know, if you were
from Europe or South America,
well, you couldn't be as good
'cause you weren't American.
And that wasn't true.
They had the same ability to... to gain
expertise in basketball that we did.
Welcome to the semifinals.
It's the United States
and the Soviet Union.
The drama beginning to build.
We're underway!
Last time they played was
16 years ago in Munich.
The only time the American team
has ever lost an Olympic basketball game.
People in the USA, sports fans,
we took it for granted.
"When it comes to the Olympics,
it's our game."
"We invented it. We're gonna win.
It doesn't matter who shows up."
That's what we thought.
Coles... tough defense.
Sabonis rips down another...
It's a two-on-one break. Mariulionis...
And that should do it for the Soviets.
The United States goes home stunned.
How big a win was it?
US came into this game
with an 84 and 1 Olympic record overall,
having won nine of ten gold medals.
Bottom line may have been
the Soviet experience,
which, uh, may accelerate
the push in the United States
to allow NBA pros
to compete in the Olympics.
American USA Basketball
starts to panic
and says, "You know,
we got to put together something
that represents American basketball."
And so who shows up in 1992?
Ladies and gentlemen,
the US Olympic Dream Team.
Boom in your face
Now take that
Get on track
Or you best step back...
This group may well be
the greatest team ever assembled
in the history of team sports.
You know, when your opposition is asking
for autographs before the game,
you've got a little bit
of an edge on them.
They did the best they could,
but they were totally overwhelmed.
It brought back
a little bit of glory for the USA.
O say, does that star-spangled banner...
But, you know,
the Dream Team wasn't about patriotism.
It wasn't doing it for America.
It's really, "Do it for the NBA."
This, of course,
is the Dream Team,
whose declared purpose is
to win back US basketball honor.
But it's here for another purpose as well.
It's taking care of business.
We think we have a great American product,
and we would like to market it
on a global basis with as much, uh, class
and success as we possibly can.
This team of All-Stars
is almost too good.
Some think we should go back
to the collegiates. It's been too easy.
I think then we ought to ban
the African runners
from the 10,000 meters,
because they make it look so easy as well.
This is about our best.
This is wonderful
for the sport of basketball.
With the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA Draft,
the Milwaukee Bucks select
Dirk Nowitzki from Wrzburg, Germany.
The San Antonio Spurs select
Emanuel Ginbili from Argentina.
The Atlanta Hawks select
Pau Gasol
from FC Barcelona, Spain.
Basketball took off
to another level after that worldwide.
The international game was improving
by leaps and bounds.
It was a jolt.
This next wave that comes along,
inspired by the Dream Team,
they were more competitive, and they were
a greater threat to USA Basketball.
'92, it was introduced as a global game,
but the game was starting
to catch up to us.
We talk about these different countries,
they have talented basketball players
who have been taught the fundamentals.
Now, the world is not afraid.
The scare factor was gone.
My fellow citizens,
at this hour,
American and coalition forces are
in the early stages of military operations
to disarm Iraq, to free its people,
and to defend the world from grave danger.
And now to the upcoming Olympic Games
in Greece,
where fear of terrorism
has left the lineup
for America's men's basketball team
up in the air.
Big-name NBA stars routinely lend
their talent to take home the gold,
but this time, some are saying no.
When it comes to excuses,
coach Larry Brown has heard them all.
Jason Kidd has a sore knee.
Shaquille O'Neal says he's waiting to see
how far the Lakers advance
in the playoffs.
If you look at the environment
hovering over the 2004 Olympics,
that was the first Summer Games
after 9/11,
and with the invasion of Iraq,
now there's this sense
that America is acting unilaterally
and is starting to become
an unwelcome guest around the world.
So there were
legitimate safety and security concerns.
And all these players
who had already participated
in '96 and 2000
didn't feel the need to go back
and do that again.
I remember watching it via TV,
and you just see
some of the players not wanna go.
It just became this epidemic.
The NBA put a lot of pressure on
in terms of adding some future stars.
Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony,
and LeBron James.
I didn't think I earned
an opportunity to be on that team.
You know, literally, this is the summer
right after my rookie year,
and all I'm thinking about is
hanging out with my friends,
hanging out with my family, and training.
I just finished my rookie season,
and I'm in summertime in Chicago,
hanging with my family,
and I get a call asking me to be
a part of the Olympic team,
and I'm like... "What?"
Nine guys drop out.
So they had to fill those spots,
and we got the call,
like, "Would y'all want
to be a part of this USA Team?"
I'm like, "Hell, yeah."
Like, "C'mon, let's do it."
"Oh my God, they asked me
to be a part of something
that I remember being
so incredible with the Dream Team."
"Sign me up."
But mind you, we got the call saying,
"If y'all want to play,
y'all gotta meet us
in Jacksonville in two weeks."
We didn't know what to expect.
Everybody had backed out.
This was going to be
our moment to go over there
and get, you know, a gold medal.
I remember going to Jacksonville,
seeing the US team.
It was separated.
It was like two different teams.
Like, you had AI and Marbury, Tim Duncan.
And then you had the younger guys,
the rookies who was just...
who was coming into the league.
You look at all the younger crew,
you know, myself and Melo, D Wade,
you know, we just trying to figure out,
like, how do we fit into this?
We're young. We up and down,
dunks, lobs, this and that.
It was a disconnect between both groups.
It was like, "Oh, we have this young group
of guys that's coming on board."
Then you had the older guys, just like,
"This is our shit.
We gotta make this work."
And then you just had
Larry Brown.
We've played a certain way
for the last five or six years.
All right? We gotta...
we gotta change right now.
We had a group of guys that...
I think Coach was trying
to prove a point with the Olympics,
that he could get all of us to play
"the right way," which was "his way."
We're ready to take the roll.
You go screen...
This has become a world sport.
We better respect the people we play,
or we're gonna be in trouble.
Do you have a sense
that people are saying,
"Well, this might be
the team that can't win the gold"?
We got a lot of doubters out there
for the simple fact we're a young team.
I don't think a lot of people think
that young players could do it.
So we gotta prove ourselves.
The Olympic Games are here in Greece,
which one local official described
as "a convenient intersection
in a bad neighborhood."
The players
and their families will stay
on a cruise ship off the Greek coast
while being protected
by Greek and American authorities
during the Games.
We're not in the Olympic Village.
We're not by the Olympians.
It didn't really feel like
we're a part of the Olympic experience.
It starts with Puerto Rico.
Will the United States men win
another gold medal?
Will they suffer a loss for the first time
in Olympic play
since NBA players were allowed to compete?
Those questions will be answered
with this game.
If you look at the names
on the team, you're like,
"We g... we good. Let's go do this."
Iverson to Marion!
Not only America thought we're gonna win,
we weren't paying attention,
we thought we're gonna win so much.
...pick-and-roll, PuertoRico.
Nice feed inside!
And Puerto Rico
opens up a nine-point lead.
Most of the reporters
were at other venues.
We were covering skeet shooting
and track and field and swimming.
Nobody was even paying attention.
Carmelo Anthony.
Beautiful save by Ayuso.
Carlos Arroyo... Oh, what a ball fake!
I remember
the game against Puerto Rico.
I remember Mike Breen and I,
we were doing the game.
And we looked at each other, and we go,
"Uh-oh, this team is in trouble."
Arroyo draws the foul.
And one!
We didn't take Puerto Rico
with the respect they deserved,
and they, uh... they kicked our ass.
It's finally happened.
The United States loses
in Olympic play with NBA players.
But that first game against Puerto Rico
really let us know, like,
"Damn, like, okay, we... we fucking around."
"We... we gotta get our shit together."
Lots of people are talking about
the American men's basketball team.
It was, by any stretch of the imagination,
a complete upset and an embarrassment.
They were called the "Dream Team,"
but now some people are calling them
the "Cream Team."
The younger guys,
we were pissed at Larry Brown,
because he didn't play us.
Melo, what happened
out there, you think?
I don't know.
I wasn't out there. I don't think...
They scored more points than us.
That's all I can say.
We thought, "We should be playing
because we could help this team win."
But Larry Brown didn't...
He didn't think that we could
as much as the veteran guys.
- They can still win.
- They can still win.
