WEBVTT - On Top Of The World 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:05.640 The Dream Team Tapes, Season two. Kobe, Lebron and the 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:10.320 Redeem Team is the production of Diversion Podcasts in association 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:26.639 with I Heart Radio Diversion Podcasts. The players selected for 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.200 the honor of representing the United States in the two 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:36.240 thousand and eight Beijing Olympic Games are Kobe Bryant. We 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:37.960 look forward to this for a while, you know it 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:39.920 to be in this position now here we don't represent 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:47.080 our country, especially especial Lebron James. We look for an 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:49.000 opportunity of the weekend on a flam and being the 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:51.280 best in the world. I guess the Redeem Team is 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.440 as it is right. We're the rest team in the world. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:56.920 We're the best team in the world. We put Basketball 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:20.360 America basketball wheat, which is at the top. M Hello 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.440 and welcome to Kobe, Lebron and the Redeemed Team. This 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.720 is episode one which we're calling on top of the world. 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.959 I'm Jack McCallum who brought you the Dream Team tapes, 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:37.520 and this is its worthy sequel. See the story of 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.759 the Redeem Team, sometimes overlooked, is in its on its own. 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:45.319 In my opinion, every bit is intriguing as a dream 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:49.040 Team that preceded them by sixteen years. And one of 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.440 the things I found out by doing the Dream Team 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.680 tapes is how eager these guys were to talk about it. 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.880 For even guys that were all Stars, Hall of Famers, 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.840 one Champ being Chips, it was a really special time 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:05.320 in their lives, which is why I was able to 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.640 get inside the heads of players like Michael Jordan's, Larry 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.560 Bird and Magic Johnson. And in the same way, the 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.920 Redeemed Team defines a lot of these guys career And 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.400 in the coming weeks, you're gonna be hearing from the players, 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:24.160 the coaches, and the executives who were so eager to 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.400 share their thoughts on what was an important part in 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.600 their lives. So here's a quick snapshot, but some of 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.799 those voices you'll be hearing. We all understood the pecking order. 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.200 We knew Kobe and Lebron, uh, we're gonna shoot the ball, 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:40.160 or that you know, more or less Kobe was going 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.680 to shoot the ball. I've never said this, but I 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:47.600 remember sitting there watching those guys when we were in harmony. 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:51.519 You can't play better than this. The most pressure moment 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:54.960 I've ever had as a coach was the gold medal 0:02:55.040 --> 0:03:01.360 game with eight minutes to go. The year is two 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.440 thousand and eight. The games of the twenty nine Olympiad 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.720 an American basketball team, an American basketball program really bent 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:13.200 on turning around its diminished fortunes, which included a sixth 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.800 place finished in the two thousand two World Championships and 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.560 even worse, a mere bronze medal in the two thousand 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.720 four Olympics. And assets, the United States team was on 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:28.000 a mission. There was magic in the air. Actually there 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.880 was smog in the air. Hey, we're in Beijing after all. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.760 But this two thousand and eight team turned out to 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:38.240 be a breath of fresh air for our Olympic program. 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:46.320 But it wasn't easy. They'll be joined by j Addande, 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.400 who himself was heard recently talking about a dream teamer 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:53.760 somebody named Jordan's in the terrific Beyond the last dance 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:56.800 that he did with b J Armstrong, a former teammate 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:01.600 of Jordan's j A take it away, hey, Jack. I'll 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.240 be focusing on the Kobe Bryant aspect of this because 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.840 it's so fascinating to me both the impact that Kobe 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:09.000 had on this team and that this team and that 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.800 this experience had on Kobe. And the reason I'm focused 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:14.880 on Kope so much is that I was in Los 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.680 Angeles working at the l A Times and then ESPN 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.800 for nineteen of Kobe's twenty seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.039 So we'll be talking to his teammates and his coach, 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.560 Phil Jackson, getting perspective on Kobe in addition to how 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:30.039 he fit into this two thousand and eight Olympic team, 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.200 which wasn't that easy, just like it wasn't always that 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:34.400 easy for him to fit into the Los Angeles Lakers. 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.159 We got filled to come out of hiding for this 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:38.599 j Yeah, that was all you, jack That was a 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.359 good get, as they say in the media business. But 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.320 through the power of email and some persistence on your part, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.160 we were able to get Phil Jackson, you don't really 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:51.120 hear from very often these days. We had about an 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.920 hour with Phil talking about the ark of his time 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.960 with Kobe, and that was a fascinating discussion. We'll be 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.240 hearing a little bit of that today and plenty more 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.280 as we go through this podcast series, and I think 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.719 you're gonna find yourself immersed in this, as both of 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.560 us were in this project. And so we'll hear about 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.520 the redemptive arts of Kobe and the players like Lebron 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:12.920 James and Carmelo