Speaker 1: The Dream Team Tapes Season two. Kobe, Lebron and the
Speaker 1: Redeem Team is a production of Diversion Podcasts in association
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio Diversion Podcasts. The players selected for
Speaker 1: the honor of representing the United States in the two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight Beijing Olympic Games are Kobe Bryant. We
Speaker 1: look forward to this for a while, you know, to
Speaker 1: be in this position now to here, we don't represent
Speaker 1: our country man, especially special Lebron James. We look for
Speaker 1: the opportunity the weekend on athamall being the best in
Speaker 1: the world. I guess the Redeem Team is as it
Speaker 1: is right, We're the best team in the world. We're
Speaker 1: the best team in the world where we put basketball
Speaker 1: America basketball wheat. Which is that time? Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Kobe Lebron and the Radeem Team podcast on Ja Donde
Speaker 1: and we're calling this episode Lucky Seven's and most of
Speaker 1: the action will be described and takes play in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Lucky A Lady Tonight, etcetera, and all that and all
Speaker 1: of the action takes place in two thousand seven. The
Speaker 1: NBA All Star Game was in Vegas that year, and
Speaker 1: so was Temo Says training camp and the FIBA America's Tournament.
Speaker 1: It's originally supposed to be in Venezuela. We'll get to
Speaker 1: the story behind that later. They were important breakthrough moments
Speaker 1: for Kobe Bryan and Lebron James individually in two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven, and then they came together that summer to
Speaker 1: play a teammates for the first time. But the story
Speaker 1: starts at All Star Weekend in February, and in season
Speaker 1: one of the Dream Team tapes, Jack McCallum told us
Speaker 1: about the lengths he would go to an avoid writing
Speaker 1: about All Star Games, and Jack, you were willing to
Speaker 1: jump through the logistical hoops of gathering Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson,
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley, Patrick Doing, and Karl Malone for a photo
Speaker 1: shoot for the Sports Illustrated Famous cover photo shoot. You'd
Speaker 1: rather do all that than recap the All Star Game
Speaker 1: in Charlotte that year? Did you really despise covering All
Speaker 1: Star Games that much? First of all, don't be giving
Speaker 1: away all my professional secrets. J. That's that wasn't very nice.
Speaker 1: The thing I remember most about All Star Weekends to
Speaker 1: give you an idea what the game meant to me,
Speaker 1: was that one of my Favorites was six, the first
Speaker 1: year they did the three point shot contest. I mean
Speaker 1: by then we had seen a lot of unbelievable dunks.
Speaker 1: I mean you went back to the A B A dunks.
Speaker 1: You know, they were as spectacular as anything. But I
Speaker 1: remember that first shooting contest when Bird, you know it,
Speaker 1: comes out and doesn't remove his warm up jacket. The
Speaker 1: problem with it was was that when you write first
Speaker 1: Barts illustrated, You're always supposed to be looking at some angle,
Speaker 1: some sort of thing that would propel you to forward.
Speaker 1: And with the All Star Game, you couldn't really get that.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about an arrow when some of the
Speaker 1: All Star games were pretty good. So it was just
Speaker 1: very hard to find an angle. The moment the weekend
Speaker 1: was over, the game was over, you went back to
Speaker 1: the regular season, and it just seemed this kind of
Speaker 1: anomaly that was very difficult to write about. But I
Speaker 1: was there for everyone, uh from tip off until the
Speaker 1: final and was even reasonably non hungover when the tip
Speaker 1: off went off. Congratulations. Well, the parties were always the
Speaker 1: best part of All Star Weekend, but I always felt
Speaker 1: the All Star weekends and even the All Star Games
Speaker 1: could be viewed as a referendum on the state of
Speaker 1: the NBA if if you really took a step back
Speaker 1: and looked at it that way. And in two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: Kobe clearly approached it as a way to climb back
Speaker 1: to the top of the league and to regain his
Speaker 1: good standing in the public eye. So remember, after the
Speaker 1: two thousand three sexual assault allegation, he lost endorsement deals
Speaker 1: with sponsors like McDonald's and Nutella. Now, Nike stuck with
Speaker 1: him the whole time, but they weren't exactly emphasizing him. Uh,
Speaker 1: they kept him on the roster, but he wasn't at
Speaker 1: the forefront. But at the two thousand and seven All
Speaker 1: Star weekend, Kobe is doing promotional events for the Sony
Speaker 1: PlayStation and the NBA O seven video game, and that
Speaker 1: was his first new sponsor since the case against him
Speaker 1: was dropped in two thousand four, and the NBA was
Speaker 1: embracing him as well. Formally, he was one of the
Speaker 1: past Dunk Contest winners that they brought back to serve
Speaker 1: as a judge for the Dunk Contest, So he was
Speaker 1: sitting there along with Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins. Michael
Speaker 1: was hating by the way, he refused to give up
Speaker 1: tens to anybody. The lowest score for every dunk was
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's. He was in full hater mode. And then
Speaker 1: comes the game on Sunday night, and everybody else played
Speaker 1: like exactly what you'd expect people have spent their previous
Speaker 1: four day hours in Las Vegas to play like, but
Speaker 1: not Kobe. He's picking guys up at half of court,
Speaker 1: he's saving ball from going out of bounds. He had
Speaker 1: thirty one points and get this, Jack six steals in
Speaker 1: this game and Kobe is actually the all time steals
Speaker 1: leader in the All Star Game. That tells you how
Speaker 1: seriously he takes it. And to hear Carmelo Anthony tell
Speaker 1: it that performance in two thousand seven was all predestined.