- That's what I was looking for.
- It's a round-robin event.
- It's conceivable they could win gold.
- Right.
We're going to bring you
live coverage
of the United States and Argentina.
The spot in tomorrow's gold medal game
on the line.
You can tell immediately
that they had this chemistry.
Argentina has such open looks.
They pass the ball so well.
There's Snchez spotting up
and shooting the three.
They was more cohesive.
They was more running plays.
They was running sets.
Ginbili, wide-open three.
You could tell they had spent real time,
like years and years
playing with each other.
Count it, and a foul!
They could pass the ball right here
and know that the guy is cutting.
Ginbili.
Snchez threads the needle to Oberto.
They just had the chemistry.
They had the teamwork.
They had the camaraderie.
They had everything out on the floor.
I mean, they just...
they played the game
how the game's supposed to be played.
Sconochini,
fancy to Montecchia.
Oh, what a fancy play.
There'll be no gold in Athens.
And there's the exclamation point.
The United States men fail
to win it all at the Olympic Games.
It was ugly to watch.
It was terrible to watch
and terrible to be a part of.
They 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.
They're great players.
They're the best team.
In terms of individual players,
they're the best.
But this is a team sport.
So you play five-on-five.
You don't play one-on-one.
It's not tennis.
We was just a whole bunch of...
kind of just bullshit thrown together
and said, "Go out there
and... and... and win us a gold medal."
There was no culture with Team USA.
There was no culture at all.
The United States
set to receive their bronze medals.
You can see from their body language,
they're disappointed.
Well, I'm watching it
here in Durham, North Carolina,
and, uh... agonizing.
And you see
the joy in Argentina.
The other countries
don't take anything for granted.
They have a national team.
Argentina,
those guys were together
since they were 18 years old.
They're brothers.
There wasn't a lot of time.
We had to figure out how
to become a team in two weeks.
I was young, but I understood
what it meant
to build chemistry in order to win.
We had it
with the Dream Team,
and then there was
no continuity after that.
Coming back home
and the disrespect
that we were getting from our own country.
There were songs about us.
Everybody was talking about us.
Why Team USA keep gettin' blown out?
You know, "These players suck,"
and, "The rest of the world's caught up."
"How do you lose to Puerto Rico?"
Finally, these men,
A, are on line to buy tickets,
B, have traveled far to see the games,
C, just defeated
the United States Men's Basketball Team.
It was just a snowball effect
of... of just negativity.
The United States men
settle for the bronze.
I'm sitting up on the podium, you know,
receiving the bronze like,
"This shit was a waste of my time."
At that moment,
I definitely wasn't playing
for Team USA again.
Still stinging
from their bronze-medal showing
in Athens last summer,
USA Basketball has revamped itself
and has turned over power
to Jerry Colangelo.
Almost everything
Jerry Colangelo touches works.
Particularly start-up projects.
He was involved with a start-up project
that became the Chicago Bulls in 1966.
He then went out west to Arizona,
and he started up three
out of the four teams out there.
Back in early 2004,
my net worth was really wrapped up
in the Phoenix Suns.
So I decided to sell the team.
I knew it was gonna leave
some kind of a void.
And I said, "You know, what's next?"
It was just a couple of weeks later
when I got that call about USA Basketball.
You know, I basically said,
"I... I'll do it. I'll do it."
"But no more committees."
"I'll pick the coaches.
I'll pick the players."
Colangelo will pick them
without a committee.
- You don't think that's too much power?
- Probably.
- This guy gets it done.
- You trust him?
I do. I do trust him.
I had some names
up on a board of... of coaches.
Let's talk about coaches.
Dean Smith,
from North Carolina, obviously, said,
"There's only one coach
who could get the job done,
who has the respect of all the players."
"He stands alone. He's the only one."
It was Coach K at Duke.
The Duke of Destiny
has won it!
For the first time in two decades,
college basketball has a repeat champion.
It's like the Yankees.
Either you love 'em or you hate 'em.
That's how Duke was
because of the success.
Growing up in the inner city,
you hate Duke.
You just hate Duke.
You hate Christian Laettner.
You hate JJ Redick.
You hate Coach K.
You hate the damn Blue Devil.
There was no, like... excitement
when Coach K was, uh, appointed
that position with Team USA.
When they announced
that he was coming on,
our first thought was, like,
"Yo, how is he going to handle
all these players
that's on this team as a college coach?"
I had a lot of concerns.
One is just the credibility
that I would have with the NBA players.
Obviously, I had achieved
a lot in the collegiate ranks,
but NBA's different.
The thing that changed right away was that
you weren't gonna be the Olympic coach.
You were gonna be the national coach.
That was a step of trying
to have one coach have a four-year period
where they were running a program.
You have to put a team together.
It can't be fantasy basketball.
It can be All-Stars,
but they have to fit roles.
Coach K and Jerry,
they stressed that from the beginning.
It needed to be a commitment
where you really took it serious
and not just some old one-off.
If you want to be a part of this,
you have to commit,
you know, three summers, right away.
- What's up?
- What's up, man?
Guys seem in a good mood.
- What's up? What's going on?
- Is that what you want?
Good seeing you.
Our whole team met
in Vegas for a training camp,
and in the very first meeting,
Coach K says,
"This is not our game."
"This is the world's game."
I remember he was mad.
He was livid about that.
Like, we got to respect
everybody in the rest of the world.
From day one,
he established himself as that guy.
Like, "Listen, I'm not here
to tell you guys what to do."
"You guys are professionals,
but this is a working relationship."
"I want y'all to talk to me.
I want to be open. I want to be honest."
What you have to understand,
in order to win a fight,
you have to know who you're fighting.
You're fighting somebody
who thinks that they're Superman.
They have nothing to lose.
From the get-go, the pressure was on.
We lost last time.
We're supposed to be
the best in the world.
So with the national team concept,
if you're not coming in
and taking it seriously, you won't last.
After we lost '04, we all felt like
we were letting USA Basketball down,
especially us four guys.
You know, myself, D Wade, Bron, and Melo,
we were a part of that team,
and we felt that agony of defeat.
I think early on,
it was looked at as,
"International players are soft, right?"
"American players are tough."
Once you start looking at it,
you're like, "No, they're not soft."
"They're skilled.
They play the game a different way."
We have to learn their game
and quit making excuses
and quit trying to impose
our game on theirs.
If we learn their game, we will beat them.
You all and I don't know everything.
We especially don't know
what each other knows.
That's what practice is about,
is all getting on the same page.
The first thing
that surprised me about Coach K
was that he didn't give a fuck
about nobody's rsum,
but he always did it with respect.
I've always gotten the best out of myself
playing for someone
that holds everybody accountable.
- Coming left! Coming left!
- Get up there! Yep! Yep!
This is the way we play on the US team.
No matter who is playing on it,
who's coaching it or whatever.
This is the way
the United States team should play.
Good, good.
He was the one who told us, "Hey,
I don't want y'all to not come in here
with y'all egos and y'all pride.
That's who make y'all who y'all are."
You have to give me the egos that you have
in your current basketball teams.
Bring 'em to this team.
Okay? And put it under one ego umbrella.
I remember sitting there
watching and hearing him say that.
I was like, "That makes sense."
Get up, Brad. Get up, Brad.
Uh-huh. Right there.
The thing
I'm most surprised about
is how well you talk to one another.
You guys are interacting well
in between drills.
There's a really good spirit
that needs to be developed.
You got it. Just keep developing.
Two times!
Trials was crazy.
We stayed at the Wynn in Vegas
for like a month.
We lived in Vegas for like a month.
That's when a lot of the relationships
that you see were sort of forged.
I got no say on the bus!
Get on the bus!
Grab the bags, man!
I can't get on.
I can't get on!
There was a group of us that played cards
every single night for 35 straight days.
You know, 35 days,
you're gone from your family,
but you're able to, um...
you know, it's another family.
It's like another part of your family.
It's like I never left home.
- You feel me?
- I'm the best-looking one of the crew.
So you know, it... it's... you know,
they like my bodyguards,
you know what I'm saying?
No. No.
I would rather you say, "I got a ring,"
than just say what you just said.
Know what I'm saying?
Listen, for all you guys,
and it's important.