Anthony who are on the two thousand 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.719 four Olympic team, and they got the chance to rectify 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.960 that disappointing Bron's medland Athens. And it's also about to 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.160 turnaround the USA basketball. It was led by Jerry Colangelo 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:24.840 and how he got the players to buy into a 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.000 concept that was bigger than even the biggest names in 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.320 the NBA, and how Mike Schoki got these players to 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.200 listen to a college coach, thanks in part to a 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.120 few time left bombs. And along the way we'll learn 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:41.160 things like Lebron's preferred drink and which player almost got 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:45.039 left behind on a night out in Macau, China. And 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.920 it all led to this glorious golden moment that Mike 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:52.839 Shachofsky described. That's as much pressure as any of the 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.960 teams have had during that time. And what a joyous 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.920 celebration afterwards. So moment in time that you know, some 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.000 of the greatest players in the history of our game 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:08.120 could share together. I can't explain the moment. And our 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:11.760 guys were so reverent they looked so good, and they 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.800 got gold medals around and the national anthems playing and 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:19.120 their flags raised above all the others and incredible, and 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.480 so Jack. The moment that I got into this team 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.520 was when they had that Nike commercial with them running 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:26.600 around the court and working out to the Marvin gaybers 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.560 into the Star Spangled banner. And we'll hear from Coach 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:31.360 k and some of the players about how much they 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.520 really got into that song. And he utilized that anthem 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.080 almost every time that they were together to help motivate 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:40.599 them and here, and it actually motivated me to get 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:44.000 into this team. And so I've been fascinated by this 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.359 group for a while, and I'm always fascinated by the 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.440 social dynamics of a team, and this collection was really 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:51.880 intrigued and I can't wait to tell the story of 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.400 them with you. I was at that All Star game 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.520 when Marvin Gay We're gonna be talking about that anthem later, 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:02.720 but it's very rare you capture an iconic moment at 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.280 the moment that it happens. But that's exactly what happened 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:08.599 with that national anthem. They might not have said it, 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.360 but we're gonna be listening to that thing for a 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:16.600 hundred years. Man, it was interesting to hear how much Showski, 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:21.280 you know, a product of the u United States Military Academy. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.880 It was interesting to see how much he embraced that 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.200 version of it, and how much he embraced the military too. 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:31.480 As we get into that, and every little motivational tactic, 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:36.600 every angle that Showski tried, it worked and it resulted 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.400 in that gold medal in that triumph in Beijing in 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.600 two thousand and eight. And there's a clip from right 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.840 after that gold medal game which they defeated Spain, and 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:49.680 Kobe's there and he's got his arms around Carmelo Anthony 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.680 and Dwyane Wade and Lebron James is standing next to 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:57.120 Dwyane Wade. A little foreshadowing there, and Kobe was giddy 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.560 and he reverted back to that same Michael Jordan like 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:01.320 in plaction that he had when he first came in 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:04.280 the league. It was like he rediscovered the enthusiasm from 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.440 his teenage years. Jack and let's take a listen. Incredible, 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:10.960 We've been waiting for this for a while. He's back 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:12.560 one time. This is what it's all about. This is 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.880 what it's all about. What having a blast right now. Now. 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:17.800 I hadn't seen him this physically affectionate with his teammates 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:19.720 since he won his first championship with the Lakers in 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.280 two thousand and we're gonna roll the clips some more, 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:25.360 and you'll hear Kobe answers another question, and Carmelo chimes in, 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.560 and then Lebron James provides some of his usual matter 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.360 of fact analysis, and then you're also gonna hear Kobe 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.439 call out se pete three when Chris Paul joins him. 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.440 Chris is holding his victory cigar and it starts to win. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.160 A reporter asked him, how did you feel when Spain 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:42.280 pulled within two and what was going through your mind? 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:46.040 It was us enjoy challenge, You enjoy competition. We enjoined 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.400 every minute of this is fun, This is movie all wanted. 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:50.400 That's what made it that much better. Man, That's what 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:52.599 he wants. Gonna be a Kike walk like it was 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.199 last game. Um, Spain brought the eight plus game and 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.440 and we did too, So come on and take care 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.600 of business. We did it the right way, So Jack, 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:02.960 let's stop and appreciate it for a moment. You have 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:05.160 four of the top thirty scorers in the history of 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:10.880 the NBA. Lebron, Kobe, Carmelo, Dwayne Wade, Lebron, and Chris 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.200 Paul are in the career top ten for assists, and 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.600 of course Jason Cabe was on the team the number 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.079 two all time assist leader at the moment, he was 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.240 probably off somewhere icing his knees. He was the old 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.240 man on that team. And it's not just the accomplishments 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.760 of that group, it's the bond. And again that really 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.439 gets to my central premise about this team, the Redeemed Team, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.080 is that Kobe was good for these guys because he 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.680 showed them what it took to put yourself at the 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.880 very top, that extra bit of work it takes. And 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.800 the Redeemed Team experience was good for Kobe because it 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:44.559 showed him how to be a part of the group. 