Speaker 1: Even being there, you felt it like he would tell you, like, Yo,
Speaker 1: I'm going forward tonight. You know what I'm saying Like
Speaker 1: he was, he was telling people, I'm going forward tonight.
Speaker 1: I'm locked in. And so the people that know him
Speaker 1: have been a rhyming know's environments. When he get that
Speaker 1: that aura that you know, it's almost like Bruce Leebroy
Speaker 1: when you get the glow. When when he gets that
Speaker 1: and you start looking in his eyes, and he started
Speaker 1: getting his look you know what type of night is
Speaker 1: gonna be? And he had that, he had it. He
Speaker 1: would just say, I'm going forward. I'm going forward. I
Speaker 1: like that Bruce Leroy reference from Carmelo, a hint to
Speaker 1: the eighties movies The Last Dragon. And since Carmelo was
Speaker 1: Kobe's teammate on the Western Conference squad back when they
Speaker 1: still divided all Star teams by conference, he had a
Speaker 1: warning beforehand. But Chris Boss was unprepared. He was playing
Speaker 1: for the East. He had no idea what was coming,
Speaker 1: but it didn't take him long to see what was
Speaker 1: happening at first, Like, man, what the hell's it doing?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, a star m VP. Yeah he's going for
Speaker 1: boys and he's gonna get it because it was a blowout.
Speaker 1: But I mean, yeah, he was there. He was playing hard.
Speaker 1: I do I do remember that. Man, he was playing
Speaker 1: so hard you know for a guy like me. I'm
Speaker 1: the young dude, My family is there. I just want
Speaker 1: to get a couple of dunks be in the game.
Speaker 1: It's not for bigs, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: I'm you know, he's just you know, the guard lays
Speaker 1: down on a screen and roll or I so, and
Speaker 1: we're the one. You know, I'm a big and Kobe's
Speaker 1: coming at me full speed. I'm like, man, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: He's really moving fast. I get offensive rebounds and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. It was it was pretty fun that that
Speaker 1: taught me how Bordner was, you know. I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody is just you know, just kind of out here
Speaker 1: for ships and giggles, and they'll play the game there there.
Speaker 1: They put your name in the paper for these things,
Speaker 1: you know, and especially if you uh, if you're trying, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to make a comeback. And man, hell yeah,
Speaker 1: I couldn't even fathom that stuff. I couldn't even fathom
Speaker 1: the pressure he was putting on himself to even do that.
Speaker 1: So Kobe wins the All Star Game m v P,
Speaker 1: and this time he's cheered when he holds up the trophy,
Speaker 1: unlike in two thousand two when he won the All
Speaker 1: Star m v P in his hometown at Philadelphia and
Speaker 1: the fans booed him, that's your town, Jack, explaining what
Speaker 1: your people were doing. Well, that's kind of my talent.
Speaker 1: I've always lived. I was born just south of Philadelphia. Now,
Speaker 1: I lived just north of Philadelphia, but I did work
Speaker 1: there for a while, so okay, I'll claim to be
Speaker 1: a Philly guy. You know, the relationship j was interesting
Speaker 1: and and Kobe was I remember that Kobe was very surprised,
Speaker 1: uh and even you know, a little bit hurt. And
Speaker 1: I think there's a couple of reason. Number one, it's Philly,
Speaker 1: so I kind of they booed Beyonce at the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals the year before and Destiny's Child, and I know
Speaker 1: they talked about Philly Bowe and Santa Claus. How do
Speaker 1: you boot Beyonce? I mean, I will defend Philly fans
Speaker 1: a little bit more than most people, but it is Philly,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of what we do. Number two, Kobe
Speaker 1: wasn't a true, true Philly guy. You know. He wasn't
Speaker 1: from Roman Catholic, he wasn't from Overbrook. He was out
Speaker 1: there in the bourbs, you know, at at Lower Marriott.
Speaker 1: Number three, Before I give the final reason, let me
Speaker 1: ask you something you would know better than I would.