I really want you to pay close attention.
This morning,
we have people who represent us,
and... people don't get a chance
to look up to 'em.
You don't even know
what... what they... what they do.
Coach K is a motivator,
and that's what he did.
Each day, we had a different person
come in there, talk to us.
There's
no more important thing
we're gonna do today than listen
to what these heroes have to say to us.
Coach K being a West Point grad,
he loves his country.
He loves serving his country.
So much of what he talked about,
there were always so many parallels
to his time in the military.
So that ran deep with him.
Let's face it. It's what makes
teams great, is selfless service.
It's putting the needs
of someone else before yourself.
On the basketball court,
that may be diving for the loose ball
or taking a charge.
On the battlefield, it may be
running into a... a... a wall of bullets.
Putting your life
on the line for someone else,
and... and that...
to that level of selfless service.
When you're a great player,
you think you can do it by yourself.
I can win by myself.
I can score enough points. Whatever.
With Coach K, what he wants to do is,
you can do it,
but you can achieve more with a group
than you can individually.
It's a military mindset.
An explosion went off,
and a piece of shrapnel came
and hit him in the eyes.
It looks like, uh, his eyes are normal.
He does not have any eyes.
They were taken out
by that shrapnel
that went through his head.
And he's still serving.
That's a hero.
It definitely hit me in my emotions.
They showed us who
and what we were playing for.
These are the flags we wore
on our uniforms in Iraq,
and, uh, we got a flag
for each one of you.
I'm hoping they can put it
on your warm-up jerseys.
And what I'm hoping
is that you'll look down,
you'll see that flag,
and you'll realize thousands of people
have gone before you and sacrificed
so you can be a great basketball player.
Scotty, you hear me?
We would be mic'd up.
We would say little things to him
in the mic and talk to him from the court.
Blue is getting into us right now.
So White Team,
we gotta pick it up as a team.
They're playing better than us.
Y'all put y'all uniforms on.
I know y'all got a lot of pride.
We put these jerseys on,
we feel a lot of pride
walking around with USA on our chest.
So, I know y'all got a lot of pride.
You guys are role models
to a lot of us out here.
We don't get a chance to tell y'all.
Y'all are role models to us.
We respect what y'all do for our country.
Hearing those stories,
our players let their hearts be opened.
And as a result,
they became the US.
And welcome
to a special edition
of the FIBA World Championship.
The United States will take
its first step this morning
in trying to reclaim the top spot
in the basketball world.
FIBA Worlds in '06 was the first time
we went as a team with Coach K,
and what put even more pressure on
is that we needed to qualify for Beijing.
And we needed to win the tournament.
Every game we play,
we have to play it like it's a sprint,
not a marathon.
These games are gonna go real fast.
Let's not pick up any bad habits,
especially the habit
of overlooking anybody.
Big thing
for the United States is
you know there are gonna be jitters
because all these guys feel the pressure
of representing this team
and getting that gold medal.
It ain't about an individual.
It ain't about us.
It ain't about us playing for our teams.
It's about the United States of America.
Let's do it for everybody
in the United States of America.
"USA" on three. One, two, three!
- USA!
- Let's go!
We were very good.
You could tell, like,
okay, we getting the swagger back.
They make it look so easy.
When they're hot, they're really hot.
Every game, we did our job.
We came out, and we put teams away.
And we were playing very well.
Anthony.
Boy, how good has he been?
United States
are still on track
to march to the finals.
But trust me, Jim,
the competition will get tougher.
Well,
after 72 dates of competition,
it all comes down to
the number one seeds in each of the pools.
And we've got number one United States
going against number one Greece.
Don't be sloppy, okay?
And, uh, like you guys have done
the whole time,
let's be classy and... and go after it.
Greece are
the European Champions.
That's how good these guys are
that the USA are playing.
You know, I remember that game
like it was yesterday.
They had a guy, "Baby Shaq."
And Baby Shaq,
Schortsanitis, he is a huge human being.
Up ahead
to big man Schortsanitis for the dunk!
And just like that, it's 36-35!
For one quarter, the third quarter,
we were horrible, and they were great.
The problem for the US team
is they haven't defended
the pick-and-roll.
- What a lovely pass!
- What a pass!
Oh my goodness me,
that's how it's done.
They're being picked to bits.
They beat us
with our own offense.
The NBA, at that point, is
now a high pick-and-roll league.
They beat us with high pick-and-roll.
Diamantidis,
a pass back inside to go to the hoop...
It might look on the TV like,
"Why don't they just stop 'em?"
When you're playing in real time,
it's hard to figure out
what the hell is going on.
And they confidence kept going.
They was making shots.
They played the perfect game,
and we never got back.
He misses.
That's it. It's Greece!
They have defeated the United States!
The United States have crashed and burned
once again by the semifinal match.
When we lost
in 2006 in Japan,
I've never had a defeat worse than that.
I mean, you're coaching
your country's team, and you lose.
I remember everybody's
in the locker room already after the loss,
and I'm just on the court,
and we looking at the celebration.
And it was just like...
..."We can never have
this feeling ever again."
We did not want to go up
and get on that stand
and take those bronze medals,
'cause we was like,
"We are better than this."
It wasn't time.
You can't think
that things are gonna happen on your term.
I know I didn't feel as shitty
as I did when we lost in Athens,
but it wasn't the right time.
On behalf of USA Basketball,
I just want to welcome you back.
Last summer, we fell short
of something we wanted to do,
and that was win the World Championships
so that we wouldn't have to qualify
this summer.
And it didn't happen.
We lost in '06
because we thought we knew
the landscape, and we didn't.
We were gonna now learn
the game we were playing
instead of the game
that we played in the NBA.
I just want to tell you
some... some things that we're gonna do.
It wasn't natural.
That game was not natural for our play...
It's a different ball.
It has 12 panels instead of 8.
You can walk through the free-throw line
when someone's shooting.
You can touch the ball
off the rim in the Olympics.
It's, like, all these small rule things
that we weren't used to.
If you're down here
bumping without the ball
or cutting like they said this morning,
if you're cutting down
from the high post down to the low post,
he can get in my way, and there's no foul.
In the NBA, we can't do that anymore.
We had to get
a feel for the game, a feel for the ball,
a feel for the officials.
We had to learn a different game.
And we knew we needed some older players.
That's why we went out
and recruited Kobe Bryant.
- What's up, man?
- How you doing?
Good to see you. Welcome.
Nobody brought more baggage
to Team USA than Kobe Bryant.
He had been ostracized by the league.
He came into this at a point of his career
where it could have gone either way.
He had run Shaquille O'Neal,
a beloved figure, out of LA.
They thought he snitched out
Shaq's personal life to the police.
They thought he was selfish.
We gotta do something this summer
and get a contender.
I don't want to be a one-man show.
He had demanded a trade in the parking lot
of a Ralphs grocery store
in Newport Beach.
Kobe Bryant today turning
the NBA world on its head.
- Are you saying you want to be traded?
- Yeah, I would like to be traded.
Says he wants out,
says he recants it and wants back.
2007 is an interesting point
in his career.
He's taken a hit.
And so Kobe is fighting
to regain his place.
He's fighting to restore his name as well.
He had to prove
that he was a team player.
He had to prove that he was a good guy.
He had to prove himself
to everybody in the world.
We knew right away how serious it was.
And he always had a very serious demeanor.
You don't meet Kobe, and he's like,
"Hey, man! I'm Kobe!"
That's not the experience you have.
It's more like,
"This is Kobe Bryant."
"Nice to meet you."
I'm like, "Damn," you know?
We was kind of surprised
that he wanted to be a part of Team USA
after everything that had went on.
I'm not one
to force a relationship with anyone,
but you sense Kobe is someone
who don't really want to be fucked with.
Kobe did an interview,
and he talked about
talking with a couple of his NBA friends.
And the reporters, we laughed.
'Cause we knew he didn't have any friends.
Kobe had never taken the steps
to ingratiate himself
with the players around the league,
so they're still eyeing him
a little warily.
I knew Kobe,
but I didn't know him.
Played basketball against him.
Kobe again! Yessir!
He's the best player ever.
And he was... he was almost untouchable.