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:47.040 And I thought it was interesting that when we asked 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.480 Carmelo Anthony for the memories that stood out from him 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.440 for that two thousand Olympic experience, he took it right 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.880 back to Kobe, the way that he like bought himself 0:09:55.880 --> 0:10:00.960 to become so comfortable with us in and the players 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.400 on the team, and you know, really understanding like okay, 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.600 like this is a band of brothers him Like you 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.880 saw him like slowly letting his guard down, even on 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.280 the buses, you know, even going to the Olympic village 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.520 and going to other sports levans, Like you saw the 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:22.480 guard coming down. You saw those bricks falling, and he 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.200 was fully immersed in and what we was doing and 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.840 being there with us, and that was something that was 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:33.520 like Okay, he finally like, okay, we got the last 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.160 brick down, like we you know, he's the wall is down, 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.360 Like it's down, y'all. Damn. We did a good job, 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:41.720 like every was. You almost felt like a sense of 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:45.400 victory seeing him laugh the way that he was laughing 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:50.320 and you know, talking and communicating and stories and just 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.120 like you, we felt that We always say, lions don't 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.079 hang with others, don't hang with nobody other than lions. 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.240 Right when you put it that way to him and 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.200 you messed with the you know that this a rebal 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.440 part of it. He locks in and I think that's 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:08.760 what that's what he was dealing with. Like he knew 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:10.760 like he was being sharpened by us and we were 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:14.640 being sharpened by him. We understood that. And so when 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.000 Kobe got back to l a and they're getting ready 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:18.839 to start the season in l A. In two thousand 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:21.760 and eight, he meets with Phil Jackson and Phil was curious. 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:23.720 He asked Kobe what it was like, and I talked 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.880 to him about the pleasure of playing and that uh Olympics. 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.400 He talked about the amount of fund they had, that 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:32.920 we were really at a great time. He was very 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.839 assistant about that. I asked him about various characters. I 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:41.000 asked him about Dwayne Wade and and you know Lebron 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.840 that they could keep up with him, and uh, you 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.839 know if he drilled them as hard as he drilled 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:49.880 some of his teammates. And he said yeah. And I said, uh, 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.199 did you get him up in the morning and worked 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.160 out at six o'clock before? Yeah, I got him up 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.640 and yeah he did all that. And jack Phil had 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:01.720 that sort of amused look as he told us that 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:05.559 story and recalled that moment for Kobe. And it was 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:08.000 a different Kobe Bryant, and it was a more successful 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:09.679 Koke Bryan. As we'll see, he goes on to win 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:14.880 the next two NBA championships. So it wasn't just a culmination. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:17.920 It really launched a lot of those guys and I 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:21.280 think they were all better for that experience. Yeah, and 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.199 you know, years, four years earlier, we're gonna be talking 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.920 about that a little bit. You're listening to Kobe Lebron 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.000 and the Redeemed Team. We'll be back in just a moment. 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.920 You know, you forget how these guys themselves had down 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:41.880 points in their career in two thousand four, the Olympics 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.040 that we're gonna be talking about later, when we did 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:50.679 not win a gold medal, Lebron Mellow, Dwayne Wade more 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.960 or less. You know, they felt like losers. They were 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.400 being called upon as only rookies to kind of have 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.960 a prominent place on this big team. And you know, 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.800 the moral is even guys like this need to grow. 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:09.480 And it would be interesting to know how much this 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.760 two thousand eight Redeemed Team helped them do that. I mean, 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.080 Lebron and Dwayne obviously went on to win, and Chris 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:21.120 Bosh went on to win championships together. And you wonder 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:25.840 what a formative moment this was for all these guys 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.280 and the Redeem Team. Some of them, you know, didn't 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.400 really need it. Jason Kidd was a little more forward 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.120 in his career, but for all the other guys. That 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.360 was important. And we're not gonna take you through the 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:40.840 games of two thousand eight here. They'll be coming more 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.360 near the end of the podcast. But there's a moment 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:47.280 after the gold medal game that seems of small importance, 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:50.319 but it was really not. And Sean Ford, who's the 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.840 veteran director of basketball operations for USA Basketball, talks about it. 