WEBVTT - Redeem Team BK: Before Kobe 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 a 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 --> 0:00:46.960 our country minutes, especially special Lebron James. We look for 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:48.919 an opportunity of the weekend on a flam and being 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:50.960 the best in the world. I guess the Redeem Team 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:54.040 is as it is right. We're the rest team in 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:55.760 the world. We're the best team in the world. And 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.920 we put Basketball America basketball wheat which is at the top. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:21.600 All Hello, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, all the 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.800 ships that see. Welcome to Kobe Lebron and the Redeemed Team, 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.440 Episode six, which we're calling for reasons that will become clear. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:34.399 Redeemed Team b K Before Kobe, I'm Jack McCallum. You've 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.959 already heard about the magnificent organizational job done by Jerry Colangelo, 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:43.520 the Godfather. You can hear that Godfather music cued in 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:48.760 by our wonderful technical person Mark Francis. The magnificent job 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.080 that Jerry did in putting the team together, in the 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.160 choice of Mike Shooski to coach this team. But this 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.800 episode centers on the year two thousand six, when the 0:01:56.840 --> 0:02:00.080 team finally gets together, shows a lot of cohesi and 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.800 a teamwork, and promptly takes a nose dive in the 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.680 two thousand six World Championships in Japan. We'll be talking 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:09.960 about that, but I want to begin with an off 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.160 the court moment that occurred in two thousand six during 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.600 the NBA playoffs and before the Redeemed team got together 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.919 for its first practice. I've been doing this journalism thing 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.720 for half a century now. There's countless games I remember, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.400 but there's also some great off the field, or in 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.280 this case, off the court memories. I'm gonna tell you 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.120 about one because it ties in so nicely to the 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.160 story of the O eight Redeemed team. But first I 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.800 want to introduce my co host j A A. Dandhee 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.040 and wonder do you have any of those moments? J 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.320 A One of those like wonderful off the court moments 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.000 that occurred around two thousand six. Well, yeah, very far 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:48.920 from the court and very far from the NBA. In 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:53.320 two thousand six, actually skipped out midway through the NBA 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:55.919 playoffs to go over to Germany to cover the World Cup, 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.680 the FIFA World Cup. I got a chance to go 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.840 to Dirk Nobiski's home town in Wurtzburg. Actually watched the 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:03.760 six game of the finals from a bar that they 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.600 kept open all night because at the time difference uh 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:10.120 and saw the heat finish off the Mavericks. A lot 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.919 of the locals were saying nine nine every time Dirk 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.519 would miss, so I was over there. So I actually 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.840 kind of missed out on the OH six playoffs. It's 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:19.000 a little bit of a blur for me. But I 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:21.080 had a great time. I went to the Offbra house 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.919 in Munich. I got to see the Olympic Stadium where 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:27.760 Jesse Owens's name is still embedded all these decades after 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.520 the nineteen thirty six Olympics. But those are my memories 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.160 from two thousand and six. It's weird. It's one of 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.040 the few times that I wasn't actually at the NBA Finals. Well, 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.560 mine comes from two thousand and six at around that 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.240 same time. While you were drinking beer with all the Germans. 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.360 I was actually at a dinner after the first round 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.240 of the playoffs. I was working on a book about 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.720 the uh the Phoenix Suns. They had just beaten the 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.320 Lakers an amazing seven game series. I guess every series 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.400 of Kobe's in has a way of being amazing. But 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.200 they went to dinner at this great pizza place in Phoenix, 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:05.680 and at the dinner was Jerry Colangelo, the Godfather. We 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.760 don't have to cue the music, but Mike Sawski and 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.080 Mike D'Antoni. And it was the first time Colangelo had 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:16.200 gathered the Redeemed team coaches together to talk about what 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.000 was going to happen later that summer when they finally practiced. 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.839 What I remember Jay was the excitement of these guys. 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:28.159 Uh Showsky just couldn't stop talking about d'antoni's offense, and 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.200 he would say, so, you run the wings all the 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.479 way to the corner right, and then D'Antoni would talk 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.159 about spacing, and then Colangelo would talk about some of 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.480 the players that he had already lined up and how 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.479 excited they were to see Lebron and d Wade and 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:44.400 they weren't going to see Kobe. You're gonna tell us why. 