Get up, throw your hands in the air
Or shut up...
Man, Kob is a guy that...
He's a loner.
Rolls by himself.
Like, he don't need nobody with him.
Like, he's that guy,
and he's comfortable with that.
I don't think nobody accepted him
like that at that point in time,
and I don't think he was receptive
to anybody at that point in time.
In fact, the first meeting
for the 2008 Olympics,
he sat by himself.
You should think about that,
because you are not just playing
for Kobe Bryant or LeBron James.
You're playing for our country.
That's an amazing opportunity
that is only afforded a very few people.
It was like, "Kob, look."
"You here to play with us.
We here to play with you." Like...
"We don't need Laker Kob."
"You know I'm saying?
Like, we need Team USA Kob."
He was like, "I get it. I'm in.
I'm tired of watching y'all lose."
He said that to me. "I'm tired
of watching y'all lose."
- Let's go. Let's go get 'em, man.
- Come on. Let's go.
- "Together." One, two, three.
- Together.
It means everything.
I've been looking forward to this
for a while, and to be in this position,
to be able to represent our country, man,
it's special. Special.
When we lost in 2004,
um, 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 was... there was... was 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
that are playing at a high level.
But at the same time,
it was like, "Okay. That's beautiful."
"But now we want it back."
"We want it back."
For us, it was a chance,
a shot at redemption.
We wanted to show the world
that we are
the best basketball-playing country.
I came up to Kobe
at the first practice, and I see him.
He said, "I'm glad you're here.
You're gonna see something."
"You're gonna see the USA be great again."
"This is my challenge. This is bigger
than anything I've ever done."
This was the start of the second chapter
in the life of Kobe Bryant.
We get into
the first day of scrimmage.
Stay over there, stay over there,
stay over there. Come on!
This was like 30 seconds
into the scrimmage,
and there was aloose ball.
And he's diving headfirst on the floor
over and over for the loose balls.
C'mon, Kob! Yessir!
Tell me that didn't set an example.
It set a big example.
Coming up! Help it, help it!
They dove for loose balls.
They got big rebounds.
They played defense.
They were in people's faces.
And all of that started with Kobe Bryant.
Growing up overseas, you know,
I have a... a pretty good understanding
of the emotion and the passion
they play the game with over there
and how important it is
to... to... to beat us.
We've never had
a practice like this.
Knowing a lot of guys
that play overseas,
they think we're a bunch
of showboat players that can score a lot
and do a lot of things offensively
but won't do the dirty work.
Because we're all star players,
we won't do the dirty work to win
and to beat them on a consistent basis,
and to me, I think that's the thing
that's gonna get us over the hump.
Oh, come on, Kob.
He knew
that he had to show the guys...
Ball, ball, look at the ball!
...that he was all in,
and the way to do that
was to play defense.
Get 'em, Kob!
That was his way of saying
to the team, you know,
"You can talk about things,
but when you're actually doing it,
you know, that's the main thing."
We're in Vegas.
We're training and all that,
and we want to go out.
So we all go out.
Everybody but Kob.
Think we was at... we went out to, like,
Club Tryst or something like that.
Big things poppin'
And lil' things stoppin'
Big things poppin'
And lil' things stoppin'...
We're dressed like this,
dressed to impress.
Got our fly stuff on. We had a good time.
What you waitin' for?
Cause I'mma do it...
That was so much fun.
Cause I'mma do it
What you waitin' for...
Come back to the hotel
about 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning,
and guess who's in the lobby
on his way to the gym?
Kobe is downstairs in the lobby
with his bag and his sneakers
and his gloves,
like, weight... weight-lifting gloves.
And we're, like, joking,
"Where the fuck you going?"
"Where you going, bro?"
- "I'm going downstairs."
- "I'm going to the gym."
And in my mind, I'm like, "What the fuck?"
This motherfucker Kobe
was already, like, drenched in sweat.
And we was like... "Yeah, he different."
Like, "Man, it's four o'clock, man. I'm..."
"I'm going to sleep.
I'll see you at practice."
As we're going in the elevator
up to our rooms, we're like,
"Did you see... did you hear that?"
We're all talking, just like,
"This guy's really dedicated."
Every day, I'm hustlin'
Every day, I'm hustlin'...
Next thing you know, it goes from
just Kobe going at 5:30 in the morning
to LeBron and D Wade,
and by the end of the week, the whole team
was getting up every morning,
and we're on Kobe's schedule.
It was a domino effect. You know,
once you start seeing, like, the greats
in there doing they thing
and leading that pack,
then it's like, "Oh, I'm here.
I'm with you. Let's go."
And he created that. He wanted that.
He wanted to see who was gonna commit.
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I wasn't going at no fucking 4:30.
That's... that's too early.
But we started getting down there
for breakfast and lifting weights.
We would lift, then we would eat
and then go to practice.
For Kobe, he was the best player,
but now LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony,
these guys were coming up.
How do you handle that?
And how do you lead a team
when you're the alpha dog?
At this time,
there's literally a debate going on
in every barbershop across the country
and every household...
"Who's the best player?"
LeBron is the most dominant player
in the game this year right now.
The most dominant player in the game.
Who do you want
at the end of the game?
Kobe. Absolutely.
I say LeBron James.
- Who has more assists per game?
- Rich.
Who has more rebounds per game?
Who has more steals per game?
- Look at that boy's stats, man.
- Google "most valuable player."
These two guys have been touted
as greats since high school,
and, you know, it's
a lot of media coverage
that kinda put them versus each other.
"Who's this? Who's that? Who's the best?"
I hear the talk.
You know, I think it's exciting.
As a kid growing up, you know,
you wanted to see those matchups.
You wanted to see Magic and Bird.
You wanted to see Michael and Magic.
And you wanted to see those matchups,
just 'cause they're interesting.
Who's the best in the world?
Is it Kobe? Is it Bron?
Is it Bron? Is it Kobe?
I heard it,
and it was definitely on my mind,
'cause as alpha males, you always got
in the back of your mind, saying,
"I want to be recognized
as the greatest in the game."
Everyone had to make sure
their relationship worked,
because if that didn't work,
there's no way in hell
none of this was gonna work.
Coach K, I thought, did a wonderful job of
making sure that things were competitive
but they didn't get out of hand.
You gotta separate the rams, right?
Like, keep the two bulls separated
if we want to have a good practice.
Where you would think that
there might be a butting of heads,
you know, those two guys were amazing
as far as developing a relationship.
Humor played a big part in
the whole thing.
At shooting guard, number 10,
from Philadelphia-slash-Italy.
Listen, I understand Kobe is
serious as hell when it comes to work,
but he want to smile too,
and he want to feel accepted too, so...
The Marksman-slash-Mamba Kobe!
Right! Right! Right!
I mean, I don't call myself a comedian,
but one thing about him,
he's always gonna keep his guard up.
But it was a relief for the whole team
and just for the program
to see him in a different light.
I was talking to a dude yesterday
from Croatia who said,
"If Dwight Howard come down to Atlanta,
I'm gonna punch him in his mouth."
He's... he's hilarious.
I mean nonstop, though.
You know what I mean? Like, it don't stop.
Bang bang! Game time!
It's fun for me to be around
and see that kind of enthusiasm,
because we both have the same passion.
We just show it in different ways.
- Come on!
- By yourself,screen right!
I'm a vocal-type guy.
- You know, and Kobe is... is not much vocal.
- I don't say nothing.
Yeah, he don't talk much,
but I do most of the talking.
But with that combined
is... is... is danger for... for the opponent.
You're all by yourself, Mike!
Down! Down! Down! Down!
You guys know what he do
on the court as far as his example.
Oh yeah! That's off.
Shadow! Shadow!
They just played off each other
so beautifully,
and you got two alphas
in the prime of their careers
that don't care about who the alpha is.
Very rare.
Go!
Back to you!
And one, Bron! And one, Bron!
Way to run the floor, boy!
They knew that the key
to the team would be
how their relationship was
and how it was perceived by everyone.
- That's the word.
- That's the word, huh?
That's the word.
Guys, there are going to be people
in 50 states looking at you guys.
There are going to be kids,
people everywhere wanting to have pride
in all... all of you.