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:59.240 The guys wanted champagne, right, Uh, that was a big 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.560 thing for them, especially like I remember Lebron he said, 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.080 let's treat this like a real champion. We watched Champagne 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:08.720 and that, and and I remember talking with said Jason, like, 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:11.480 we can do the champagne. You just gotta remember, like 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.319 when we come back to the locker room, we got 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.600 to go back out for the metal ceremony. We can't 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.400 have you guys sprain each other. And it was particularly 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.360 important for Jason Kidd, as he explains here in two 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.160 thousand we really didn't get a chance to celebrate. I 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.400 think we were exhausted and we were just ready to 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:33.280 go home. And I told Si, like, we we have 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:37.440 to celebrate. Now. Jason's talking about the what I would 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.880 call I think j referred to it as the invisible Olympics. 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:45.720 It was a two thousand games in Sydney. It was 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.080 forgotten Jack. Yeah, I mean if you think about it 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.360 during the other hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere, and the time 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.560 difference was so great and we couldn't stream back then, right, 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.840 we were at the mercy of when NBC was going 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.400 to show the games, and there were time times they'd 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.160 be showing a game and it was so delayed because 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.040 of the time difference. Like I not only knew the 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.200 results of that game, I knew the result of the 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.680 next game after that. And one thing, it was an 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.560 important step in the Internet though, because I would say 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.600 the Vince Carter dunk, the famous Vince Carter dunk from 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.160 that Olympics over Frederick Weiss. That was one of the 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:25.000 first viral Internet moments. And it was viral through email, right. 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.280 There wasn't social media back then, but somehow somebody got 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.880 their hands on a blocky, low resolution clip of that 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.960 dunk and they would email it around and get forward 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:36.640 and forward, and you get the email when it finally 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.880 gets you to have like forward forward, forward, forward, forward forward, 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.720 and you'd watch it on like real player or Windows 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.600 Media Player or something, and it was really blocky and slow. 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.120 But that's how you saw the greatest moment of that game. 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.800 But it wasn't something that we watched collectively. The dunk 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.840 day La Mort's as the French call up. I didn't 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.080 even really remember this. It came after a steal and 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:05.160 Vince Carter almost jumps completely over the seven ft two 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:09.240 inch Frederick Weiss, who from that moment kind of got 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.960 you know, he was the first person to be eternally posterized. 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.400 I mean that's uh, that's probably in the first paragraph 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.920 of every Frederick White story written since then, and really 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.640 there haven't been many. But I was at those games. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.680 I covered those games for Sports Illustrated and it's a 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:30.320 sad omission, j A. But I didn't even want to 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:35.560 cover basketball. I covered women's cycling race, I covered Greco 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.600 Roman wrestling. And it speaks to kind of this invisible time. 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.240 You know, there was still this kind of hangover from 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:45.640 the Dream Team, and we couldn't quite get our focus 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.960 on it, and we came very close to losing a game. 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.280 As Jason Kidd explains here, We're like, we have gone 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.680 back to the States, could we have you know, shown 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:02.240 our face after you know, losing Uh in the Olympics. Now, 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.840 Kid is so right. We would love to get the 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:08.359 audio from that final moment when the Americans could have lost, 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.560 but it costs about a million dollars a moment, so 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:15.760 I'm gonna have to recreate it. Semifinal game against Lithuania, 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:20.120 four points, six seconds left, United States leads to eighty three. 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:25.880 Lithuania erunus. Yes, uh Covicius is dribbling, guarded by Kid. 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.480 He goes right, Kid forces him left, time running out, Yes, 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:34.160 a Capshus goes up. Antonio mcdie comes out the shot 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.000 that could beat the Americans and shock the world was 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:42.600 wide left. The United States win eighty three, and the US, 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.560 still being called the dream team in some quarters, goes 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.719 on to beat France in the gold medal game by twelve, 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:54.439 but clearly something was changing in the world. You're listening 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:58.160 to Kobe Lebron and the Redeemed Team. We'll be back 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:08.680 right after this. Now, do you remember the Olympics in Atlanta? 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.200 What do you remember from those four years earlier? Jake, Yeah, 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.320 I covered those That was my first Olympics and there 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.720 was still the halo effect of ninety two, and you 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.480 still had some of the Dream teamers, right. Charles Barkley 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.639 most notably was on that team. David Robinson was on 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.000 that team. So you still have some members of the 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.359 original dream Team, and it was just so tough to 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.520 live up because you didn't have the true stars. You 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.520 didn't have Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, you didn't 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.240 have those guys around, so it couldn't live up to them, 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:43.919 Uh and Jack. The debate was whether or not we 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.200 should still be calling the dream team. So I think 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.480 USA Basketball was trying to keep that alive, and especially 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.080 the ninety four World Championship team, they definitely called that 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:57.320 dream team too, and in the players in particular were 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.240 still using the dream Team moniker. I think there were 0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.520 still some basketball pins that said dream Team on them. 