Speaker 1: Was Kobe a teetotaler? Like? Did he not party at
Speaker 1: all during these weekends in Vegas and stuff? I don't
Speaker 1: really know. I never had cocktails with him or anything.
Speaker 1: So I don't know the answer to that was he
Speaker 1: he didn't see him out. Yeah, and I actually had
Speaker 1: drinks with them much much later, including I think one
Speaker 1: of the as USA teams a times in in Vegas
Speaker 1: when they had training camps in Vegas. But at that stage, no,
Speaker 1: I had never had a drink or seen Kobe out drinking.
Speaker 1: You know that has something to do with his All
Speaker 1: Star appearances. But I think the final reason Jay was
Speaker 1: that this time we're talking about two thousand two, that
Speaker 1: was in the middle of the AI Philly honeymoon. I mean,
Speaker 1: he had taken them AI had taken them to the
Speaker 1: finals a year before one that memorable Game one in
Speaker 1: l A. We all knew, okay, it's probably gonna win
Speaker 1: four in a row after that, but AI kicked their
Speaker 1: ass in Game one, and A I was the m
Speaker 1: v P of the All Star Game and oh one
Speaker 1: had a great game down in Washington. I think people
Speaker 1: were looking at hey, let's get two in a row.
Speaker 1: He's our guy. He's on the other team with Kobe,
Speaker 1: so in in retrospect, I guess it's pretty natural that
Speaker 1: he got booed. However, Kobe was disappointed. You know, and
Speaker 1: he was a little bit hurt if you look at
Speaker 1: the YouTube films of that, and uh, he went out
Speaker 1: and showed I'll show you how I play when I'm
Speaker 1: hurt and went out there and as he usually did,
Speaker 1: you know, took no prisoners. Kobe did still have love
Speaker 1: from the fans on the West Coast, and Vegas is
Speaker 1: kind of like Lakers secondary market. Remember they used to
Speaker 1: play regular season games up there and they still play
Speaker 1: preseason games there and Vegas bands love Kobe. But talking
Speaker 1: to the players after that All Star Game in OH seven,
Speaker 1: I just remember they didn't seem particularly close to him.
Speaker 1: I talked to Iris and Ray Allen. They just didn't
Speaker 1: know him that well still, and they were, okay, good
Speaker 1: for him. He won the m v P. He wanted
Speaker 1: that bad. If he wants it, he can have it.
Speaker 1: The attitude was more like they had to respect him
Speaker 1: as a grudging respect. It wasn't love, but there was
Speaker 1: grudging respect for Kobe. Yeah. I think that feeds into
Speaker 1: that We've alluded to it before. J that kind of
Speaker 1: he just wasn't one of the guys. And I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, covering All Star games back in the eighties
Speaker 1: when players really really wanted that to be m v
Speaker 1: P of the All Star Game. That was really really important.
Speaker 1: And Okay, did they play defense like the regular season? No,
Speaker 1: All Star games have always been high scoring affairs. You know,
Speaker 1: they weren't double teaming the post and doing all the
Speaker 1: pat Riley you know, Hubi Brown, you know defenses. But
Speaker 1: they still played their butts off. But it just had
Speaker 1: to do with that lone wolf aspect of of Kobe.
Speaker 1: And later in that season in the playoffs, one of
Speaker 1: the guys that really earned the respect of that year
Speaker 1: was Lebron. It was the year of his memorable forty
Speaker 1: eight special, which followed hard upon the Danielle Marshall game
Speaker 1: when he apparently committed the egregious, unforgivable sin of instead
Speaker 1: of driving to the basket for the final play, passed
Speaker 1: off to a wide open uh Danielle Marshall in the corner,
Speaker 1: who wasn't known as a three point specialist. Danielle Marshall lived,
Speaker 1: Mr Shot. Everybody went, my god, the Lebron's not a game. Well,
Speaker 1: he went on to be quite a gamer in that
Speaker 1: series against the Pistons, and if you look at that series,
Speaker 1: it's one of the most incredible scoring explosions of all time.
Speaker 1: They're playing the Pistons with too forty nine left at regulation.
Speaker 1: Drew Gooden makes a free throw that cuts the Pistons
Speaker 1: lead to four points. They eventually play three more minutes.
Speaker 1: Of that twelve minutes of overtime, nobody scores another point
Speaker 1: for Cleveland except for Lebron James. They let him shoot
Speaker 1: from the outside. He starts making threes. They said, oh, hell,
Speaker 1: we gotta go out and cover him. He gets to
Speaker 1: the basket and makes a dunk. And when it was
Speaker 1: all over and they had beaten the Pistons, they then
Speaker 1: beat him in the climactic game. The league had a
Speaker 1: little bit of a change. And I remember that summer.
Speaker 1: You know, people would say, for the first time, hey Jack,
Speaker 1: if you could pick Kobe or Lebron, who would you take.