You know? They're not going to be
Laker fans, Cavalier fans.
They're looking to be USA Basketball fans.
Understand that responsibility.
I know I'm not gonna fucking lose.
Shit, man.
I am not gonna fucking lose.
Not when I'm wearing this
and at this time in my career.
You're gonna have to fucking shoot me.
That's the... I'm telling you,
that's the way I want you guys to play.
Now, I'm a grandfather.
I got five grandkids.
At one time in your life,
you sumbitches are gonna have
maybe an artificial hip or a knee,
or you're gonna be
fucking losing your hair.
Gonna be a little fucking pouch
on your fucking stomach.
And there's gonna be a grandson
sitting on your lap and saying,
"Hey, Poppy," or "Granddad."
"Yeah?" "Weren't you in the Olympics?"
"Yeah." "What did you do?"
"Well, son, we lost
to that fucking Greek team."
"Where's Grandma?
Las Vegas, Nevada,
the City of Lights.
Ten teams coming to the city
courting more than just Lady Luck.
They are looking for something precious,
looking forward to next summer.
At stake, two spots
in the upcoming Olympic Games.
You know, tonight's, uh, the first game,
the first kind of step in that direction.
And we're ready to go.
So it's the beginning of a long journey.
- "USA" on three. One, two, three.
- USA!
All right, let's go.
I think... Oh my God!
Kobe Bryant!
The windmill.
Oh, and then the block
at the other end by LeBron James!
Here he is with Jason Kidd
on the break. He put that off the board.
LeBronJames
with the finish!
Great teamwork and the slam!
Kobe Bryant staying on it.
And it's called!
Oh! Kobe Bryant will go to the line
with a chance at a three-point play!
A spectacular play by Kobe Bryant.
This is where we blow the game open.
Let's not let up.
Ten minutes, boy!
The way these guys
have played together
and... and the unselfishness,
the ball movement.
This is an unstoppable team.
They finish
with a perfect record
in the FIBA Americas.
And it's all over.
The gold medal belongs to the US.
I think
they should all be happy and proud.
They accomplished what they wanted
to do. They're headed for Beijing.
And, uh, world, look out.
US is making a statement.
Okay, yo, great job.
Great job, everybody.
We're going to China.
They are definitely hitting their stride.
Now, maintaining that momentum
almost a full year away,
that's going to be the key.
You also have the unknown.
Who is going to be there,
who might not be there,
and you can't predict
who's going to have problems physically.
Unfortunately, that is going to occur
over the course of a long NBA season.
Here he comes!
Dwyane Wade, another two!
He's got 55!
Oh, Wade, what a play!
Wow.
I think, at that time,
Kobe, LeBron, and myself
were the three best players in the NBA.
Here he comes!
- Yes!
- Oh, baby, he did it again!
And is that Wade over there?
You see there
as the arm gets extended back.
Kara Lawson over there on the sideline
telling us that is a shoulder injury.
So I had came off
a serious injury,
and it took a while for me
to build myself to be
back to that place
when a lot of people didn't think I would.
No one thought I would even be
on the Olympic team
because I didn't recover
the way I needed to,
uh, and then I was having knee problems,
so I got surgery on both.
Wade is rehabilitating
his surgically repaired left knee
back home in Chicago.
The drills are basic,
and the weight training is intense.
Dwyane, for me, he was critical.
Wade has gone from NBA champion
to missing major playing time
on the court.
Now he's not just trying
to get back on the court.
Wade is aiming for a spot
on the US Olympic team this summer.
Coach K definitely wanted me
to be a part of the team.
Right? But Jerry Colangelo
had some questions.
I did share
with them my... my thoughts.
Uh, I talked about
when he came into the league,
he was really hungry,
and he really established himself.
But it appeared to me from a distance,
I felt that was missing.
He wasn't the same guy.
You see the ascension and then injury.
And let's be frank.
The Heat sucked that year before
and, I think,
the year before that too.
I mean, they had a rough run of it.
They had to come up to Chicago,
watch me train, watch me work out.
You know, talk to my trainer.
I did understand that, but I was pissed,
because it was just a part
of, like, my never-ending story of,
you know, always feeling like
they don't appreciate you.
You've been forgotten.
So it was just another part of like,
"Okay, here we go.
Grade school? Same thing."
"High school? Same thing.
NBA? Same thing. Olympic..."
You know, same thing.
I was just trying to get myself back,
get myself, you know, to that place.
But I'm just sitting back watching, like,
"Okay, where do I fit in?"
Because I didn't know
if I fit in or not no more.
I didn't think D Wade
was gonna play in '08.
And then he showed up with number nine
and a bald head.
And it was like, "Oh, okay."
"This is what we doing right here?
This is what we doing? Aight."
These are all guys
that are committed to this team,
who wanted to be on this team
from the beginning.
This is the team
that's gonna go over there.
This is the team
that's gonna put USA back on top.
Eyes right here.
You have to know
what you're going for.
And sometimes, you have to see it,
and you have to see it every day.
What we're gonna do
is we're gonna have notebooks for you.
And the very first page
of this notebook will be right here,
the gold medal.
That's our goal,
is the gold medal.
Any of you other guys have...
coaching staff or anybody?
We gotta be a no-excuse team.
I know I'm guilty of this sometimes.
I sit at home and say,
"If I had Dwight Howard on my team
or if I had Carlos Boozer on my team
or if I had Chris Paul as my point guard,
I'd win an NBA championship."
I got all y'all on this team.
So, what's my excuse now?
Do we all have an excuse? We don't.
This is everything
that we always dreamed of,
of having that guy next to you
and winning something.
I don't have no excuse now.
None of us.
For me, the Olympics and basketball
was always very important
because of what
my dad went through in 1972.
Growing up, every Olympic cycle,
there were always stories every four years
about that game in Munich.
49-48.
Three seconds on the clock.
Doug Collins will be shooting two fouls.
This place goes insane.
Doug Collins has perhaps won the game.
Wow, what a finish!
The United States... winning
their eighth consecutive gold medal.
Now we're being told
the scoreboard is not correct.
We had a guy come out of the stands
to put more time back on the clock.
There are
another three seconds left.
Now the clock
says three seconds.
There is time for the Russians to go
to their big man, Alexander Belov.
They're going to try.
Alexander Belov!
And this time, it is over.
My dad told me
Coach K asked if he would come in
and talk to the team.
I think Coach K realized
that he, more than anybody,
could get across to the guys
what it meant to play in the Olympics.
Believe me, when I walked in that room,
my heart was racing.
And I was nervous.
I knew about it a little bit,
but I didn't know the full story
of how we got cheated in the Olympics.
I spoke from the heart
about my experience in '72.
And I said, "I want you
to hear the national anthem."
"That's the last song I want you to hear."
"I want you to get on that podium to get
that gold medal for the United States."
"It'll be a moment you'll never forget
ever in your entire life."
"And you'll be bonded
for the rest of your life in joy."
"My team is bonded in pain,
and I don't want you
to ever have that feeling."
It... it just ties us together
when someone can share their pain,
understanding what he went through
and that he lived with it.
Not that it just disappeared,
and like he forgot about it,
but he thinks about that on a daily basis.
So many of these guys,
they had a connection with me.
I had a connection with LeBron.
I broadcast
LeBron's first game ever in the NBA.
I broadcast his first two games.
Kobe Bryant, I played with his dad.
I went back to the '78-'79 yearbook.
I just took a picture of the yearbook,
of baby Kobe sitting on his dad's lap.
My daughter was born that year.
I mean, I had connections with these guys.
And so it was personal.
It was personal to me.
Hey, fellas.
I just want to show you something.
This is gonna be our song, yeah,
with one of the greatest artists
of all time singing it in 1983.
Coach K said they wanted us
to hear our national anthem.
...can you see
And it was
Marvin Gaye's national anthem.
By the dawn's
Early light
To me, it's
the best national anthem that there is.
We all had goosebumps,
and I'll never forget it.
The star-spangled...
Sometimes when you're younger,
and you're playing the game of basketball...
...banner...
...you don't understand
the history as well as you should.
Being African-American, sometimes,
we have to understand what it took
for us to be where we are today.
And the home...
And we have to understand the people
that laid down the sacrifice for us.
