18 years ago - Redeem Team receives their gold medals.
Excuse me, you said how long ago?
Shhh…let it go. Don’t make the OP repeat it.
Whole roster full of dudes who actually hated losing pickup runs, let alone Olympic games. Vibes were so different from recent squads.
This. Kobe Bryant woulda sold his grandmother to win a game fucking cornhole.
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Tubz, we were having a conversation about Olympic athletes.
Edit: before delete, user took the pickup run comment and tried to insert himself in the convo and in effect include himself in the same tier of player. Something like , “yeah I get it, im arguing foul calls for 30 minutes at the YMCA pickups games with people who don’t even know the score”. It was such a short sentence that revealed so much about him. And his username had “tubz” in it so it was low hanging fruit
One of Kobe’s greatest moments. Put that team on his back in the 4th quarter
That Olympics had me convinced that Rubio was the next GOAT. He was 17!
Why do international players turn into Megatron in basketball?
Its closer to the sport they grew up playing probably
Melo not shaking that man’s hand
I’ll tell you what, they had to sweat in order to get that gold medal as well, it had to feel even better
Yes.
Spain played so well that they would have cleaned the floor with any other team. They just wouldn’t go away.
Navarro and Fernandez just couldn’t miss. It was unreal. One of the most stressful games I have watched outside of the NBA playoffs.
Edit: grammar
Kobe’s insistence on guarding navarro really hurt them, they had much better matchups. He looked like a cone in that game. Amazing offensive performance in the clutch though!
It’s been a while seen I watched that, but it would be good to see what USA could have done differently in both offense and defense.
As a foreigner, I have never been more proud of the USA since this moment.
My favorite Olympic team. Though I am a bit bias also seeing. My favorite player lead the team in scoring off the bench, including 27 in the gold medal game. The Kobe-Wade-CP3-LeBron-Bosh/Howard lineups were deadly.
Jason Kidd still looks the same . He’s always looked like a 50 year old foreman and I love it
🙄
USA was the only team to not take things seriously in 2004 and surprise surprise, they didn’t win. So they had to create this whole narrative about the redeem team as if it wasn’t their own damn fault in the first place.
What is the US without narratives anyway
Now you’re getting it
Didn’t they also stay outside the Olympic village in 04? Some BS about post 9⁄11 security?
They’ve done that everytime since then I believe.
The US Men’s basketball team has way more money than your typical Olympian. No need to stay in temporary dorm rooms when you can afford luxury.
2004 team took it seriously, they were just not a good fit despite being talented (they were also not that talented for a USA team), it had nothing to do with them taking it seriously
They had a dinosaur coach who was not playing the right players in an awful fit team
AI was ass cheeks, inefficient and trying to do too much, Marbury/AI backcourt is hilariously bad they were both awful defenders and inefficient, not playing LeBron enough mins, playing Boozer instead of Amare
They didn’t really. No one was wanted to play for that team to begin with. That’s why they ended up with a mismatched lineup, and they barely had time to practice. All teams did was pack and paint and dared the US to shoot. LeBron in 04 was zero help with that too. Look at any game they lost, they just missed open shots or stupidly drove to the rim against 3. It wasnt anything else.
What do you mean create a whole narrative as if it wasn’t their own damn fault? Redeem means to get over past mistakes.
Not a ton of overlap between the ‘04 and ‘08 teams if that’s what you’re getting at.
Yep. But we still have to give credit to them. They knew the stakes and won.
I kind of forgot Boozer was on this squad
The exact moment Carmelo Anthony’s career took a detour. 😩
wtf, after Kobe, was that Dwight Howard? The announcer didnt mention his name
Was this before or after they stopped for Wendy’s?
Kobe was something special, man. A grapist on and off the court. We’ll never see one like him ever again. #mambamentality #jobsnotdone #19islegalclowb
Still so bizarre to me that this team’s been inducted to the HOF. Basically a “hey, you’re the best, but you lost last time. Since you actually won this time like you’re supposed to, you should be in the Hall”. 92 Dream Team made complete sense. This one doesn’t.
If anything 04 Argentina should be in. What were the Redeem team redeeming themselves from????
Pure US bias imo. I know the sport is American dominated but the HOF is meant to be for the entire world.
“Redeem Team” is so cringe
What do you mean by dream team is so cringe?
Best basketball team ever assembled
Dream Team got that
If there’s a Field of Dreams for hoopers, Dream Team vs Redeem Team is going to be awesome
Generational
Redeem team had everyone in their prime. Magic and Bird were at the tail end of their careers
What the redeem team had that the other teams didn’t, is everyone was in their primes. Prime Kobe, Prime LeBron, Prime D-Wade, Prime Melo, Prime Dwight Howard, Prime Chris Bosh, Prime CP3.
Every other team has players that are past it, the only player past their prime on the redeem team was Jason Kidd