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.080 And then uh D'Antoni would talk about international ball because 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.120 he had been over in Italy for twenty years. Meanwhile, 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.040 the pizza, which is world class by the way, Chris 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:58.120 Bianco's pizza is recognized all around the country. The pizzas 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.480 flying back and forth, and I'm the only one eating 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.280 because these guys are just talking basketball. And what struck 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.680 me and that was the seeds of the Redeemed team, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.880 that kind of enthusiasm. Here's these guys with like a 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:16.240 collective a hundred and twenty years of experience, and they 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.280 were just really, you know, anxious to get going. And 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.920 the other weird thing was you think about these timelines, 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.919 What a weird process this is to get an Olympic 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:30.760 basketball team together. Jay Colangelo was named in April of 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.919 two thousand five to be the new head of USA basketball. 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:40.559 He finally selects Showsky in October of two thousand five, 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:43.640 and you know, right at the beginning of that season, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.640 but the players they're not even gonna get together until 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.600 July of two thousand six. You know, it's like asking 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.599 somebody to the prom in April of one year. And 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.760 then we're not gonna go until June of the following year. 0:05:57.839 --> 0:05:59.960 A lot can go wrong, so what do The thing 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.440 you have to remember was how many players are involved 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.600 in this kind of program. You can't just say here's 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.200 the twelve guys we want because you never know what 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:14.360 injuries other circumstances are gonna take. So all these different 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:17.240 people are floating in and out of the Olympic program. 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:22.360 Chauncey Billips, Shane Battier, Bruce Bowen, Joe Johnson, Brad Miller, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.560 and even agent zero Gilbert arenas Um. Now you have, 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.120 you know the guys you want, Lebron and d Wade, 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.599 and you certainly wanted Kobe, but for various reasons, Jay 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.360 Kobe was not around for the two thousand and six 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.000 team for the initial practices. What was going on with him? Well, 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.120 Kobe coming off what was his high scoring season of 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.240 his career average thirty five points per game that year, 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:51.919 but his knee wasn't quite right, so he goes to 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.320 get some of the scar tissue taken out of his knee. 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.080 He felt like he didn't have full range of motion 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.279 and so he couldn't participate with anything. The team USA 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.680 did that year was recovering from the knee surgery. You 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:06.080 couldn't even participate when Nike had a promotional event featuring 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.720 FC Barcelona and Ronald Dino was there and and all 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.120 the FC Barcelona players, and they wanted Kobe to kick 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.720 around the soccer ball and play with them, and he 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.600 couldn't even do that. And uh actually talked to him 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:19.560 that day and he sort of gave me the update 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.800 and how he's doing and what he thought about all 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.320 these rivalries that were brewing up. Remember, Shack had won 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.480 the championship that year in Miami's first post Kobe championship, 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.960 and that infamous video, that rap that he made about Kobe. Uh, 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.640 So I got Kobe's thoughts on that and about Dwayne Wade. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.400 But what was amazing was how quickly there was a 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.080 sense of normalcy for him playing with Phil Jackson. And 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.480 as we went into deep detail how things ended between 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:48.720 Kobe and Phil in two thousand four. At that time, 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.000 it seemed impossible to imagine that they could ever reunite. 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.080 Phil had gone to management and asked for Kobe to 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:59.120 be traded earlier in that season. Kobe really didn't put 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:01.800 up a finger his instance, when Jerry bust. The Lakers 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.120 owner said that he wanted to get rid of Phil Jackson. 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.840 At the end of the season, they famously split up, 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.320 and then Rudy tom Jonovitch has brought in to coach 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.320 the Lakers. He lasts about a half a season when, 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.440 citing health reasons, he he steps down, turns the team 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.680 over to assistant coach Frank Hamblin, who had been a 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:23.360 long time assistant for Phil Jackson. And somehow the notion 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:25.480 of Phil Jackson coming back to coach the team. A 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.560 few people brought it up and it doesn't get shot down. 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.760 And when it first started circulating after Rudy tom Jonovich 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.320 has gone Tim Brown, who was a Laker former Laker 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.760 beat right at the l a times he emailed Phil 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:41.280 Jackson and it turns out Phil was hanging out in Australia. 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.200 Shout out to our producer Mark Francis from Australia. He's 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.280 hanging out with Luke Longley, the Australian center who played 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.280 for him in Chicago. And he responds in the email 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.719 says asked whether he's gonna return, and Phil says, I'm 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:56.120 mulling that over my mind. Luke and I are going 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.520 for a swim this PM in the Indian Ocean. Thanks 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:01.840 for the up to eight, Phil. So that's an ultimate 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.880 film meeting right there, the only guy, the only guy 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.679 ever to be swimming in the Indian Ocean with his 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.280 backup center while while the fate of the Lakers, you know, 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:16.080 the storied Lakers, is hanging in the air. A month later, 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.440 Jerry Bust, the owner, meets with the media and it's 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:22.360 clear that the door is wide open for Phil to return, 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:24.240 