Home of the brave
All right. Let's bring it in.
Bring it in one time. Let's go. Let's go.
- "USA" on three. One, two, three.
- USA!
Welcome to Beijing,
the Opening Ceremony
of the 2008 Summer Games.
The moment has arrived.
And the focus of China
and the world is on the National Stadium.
Listen to the rousing welcome
to the USA team.
Kobe Bryant, the NBA star,
hoping to lead the Redeem Team.
Dwyane Wade right in front of him,
from the Miami Heat.
I remember taking that walk.
As you walking, everyone's screaming.
You trying to wave and stuff.
I just remember Kobe just kept...
He kept doing this to people.
Normally, wherever we go,
it's the Olympic team. We're a big deal.
Some players are more popular than others,
but it's still the Olympic team.
When got to China, it wasn't even close.
It was, "Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, Kobe."
Kobe! Kobe! Kobe! Kobe!
- Who's your favorite?
- Kobe.
Oh, Kobe Bryant.
Kobe is the best.
Kobe's celebrity was
like Michael Jackson about to go on tour
back in the day.
I mean, a girl fainted
right in front of us,
trying to get to Kobe.
Kobe!
It's a bit overwhelming
and a little embarrassing, to be honest.
I'm just trying to blend in
and, you know, duck my head down,
'cause I just want to be part of the mix,
but nonetheless, it's extremely special.
It was thousands
of fans waiting at the hotel.
Kobe! Kobe!
They couldn't get close to the hotel,
but they were waiting
to take pictures of our bus
'cause they knew
Kobe Bryant was on the bus.
Kobe! Kobe!
People went nuts for him.
China loved him.
And I think he realized
that his responsibility was bigger
than just to the Lakers.
It was bigger than just to the NBA.
It was to the whole country.
Kobe Bryant,
LeBron James, and the United States,
they'll face off against Greece.
And this one has some extra juice,
because it was back in 2006
where the United States were upset,
a huge upset by Greece in the semifinals.
They had to settle
for the bronze medal in those games.
A lot of players went through
a lot of hurt because this team beat us
two years before.
We were called "The Redeem Team."
Well, okay, let's redeem it right now.
So we're set to go.
This Greek team, that's now been together
for several years,
has become a very, very good team.
Nice move, Spanoulis,
who's a lefty, using the right hand.
And Greece off to a great start.
Nice feed inside,
and Fotsis on the finish.
The United States
right now getting broken down defensively
very early in this first quarter.
Chris Bosh comes in.
A guy like me,
I knew I had to do something,
uh, to be able to prove
my value with that team.
I made more of an effort
to be, uh, a defender.
Chris Bosh, excellent defense,
forcing the turnover.
Paul, the ball fake, pretty play.
And the United States have tied the game.
USA defense
creating offense.
Here's Wade with the steal.
Here's LeBron James and the slam!
Spanoulis blocked by Bosh!
Spanoulis blocked by James!
Rebound, Zisis blocked by Bosh!
Zisis blocked by James again!
James finds Bosh...
Count it and a foul! Wow!
There's Wade, another steal.
Excellent defense. Throws it and...
Dwyane Wade with a spectacular pass,
then Kobe Bryant with the finish!
That's the play
of the tournament right there.
And the United States passed
their first real test here in Beijing.
A dominant victory against
a very good team from Greece.
Our goal was to win
the respect of our country
and win the respect of the world.
We weren't gonna be the ugly Americans.
It's also about
respecting your opponent.
We really want to beat people.
We want to put it on them.
But you don't want to embarrass them.
It'd be disrespectful.
We feel like this is such a great stage
for people to see worldwide
what a beautiful game this is.
It doesn't make sense to go out there
and get in a confrontation.
We're two teams playing hard,
loving the game of basketball,
and doing what we do best.
That's what the Olympics are about.
What was different was being
in the Olympic Village.
When you're in the cafeteria,
it's just this massive cafeteria.
You look around, you have some
of the best in the world at what they do.
So for me,
that's... that's even more special
than being out in LA and seeing
celebrities walking around,
because it's athlete to athlete.
I understand what they put
their body through to get here.
So there's so much mutual respect
and admiration.
- Thanks.
- Very welcome, very welcome.
Because we were, like, sheltered in '04,
we didn't get the real Olympic experience.
You know, so we was going out
to as many events as we could.
We want to get out.
That was a part of... another check mark of,
"We need to change the culture of the way
the Olympics and how we're perceived."
The whole team would go together,
or individuals would go together
just to be around the other athletes.
USA!
We're all just fans, sitting there,
cheering for our USA athletes,
and there's no greater feeling.
It was cool to be able
to have a schedule too.
Like, on your off days,
"I'm going to see Michael Phelps swim."
Michael Phelps, man.
It was just remarkable to be able
to see him and watch him dominate.
We wanted people
to come and support us.
We wanted to... the same thing.
We wanted to go out and support them.
We wanted to build
some kind of camaraderie as the US.
The one thing in going to see
someone great in another sport...
These guys are great in their sport.
They get to see greatness.
I think it made
our guys even better prepared
for their competition.
And now it's time
for THE GAME, in capital letters,
of these Olympics.
Tomorrow, at 16:15, live at RTVE,
the clash of the titans,
the top of the top in basketball,
Spain vs. USA.
Spain is
the defending world champions.
We're both undefeated, and, um...
This is the game
everybody was waiting to see.
What about you and Pau?
Your and Pau's relationship?
We're like brothers.
I mean, we're very, very close.
And I'm very happy for him
that he's playing well.
I mean... we're... we're very, very tight.
So it's tough to compete against him.
Right before the game,
Kobe came to see me
when they came to visit the Village.
I remember that very clearly and vividly.
My big brother came to see me
with my teammates,
which everyone was like, "Whoa,
Kobe's in our apartment. How cool."
And I believe, you know,
that might have been part of his strategy
to kind of soften me up.
Now it's time
for the United States to battle
what many feel is their toughest foe
in these Olympic Games.
Spain. Both teams come in 3 and 0.
They're the two best teams.
They're the two gold medal hopefuls.
Kob said he gonna set
the tone to start the game. He said,
"I'm running through Pau's fucking chest."
"First play of the game,
I'm running through Pau Gasol."
And we was like, "What?"
"Man, you trippin'. That's your teammate.
You trippin'. You ain't about to do that."
"First play of the game,
I know what they're gonna run."
He knew Pau's gonna be the last screen.
He said, "I'm running through
that motherfucker."
I swear, the first play of the game...
Go! Go, Kob!
We was like...
"Holy shit."
He just went
right into the middle of my chest,
tried to get right through me
to send a message.
Not just to me but to his teammates,
to say, "Hey, this might be my brother."
"I play with him. We're close."
"But I don't care
about anything else but winning."
I'm right there in front of him,
and he's like, bow!
Yo!
He was just like,
"No, he ain't my teammate right now."
"Fuck him. Get up." I'm like,
"I love this energy.
This is what we need."
We was like, "He did that
to his teammate? Oh my God."
"Oh, ain't no way we losing this game.
We about to beat the shit out of Spain."
Kobe Bryant.
Open three. Knocks it down.
Alley-oop to James!
Nice pass! Paul to Howard,
as they're putting some exclamation points
on what is a terrific victory.
In a big matchup
against the two best teams,
it has been no contest,
all USA.
It's the United States
versus Argentina.
And what a matchup we have, Doug.
First off, because of the revenge factor.
Again, the United States,
this same time in 2004,
they lose to Argentina in the semifinals.
And the United States
will not win gold in Athens.
Look at the disappointment
in the United States.
Argentina moves on
to the gold medal game.
The United States will play
for the bronze.
All four of us, man,
we had that game circled.
Me, D Wade, Bron, and Melo were...
Like, "We want this game.
No matter what, dominate."
Yeah, man, we wanna smack them.
We need a little get-back on Argentina.
I remember getting
the, uh... the report on the other team.
I'm sitting there
and going down the scouting report.
It said... Manu Ginbili's name comes up.
Ginbili in 2008, the media was saying
that Ginbili might be
the best shooting guard in the world.
I just remember, we about to play them,
and we do our film, and Coach K,
he has, like, a highlight tape
of, like, Ginbili.