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.840 But one person who was adamantly against using that moniker 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.399 was Michael Jordan himself. I'll never forget he comes to 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:10.879 Washington and I asked him, I said, Michael, what do 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.439 you think about them calling this still the dream Team. 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:16.639 Almost before I could finish the question, looks at me, 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:19.359 says there's only one dream team the rest of the duplicates, 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:22.320 and he gave me that glare that Michael Jordan glare. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.480 His eyes were just raising. The furnace behind those eyes 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.600 was raging at me on fire, and so laser eyes, man, 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.880 laser eyes. After that, I certainly didn't use Dream Team 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.800 anymore because I was afraid Michael Jordan would hunt me 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.240 down and snatch the newspaper and throw my laptop in 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.520 the trash. I looked back at the two thousand, you know, 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.560 four years after that, and there was still a kind 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.159 of modest effort to use Dream Team. They would have 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.240 been dream Team four, you know, the team in Sydney, 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.320 but by then it was starting to kind of flame out. 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.320 And even though, like you said, there were five members 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.880 of the original Dream Team on that team, but they 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:06.919 really paid a price for following the Dream Team and 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:10.400 they kind of knew it, you know, That's what was hard. Hey, hey, 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.480 where's our attention? Where are the fans for our games? 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:18.080 And I kind of likened it to the astronauts that followed, 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.960 you know, Neil Armstrong. There's only one person that gets 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.240 to the moon first, and in this case, uh, you know, 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.679 extending that metaphor, it was the Dream Team that did it. 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:31.080 And I just remember I talked to Charles about it. 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:36.000 Charles Barkley about the nineties six games, when the Americans 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:38.720 still won every game in a runaway. They were still 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:43.720 very good. And here is Charles's succinct wrap up of 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:52.399 the nine Olympic experience. So, you know, it's hard to 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:56.680 put your finger on exactly why these guys paid such 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.400 a price that, as I said, the thing I put 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.360 on a most lee is hangover. There was this hangover, 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:07.480 and Showsky later on talked to us about what the 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:09.679 difference might have been, and it was almost like the 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:14.840 dream Team came along, they made their impact, and they 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.960 grew the game around the world. There's no question they 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:22.520 speeded up international players coming into the NBA, but they 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.280 were kind of, as far as the United States was concerned, 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:28.760 kind of a one off. And here's Mike Shaski talking 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:34.040 about that in the evolution of USA basketball. USA Basketball 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:39.960 two had no culture, but the group that they assembled 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:45.640 brought the NBA's culture of the eighties into it, where 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:50.560 all those guys truly believed that they built a product 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.439 that was gonna last and it was classy by the 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.000 fifteen years later. That was not the case in the 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:03.080 NBA either. You know, there was more individualism and whatever, 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:07.399 and the culture that they brought in ninety two didn't 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:12.800 stay with USA Basketball. So the perfect storm that surrounded 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:15.240 the Dream Team Jay it the fact that it was new, 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:20.040 it was the certainly global pre eminence of Jordan's as 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:24.679 a crossover corporate figure, the newness of it all, the 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.560 fact that was in this exotic city, Barcelona, the fact 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:33.840 that international audiences had seen glimpses of the Dream Team 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.000 but they hadn't really seen them together. It all came 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:41.040 together to kindness form this kind of magical time and 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:45.600 anything that came after that couldn't match up to it 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:50.240 until our guys, the Redeemed Team came on and two 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:52.919 thousand eight and kind of formed their own identity. And 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:56.960 it's kind of ironic because the Dream Team version was 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:00.920 I would say successful beyond anyone's a man nation, both 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:03.800 capturing the gold medal that had been lost in in 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:09.760 Seoul in but that was the you know, presumably the 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:12.880 primary mission, but really this was about growing the game 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:16.720 of basketball internationally, helping the NBA brand internationally, and it 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:22.440 succeeded in those regards beyond anyone's imagination. Traveling in Germany, 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:24.679 for example, in in two thousand and six, for the 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:28.720 World Cup and seeing a cutout of Allen Iverson in 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:31.880 a shoe store. They're in Germany. I've been to Africa 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:36.040