and that it looks like it's going to be on 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:26.360 the terms that Phil would want, which was about ten 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.839 million dollars a year, and uh, but specifically doesn't say it, 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.439 but you had the math and you connect the dots 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.760 and it's clear where this is leading. And then Jack 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.840 I'm driving home on Lincoln Boulevard after leaving the Laker 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.600 practice facility, and I look at my rear view mirror 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:46.800 and there's Phil Jackson behind me in his dark blue Porscha, 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:49.160 and I think, oh my god, I'm gonna follow him 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.280 wherever he goes. I'm gonna follow him, pull out and 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:54.440 get the scoop. This is gonna be the most talked 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:56.160 about story in the NBA. Once I talked to Phil 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.040 Jackson about coming back to the Lakers, and then he 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.520 gave me the slip. He somehow he was behind me 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.280 and he turned as I was going through the intersection, 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:06.839 and I tried to go circle back and try to 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:08.200 see if I could catch up with them, and I 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.000 lost him, but he was back for good. Soon enough, 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.280 they announced that he was gonna come back and coach 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:17.600 the Lakers, and improbably he and Kobe were reunited. Kobe 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.000 signed off on it and went on to have again 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.640 the high scoring season of his career, including the fabled 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:26.719 eighty one point games. So this was Kobe as we've 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.760 never seen him before, and Donald did realize he could 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.400 co exist with Phil Jackson. I think he also saw 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.800 that Phil Jackson's triangle offense was better suited for him. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:37.720 Rudy tom Jonovic had Kobe in the middle of the 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.880 court and the help defenders could come from either side. 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.280 Under the triangle, Kobe was off on the wing and 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:46.280 he had the whole side cleared off, so it was 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:48.840 harder for the double team to come. And Kobe flourished 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:51.240 obviously had the best season of his career, but it 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:55.160 became evident that he was only going to sign off 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.400 on this if certain conditions were met. And Phil Jackson 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.160 told us about the meeting that he had in the 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:03.480 in the terms that were set for him to come 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.559 back and coach the Lakers with Kobe Bryant. The Lakers 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.960 made a novature and uh, you know, there are other 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:15.000 teams in the market New York, Sacramento, Cleveland, some other 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:17.560 teams that were, you know, kind of knocking at the 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.559 door and of interest. But I always said, I have 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.040 talked to Kobe first before I, you know, even think 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.760 about coming back. So we talked and I just said, 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.480 you know, what's the deal are you? Are you willing 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.040 to come back and play, uh and team up together 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.520 with me? And it's kind of an adventure. And he said, yeah, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.400 but let's just keep everything between us. I know you 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.360 a lot of times use the press to talk and 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.440 use motivation by using the press to send a message 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:51.360 to players. Let's just keep it between us. And uh, 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.920 I said, okay, I can do that. So we came 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.360 back and literally formed a very strong bond. I was 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:03.560 giving him about leadership and uh, there's something I talked 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:08.000 to him about previously, um as as he grew up 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.600 through the game about his leadership and about being a 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.560 guy that you know, would be able to eat last 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.800 and let his uh his teammates go to the banquet 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.840 table first, so to speak. And you know he was 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.640 picking up on that idea. But it was always it 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.959 was always difficult for Kobe to put others in in 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:32.000 in front of himself, and we had to have a 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.719 number of talks during the course of those next two years, 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.800 but you know, it ended up we were usually sitting 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.240 on the plane across from each other and spending time 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.480 talking about the connection or the team or what was 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:49.280 needed to do to be the best we could be. 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.320 And uh, I really honored that and Jackie did hold 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.040 to that. So right before it turned out to be 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.880 the last game, Phil Jackson coach in the playoffs, I'd 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.199 noticed that he never bad mouth Kobe in the press, 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.520 which was very unusual for Bill. And I said, did 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.640 you have a deal with Kobe that you wouldn't talk 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:08.960 about him in the media, And he admitted, yeah, he did, 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.600 and uh he held to that he didn't talk bad 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.360 about Kobe publicly. That whole second run that they had together. 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.800 That Kobe in that oh five oh six season was 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.840 just crazy. It was Kobe unleashed. Yeah, he was on 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.240 another planet. And I went out to l A to 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.360 do a story on, uh, the scoring race, because it 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.400 really wasn't a race. We knew Kobe was gonna win, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.160 but Iverson was coming into town, and the idea of 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:36.360 the story was this kind of two guys that just 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.120 score the freaking ball and we don't care, you know. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:42.319 So I talked to Kobe about it and Kobe is 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.199 kind of smirking at me, you know, the Kobe smirk. Oh, 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:48.320 this is a race now, huh is that what it is? Well, 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.680 he gets in there on Friday night, goes for forty 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:57.400 eight against Iverson the next night, he's playing against the Clippers, 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:02.360 and he's got uh ten points at halftime, and I'm thinking, 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.679 I got this story done. You know, I'm staying at 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.040 a hotel. They closed down the restaurant early. I got 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.080 this story done. I can sneak out of here. You know, 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.000 Kobe's just mailing this one in. As I go out 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:15.920 and start to go out the door of the Stable Center, 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:20.560 Kobe starts going nuts. He gets forty in the second 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.680 half and ends up with fifty. I come back into 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:29.000 the uh the Stable Center, and someone who shall remain nameless, 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:33.200 although it's Rick Buker. Buker tells Kobe later, hey, you 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.160 know Jack left, you know, before you before you finished, 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.360 and Kobe was just heats so enjoyed this moment. I mean, 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.960 he was smirking about, oh yeah, oh this is a race, 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.480 so I'm really not thinking about that. And then he 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.160 gets out and goes for forty eight and fifty into 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.320 uh in consecutive nights. I mean, he was just he 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:58.800 was just a machine. But Mike Saski didn't have him 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.440 in the summer of Oath six. And one of the 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:05.840 guys that, uh, he's really counting on, you know, obviously 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.520 is Lebron. We're gonna talk about him. But one of 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.000 the other guys you mentioned before, and that is d Wade, 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.160 the guy Flashes he was known then, or the guy 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.880 Mike Shaski calls a calm rocket man. He just came 0:15:18.920 --> 0:15:24.080 in and exploded offensively and defensively. He was remarkable, really 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:28.080 on that team. You're listening to Kobe, Lebron and the 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:40.160 redeem Team will be back in a minute, So talk 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.600 a little bit about Wade that season, Jay and the 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:47.440 conversations we've had off zoom I admitted he caught me 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:52.320 a little by surprise with that memorable two thousand three draft. 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.800 I guess I saw him as a little bit position 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.360 lists because although his size translated obviously to a guard, 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:02.680 it didn't seem like he was a shooter at all. 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.840 You know, I can't picture Dwayne having this knockdown jump 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.080 shot like most shooting guards would have. But you were 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:11.880 a little bit higher on his game when he came 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:13.640 into the league. Yeah. I love the fact that he 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.440 had taken Marquette to the Final Four. And I put 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.640 a big premium on college success and what you do 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:21.880 in an somebody's tournament. I know a lot of talent 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.280 evaluators and general managers in the NBA, their their work 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:26.880 has done a lot of times. At the time they 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.680 get to March, they're not gonna be swayed by a 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.720 few games here there. But to me, if you can 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:35.920 succeed under that pressure and under uh that situation where 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.160 all the lights and attention are on you the best 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.240 that there is at your level, that means something to me. 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.800 And most great players in the NBA had great success 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.160 in the n C Double A tournament, at least up 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.440 until the high school or the one and done era 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.640 of the last twenty or so years, and Wade was 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.080 one of those guys who we maybe hadn't heard of 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.840 him much before the tournament, but we certainly heard of 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.240 him after the tournament. And then within a couple of 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.199 years in the NBA, after Michael Jordan's advocated that the 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.320 title of best shooting guard the best perimeter player, and 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.919 it was still a big man dominated shack and and uh, 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:14.199 Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett were the focal points of 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:18.159 the league, I'd say, but there was a battle for 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.080 the best perimeter player, and Wade had definitely inserted himself 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.960 in that conversation. During the two thousand five playoffs, I 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.320 went down and actually talked to Eddie Eddie Jones, who 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:31.560 was on the on Miami at that point, but it 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.000 played with Kobe since Kobe's rookie year in l A 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.840 and I asked him to compare the two and he 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:39.760 started squirming and he said he really couldn't pick between 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:41.840 the two of them. And then in two thousand and six, 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.080 of course, Wade wins the NBA Finals and his the 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:49.520 Finals MVP, and he's, uh, you know, he's he's up 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:53.120 there it's a legit conversation that we're having, So that's 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.240 sort of the backdrop as we get into that. Wade 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.400 had a stat where only he and Larry Bird we're 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.080 the only player is to put up. I think the 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:05.200 