Like, that's our film session.
Manu around that screen,
drives on Skinner.
All the way in with the left hand
off the glass. Nice move from Ginbili.
The right-wing three!
It's a Manu tres.
Ginbili knows how to score,
hammers it.
Yo, please turn this shit off.
Like, we don't want
to keep watching this shit.
And Manu again!
Then we get to the game.
Coach K has printed out paper
and put it in everybody's seat.
Different quotes
that people were saying about Ginbili.
On mine it says, "Manu Ginbili.
Second-best shooting guard in the NBA."
I lost it. I lost it.
Now, I could give you Kobe.
I'll give you Kobe.
But I'm not giving you Manu, right?
I just need a little bit of Manu.
Need a little bit of that matchup.
In Kobe's seat, he put the quote
about Ginbili being
the best two guardin the world.
And you saw him go from Kobe Bryant
to Black Mamba like...
Like that.
We huddled up. He was like,
"Listen, I got Ginbili."
"That shit ends today."
In that game, we were ready.
It was the game
I think Kobe was most ready for.
Superb defense by Kobe Bryant.
This is the game
within the game right here.
Here's Jason Kidd.
He's still not missed a shot.
James gets inside,
up and under, left-handed, pretty play.
Carmelo Anthony nails it.
And we were demolishing them.
Kobe Bryant hangs in the air
and banks it in.
And Ginbili got hurt.
And this is a bad, bad sign,
obviously, for Argentina.
Ginbili going back
to the Argentina locker room.
And instead of going ahead,
it was almost like,
"Well, now we got it."
And it became a close game.
Delfino
with the drop-off to Scola.
Scola puts it in!
And it's a six-point game.
We were so, "Manu," you know, hyped.
And then Manu went down.
It was like, "Oh."
It just took the air out of the moment.
They were trailing
by 21 in the second.
Since that point, and without Ginbili,
they've outscored the United States
27 to 12.
The last thing we wanted to see
is Manu go out with a foot injury.
You know, we want to dominate
whoever's on the floor,
but we wanted them at full strength.
Nice entry pass!
Good ball movement!
Anthony... misses. Bosh on the follow.
Paul, nice feed inside.
Dwyane Wade to finish.
They're able to hold on, despite
Argentina playing their hearts out
trying to come back.
They're 36 hours away
from playing
for what these guys dreamed about,
and that was winning a gold medal.
All right, here we go. Like I said,
today's Kobe Bryant's 30th birthday,
and we're gonna sing
"Happy Birthday" on three.
Kobe kept telling us,
"Nah, don't do nothing."
"I know y'all planning something.
Don't do nothing."
One, two, three.
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday, dear Kobe
Mamba
Happy birthday to you!
You know, he always had
this wall up with people,
and he was always
a competitor with everybody.
You could tell he was
super excited because we did it.
Like, "Wow, they really opened
they arms up for me."
That birthday celebration
put the stamp on it.
Welcome back.
The time has come.
We head out now
to the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium,
the gold medal game.
The United States gets set
to take on Spain.
"USA" on three. One, two, three.
- USA!
- Let's go.
Hello, everyone.
Today, a new Olympic champion
will be crowned in men's basketball.
The United States, undefeated in Beijing.
They've won by an average margin
of over 30 points per game.
But it will not mean a thing
unless Mike Krzyzewski and his team
finish off Spain,
who many think is the second-best team.
A lot of players on this Spanish roster
have NBA experience,
led by Pau Gasol
and his younger brother, Marc.
We're here, we have a chance,
so let's go out there and do this.
It's just a matter of being aggressive,
not being fearful, attacking them,
putting them on... on their heels.
The last time
these two teams played,
Pau Gasol, if you remember,
was floored by Kobe Bryant
on the first play of the first minute.
He said it was a cheap shot
that shows that Kobe is ready to compete
and wouldn't be surprised
if he did it again today.
And we knew
that it was gonna be a dogfight
because of how badly
we beat 'em the first time.
We had to be mentally sharp.
That was literally the commitment
that we made for three years
to get to this moment.
LeBron James knocks down
the three to start the game.
Rubio, beautiful feed to Gasol.
And Spain has the lead.
Jimnez fouled on his way to the basket.
That's gonna be LeBron James' second foul.
That's a critical foul.
Remember, you only get five.
So LeBron James picks up two quick fouls.
We've talked about how he has been
the catalyst of this team's defense.
He's the emotional leader.
Mike Krzyzewski rolling dice here
a little bit.
He's gonna let
LeBron James play with these two fouls.
Here's Kobe fouling a three-point shooter.
That's his second.
So we've already seen
the two leaders from the United States
with a couple bad fouls.
So not a good start by the United States
with their two leaders
on the bench with fouls.
Well, first half was disjointed,
uh, because of foul trouble.
Now, there were more minutes,
and people were playing,
uh... uh, different roles.
They bring in Dwyane Wade
and Deron Williams
a little earlier than expected.
Sometimes, you feel like you've been
there before, you've done this.
I knew I was gonna have a big game.
And when I got in, I got right to it.
Wade to the basket,
goes inside, beautiful move.
There's Wade with the steal.
Not only did I get two fouls early,
Kobe did too,
and that set the stage for D Wade.
Wade... hits the three.
There's Wade, another steal.
Anticipates perfectly
and finishes at the other end.
Eighteen points off the bench.
Seriously, if you got
D Wade coming off of your bench,
you got
the greatest international team ever.
I got the moment in an Olympic game
to help keep the reins for the team
until our big dogs
could get back on the court.
Paul throws it ahead.
Kobe Bryant, up and in.
Gorgeous feed and a superb finish.
We hitting 'em. We hitting 'em
with haymakers. But they not falling.
There's Fernandez. Hits a three.
Two minutes remaining. Fernandez...
Oh! How does he put that in?
A little shake-and-bake one-on-one,
then the rainbow drops.
Well, that's
how you spring an upset.
By shooting out of your mind, knocking
down threes you normally don't make,
by getting second-chance points
and putting the pressure
on the United States.
As an athlete, you love those moments.
You have to love those games.
Wade for three... again!
And that will end a wild first half.
Dwyane's points
in the first half kept us afloat.
In an international game, the sooner
you can put 'em away, the better.
But we could never...
never pull away from them.
United States leading Spain 69-61.
USA trying to bounce back from
the disappointing Olympics in 2004.
Perhaps
the second most disappointing Olympics
for the United States men in basketball.
Number one has to be in Munich in 1972.
Doug Collins, you were on the team
playing against the Soviet Union
in the gold medal game.
And there are a couple of people involved
who want to win this game for that team
and for you. Of course,
your son Chris, who's an assistant coach,
and LeBron James said yesterday too,
you talked to the team
about how to represent the country
and what it meant to be an Olympian.
He said he wants to win this for you.
That was nice of LeBron.
I did speak to the team.
They're 20 minutes away
from getting it done.
So United States coming out,
and you can feel the tension.
They know what's at stake here.
Gasol against Howard.
Shot clock at five.
Gasol using the left hand.
And all of a sudden,
it's a four-point game.
As you get closer to the end,
and you're staying
within striking distance,
then you have a shot.
Now, it's like you can really win it.
So let's just turn it up.
Navarro, nice runner in the lane.
Navarro, again, likes that runner
and puts it in again.
Spain shooting 60% from the field,
and they're back within four!
I knew all game long that we had a chance,
that you have a... you have a shot.
Everyone saw
that we had a legitimate chance.
Spain has confidence now.
United States has let them hang around,
and the United States
right now on their heels.
There's Navarro. Inside, Gasol.
United States just can't stop Spain
the way Spain can't stop them.
James to the basket, count it and a foul.
So quick down the floor.
Frenetic energy.
Both teams diving for loose balls,
a gold medal at stake.
Spain within six.
They have to like their chances.
Our whole goal with Deron
and CP and myself was,
"Once we get in, we have to give this team
a different feel and a different look."
Oh, here comes Chris Paul.
USA trying to push again.
Wade, spinning.
Tough shot, knocks it down.
Wade, coming alive again,
and it's a ten-point lead.
Bosh to Williams.
Deron Williamspulls up, knocks it down.