thresholds are like average twenty five points, eight rebound, seven assists, 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.280 and shoot better than and not one but two series 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:11.320 in the same postseason, and some of the other guys 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.760 who have done it in a single series, we're like 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.960 Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan's. So Wade's 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.240 in that all time company with the way he's playing, 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.960 and he's certainly in the conversation for best perimeter player 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.960 with Kobe at that moment. He almost created In the 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.240 two thousand six finals j which I covered, he almost 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.000 created this new position. It was like not shooting guard, 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.760 he was like slashing guard. They got they were down 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:41.280 two oh to the Mavericks. Game three, Wade gets forty 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:46.639 two points. Game four he gets forty three. Game six, 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.640 close out he gets thirty six. And the amazing thing 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.919 was the number of free throws he shot twenty five 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:56.800 in that game five, the exact total shot by the Mavericks. 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.400 You can imagine what Mark Cuban was like after that. 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:04.000 Then next game, the closeout game, he shoots twenty one 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.719 free throws, which was only two fewer than the MAVs, 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:09.960 who you know, kind of depend a little bit on Dirk's. 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:14.280 It was explicable, but Mark Cuban was just going insane. 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:20.040 But oh my god, but I have I've honestly rarely 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.960 seen maybe a couple of Jordan's. I've rarely seen a 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.520 championship series where you could say one guy really did it. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.560 Shack was on that team, but he was smart enough 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.520 by then. If Dwayne has gone to the basket, get 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:36.920 the hell out of the lane because he's going to 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:39.800 get it there or he's going to uh, you know, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.399 or he's going to get fouled. And and that was 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.400 Dwayne Wade around this time. Now you know he's coming 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:49.080 in also. But there's also Lebron there, and Lebron's coming 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:53.600 off a monster season like thirty one point seven rebounds, 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.040 six and a half assist. He's going to be a leader. 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:02.280 And while establishing exact team chemistry isn't possible since Kobe 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.000 isn't there. It's kind of like planning a dinner party 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.240 when you don't have the entree uh there yet to 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:12.560 bring in some food network. Uh, you know, action to it. 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.840 You can at least start to form. Lebron was always 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.359 a team guy. You know, Look, Lebron is going to 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.840 come in and uh and be a team guy. And 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:26.200 and that that forged. They started to forge a very 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.639 tight team. We're gonna talk in the next episode about 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:32.040 how that potentially could have changed when Kobe came in. 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.800 But Craig Miller, who has been the USA Basketball's head 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:41.120 of public relations since before the Dream Team, he reflected 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.560 on how really tight that team seemed to be. The 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.480 redeem Team seemed to be right from the beginning. I 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:52.040 think that in all my Olympic experiences from two thousand 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.920 and sixteen, it would rival the ninety two Dream Team. 0:20:56.200 --> 0:21:00.240 And and they're very different because the ninety two Dream 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:01.720 Team didn't have a lot of guys that knew each 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:07.040 other really well, and they became close. But then the 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.000 two thousand and eight team, you know, d Wade, Lebron, 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:16.239 Chris Paul Carmelo, Anthony, Chris Bosh, they were already friends. Um, 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:18.680 and there's others. I'm probably missing a few that I'm 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:23.199 not thinking of, but the bonding of that team just 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:25.480 from the start, and part of it again was, you know, 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:27.760 they practiced together in two thousand and six. For the 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.600 most part, you had the same court group. Two thousand 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:32.920 and seven. You had eight of the players that would 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.040 go on to the Olympics were on the two thousand 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.400 and seven team, So you had a really really tight 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.639 team that liked each other. And you know, sometimes teams 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:45.520 jaeled differently. There's other teams that I remember that we're 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.600 very successful, but they didn't have maybe the chemistry. So Jay, 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.760 everybody's happy with or without Kobe. We're all together. It's 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.639 on to Japan, to the World Championship, where we're going 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:58.879 to kick ass. But well not so fast. We're going 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:00.720 to get to the game in a in it. But 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.600 there's something gone on around the league around this time, Jay, 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.000 and that is the adoption of the dress code before 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:11.080 the oh five oh six season, and it plugs in 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:14.120 to something that happened at these World Championships in Japan. 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.240 I was around the Suns at that time, and I 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.879 remember Mike D'Antoni making a joke about Steve Nash, and 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:24.840 his joke about Steve was Steve is gonna be in 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:30.000 violation even when he's under compliance, meaning that Steve's geen 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.359 and T shirt kind of punk rock look, you know, 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.000