It didn't matter who did it.
This guy had 15, this guy had 12,
this guy... it don't matter.
Let's win the game.
Mike Krzyzewski,
obviously concerned,
coming up on
the final minute of this third quarter,
the gold medal game in Beijing.
Alley-oop to Gasol! Boy, Navarro,
what a game he's having!
Anthony spots up for three.
Puts it in.
Big bucket from Carmelo Anthony.
Third quarter winding down.
Navarro. Williams does a good job
keeping him in front.
Gets by anyway, lefty layup.
Oh, what a shot from Navarro
as the third quarter comes to an end.
My message to the guys was,
"Just focus on the next quarter."
"Don't worry about the score."
"Stop thinking about that.
Think about the play in front of you."
You know, "I don't want you to think
that Spain is going to roll over
or go away, because they're not."
Rudy Fernandez,
a big spark for Spain, he comes in.
He's playing with four fouls,
one away from being disqualified.
Oh, what a pass!
And Gasol with the finish,
and it's back to a five-point game.
Carmelo Anthony tries a three.
That won't go.
USA now one of seven
from the three in the second half.
Fernandez puts up a three. It's good!
Two-point game!
Time-out, United States,
as Spain storms back!
Spain,
all they wanted to do
is put the United States in a position
to feel the pressure.
Well, you know what? The United States
is feeling big-time pressure right now.
It's a two-point game.
In their careers, I'm not sure
there would be a more tense moment
than the Olympics, two points up,
and it seemed like
the world was caving in on us.
At the time-out, I was getting ready
to say some things,
and the... the players started talking.
And Kobe and Dwyane
and these guys were talking, said,
"We got it. We're good. We're good."
They were built and ready for that moment.
Spain has nothing to lose.
They're loose. They're free.
And now the United States must regroup
for this last 8 minutes and 13 seconds.
It's one game.
So that means there's plenty of players
out here who are nervous,
and I know that they're feeling
the pressure much more than I am.
I know I'm ready.
Wade to Kobe Bryant.
Bryant on the drive,
tough shot, gets it to go.
Kobe Bean, Mr. Fantastic coming
to save the day, pretty much.
Kobe Bryant, stripped by Rubio.
Kobe Bryant gets it back.
Inside pass to Howard for the slam.
And the lead back up to nine
with 6:45 to play.
Who's been on every play?
All three plays, Kobe Bryant.
He hit the big shot, and he's had
two assists in this stretch.
In this 7-0 run.
This just felt like a great battle.
You could have played it all night long,
and it would have been...
it'd have been
to nine overtimes.
Reyes, the rebound.
Back to Fernandez, another wide-open one.
And that one goes down!
Big shotfor Spain
right there from Fernandez.
You can't help how your body responds,
and I was nervous.
I was nervous.
98-92. Another three.
Kobe Bryant gets it to go!
It seemed like the best basketball
on the planet being played.
Fernandez drives inside!
Oh, what a slam and the foul!
Rudy Fernandez!
How about Rudy Fernandez
with that finish?
I don't wanna say I was nervous,
but I was definitely like,
"These fuckers won't go away."
Five-point game, 104-99.
Back to that zone defense.
Who's gonna knock down
a shot for the United States?
For some reason, whenever those moments
came at the end of games, close games,
big shots needed to be made,
it's like you just zone out.
The crowd's not there.
Once I drove through the zone and hit Kob,
Kob called a jab.
Puts up the three...
It's good!
And he turned, and he did like this.
Kob just said...
You can really enjoy the moment.
You can look around in the arena
and kind of soak it all in, right?
And enjoy that.
Is there anybody in the NBA
who loves these moments
more than Kobe Bryant?
This could be a gigantic four-point play.
Not only that, but Rudy Fernandez
has just fouled out of the ball game.
Again, United States
with some breathing room,
but they have not been able
to put away Spain.
108-99.
Three minutes to go
in the gold medal game.
Navarro, the runner, again drops it in.
At the end of the game,
we gotta really use strategy.
Like, we gotta really utilize
what we have out here.
And you just see...
you see the level of play just rise, man.
Navarro again,
this time out to Jimnez.
Open three-pointer, puts it in.
Back to a four-point game.
Spain keeps climbing back.
Your confidence comes
from being in that moment.
Knowing that you're not gonna be
perfect in these moments,
but long as you're not afraid of it,
you'll be aight.
Dwyane Wade wants to drive.
Paul does, as does LeBron James.
James inside, out to Wade.
His three-pointer...
Knocks it down!
Another clutch three. And it's 111-104.
And I remember hitting it and...
...like, you know, just feeling
so incredible inside.
The United States up by six
with 1:20 remaining.
Spain staying in that zone.
Paul to Bryant.
Bryant looking for an opening,
gets in the runner. Rolls in!
Kobe Bryant knocks it down.
It's an eight-point game.
This is game. Like, we just...
We just won a gold medal.
And chants of "USA" erupt here
at the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium
in Wukesong.
It's one of the greatest games
probably ever played.
A celebration underway.
And the United States men,
gold medalists once again!
After such disappointments
in 2002, 2004, and 2006.
And the players coming over to embrace
the former Olympian,
our man, Doug Collins,
in an emotional moment.
Not only for that, but of course,
your son, Chris, part of the staff.
A special day for the Collins family.
A special day for USA Basketball.
I never expected it, but they all
came over to the scorer's table and...
They had some flowers
or whatever that they get.
And they asked me to come out,
and they put
their gold medal around my neck,
and everybody, big smiles,
and took a picture and...
The other day, I... I took that picture out
because Kobe was next to me.
Where the bottles at?
Where the bottles? Where they at?
Where they at?
Gold medal! USA, baby!
Yessir! Yessir!
Good job, CP.
Yessir!
Big man! Big man!
- Who is it? Who is it?
- No!
- Yes, I told you!
- He hit the Kobe!
Our reputation as Americans are
singular superstars who go their own way.
We're in it just for the show.
We're in it for the glitz.
We're not in it for the teamwork.
Get that...
Suddenly,
the Redeem Team gets here,
and they have more right than anybody else
to be standoffish and selfish.
And they're the biggest, greatest team
arguably in the history of the Olympics.
The United States of America!
I'm sitting on that podium,
and I'm thinking about my journey.
I didn't know how much it would mean
to me to win a gold medal.
But at that moment,
just every emotion that I've ever had,
every moment of doubt, injury,
it didn't matter at that moment.
All of those things was for me to be
right where I am at this moment.
I felt joy. I felt a relief.
Like, "Aight, we did it."
You know what I'm saying?
Like, we came together for a cause.
My jersey didn't have
Denver Nuggets on there.
LeBron didn't have Cleveland.
Kobe didn't have Lakers. Like, we had USA.
Because of everything
that we had went through,
in the years that we had,
you know, losing,
to be standing up on that podium,
having the gold wrapped around our neck
was one of the most rewarding moments
of my career.
I think it just reset the standard, too,
of what it means
to play basketball in America.
There's no better feeling
than winning the gold medal.
It's your country. It's the world.
It's the Olympics.
There's no greater moment.
Ah, yessir. Day one of travel, baby.
Here we go. Off to China, baby.
Go get that gold medal, baby.
Thirteen hours?
Too long to be on a plane.
But we're going for the Olympics,
so that's why it's all good.
C'mon, Tayshaun!
You guys
got your pajamas off?
Kobe, did you take your pajamas off?
Look at me, dawg.
I never looked this strong in my life.
Man, he's beautiful.
He's got me looking like Iron Man.
You know what I'm saying?
What number do you normally wear?
What number you wear two years ago?
- Ten.
- Here y'all go.
Let's go. Philly. Come on.
All that means is,
"Get the hell out of the way."
I thought it was a play.
You've been tricking me for five years.
I figured it out now, Kob.
You better change your signal.
I figured it out. Uh-huh.
I think today it... it really sunk in a lot.
And I just... I feel real patriotic today.
Just being right here
in front of the Statue of Liberty.
Hey, this is the road to gold, baby,
and I'm looking forward
to getting that gold medal.
And I'll see y'all next episode.
This is King James.
D Wade is right behind. He about to...
Bam!
- Hey.
- We signing off.