Speaker 1: And I still remember going, well, if you're asking me
Speaker 1: this year, I guess I would still take Kobe. But
Speaker 1: if you asked me next year, I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be Lebron. Yeah, it's starting to happen, and it's starting
Speaker 1: to become a legitimate conversation. And this was just a
Speaker 1: fantastic performance. Marv Albert called that game for Turner. He
Speaker 1: called it one of the best playoff performances he'd ever seen.
Speaker 1: And when Marv Albert says that, coming from all the
Speaker 1: playoff performances he's witnessed, that is incredible praise. And it's
Speaker 1: indicative of the type of attention and the type of
Speaker 1: love that Lebron is starting to get at that moment.
Speaker 1: And I really think Kobe was envious of Lebron getting
Speaker 1: all this attention. And it's no coincidence in my mind
Speaker 1: that in the middle of these playoffs, in the middle
Speaker 1: of that series, Kobe goes on Stephen A. Smith radio
Speaker 1: show and says he wants to be traded the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Remember coming up, Kobe's out of the playoffs. He's been
Speaker 1: eliminated in the first round for of the second year
Speaker 1: in a row by the Phoenix Suns, and they're regressing.
Speaker 1: It took seven games the year before. This year in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, he's out in five games and
Speaker 1: he's grumbling that night. He pulled me aside and he's
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, this ship has to change. He's
Speaker 1: unhappy with the supporting cast that he has there. They
Speaker 1: need to do something about it. And it's just lingering
Speaker 1: and festering in him, and then here's Lebron getting all
Speaker 1: this attention and it just spills out on all these
Speaker 1: radio interviews that he's doing that summer in that spring,
Speaker 1: so Kobe wants to be traded, and that all leads
Speaker 1: to a big meeting that offseason that Phil Jackson described
Speaker 1: to us. He was like, I don't know if we
Speaker 1: can go forward without making some dramatic changes, and he said, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to do it. So he picked up
Speaker 1: the ball an email with Dr Bus a Barcelona, and
Speaker 1: then he came back to California. So I was kind
Speaker 1: of there as the mediator. There was Dr Bus and
Speaker 1: there was Jimmy Bus and Mitch Cup checking. On the
Speaker 1: other side was Rob Blinka and Kobe, and I could
Speaker 1: sit in between and kind of my moderate Whatever I
Speaker 1: could talk about is, you know, the effectiveness, And eventually
Speaker 1: Kobe came out down to reasoning and going forward, even
Speaker 1: those very different I think we we actually got down there,
Speaker 1: even having some names that were on the board, and
Speaker 1: Dr Buzz said something to the effect if I had
Speaker 1: a five carrot ring and our diamond, he should didn't
Speaker 1: say ring a diamond, and someone suggested that I break
Speaker 1: it up and make one carrot diamonds out of the
Speaker 1: five carrot diamonds. That wouldn't be smart with it. Something
Speaker 1: to that effect. He said, the five carrot diamond is
Speaker 1: much more valuable than five one caret diamonds. And that's
Speaker 1: how I feel about you Cook. And with that jewelry analogy,
Speaker 1: Kobe was destined to remain a Laker. It took a
Speaker 1: little while, but eventually not only did he stay, he
Speaker 1: winds up winning the MVP the next season. But it's
Speaker 1: pretty amazing to think that all this dissension and turmoil
Speaker 1: with the Lakers is playing out that same summer that
Speaker 1: there USA basketball team is training and playing to qualify
Speaker 1: for the Olympics. Yea, Kobe always seemed to be one
Speaker 1: of those guys that that ascribed to the theory that
Speaker 1: creative tension was best. You know, that you couldn't if
Speaker 1: things were too calm. Uh, you know, it just didn't work.
Speaker 1: But one thing he didn't have to worry about was
Speaker 1: the roster with the USA Basketball that they had compiled.
Speaker 1: I mean, beside the you know, Carmelo, Kobe himself being
Speaker 1: on it. Lebron Jay kidd, Uh you know, they had
Speaker 1: some other Darren Williams, he had some other guys that summer,
Speaker 1: one of the main ones being Chauncey Billups And I
Speaker 1: was always a fan of Jauncy's game. I just thought Chauncey,
Speaker 1: you know, really walked that line. He was kind of
Speaker 1: up combo guard at the same time. He was kind
Speaker 1: of a combo style guy. He was sort of a
Speaker 1: you know, an urban player. You could see him in
Speaker 1: Rucker Park, but you could also see him, you know,
Speaker 1: dribbling the ball and taking the time and doing kind
Speaker 1: of a magic Johnson let's calm down and everything. And
Speaker 1: he was on that team, and he's one of the
Speaker 1: guys who's uh games I really respected. And And here's
Speaker 1: what Darren Williams, who was at the time kind of
Speaker 1: a younger player, here's what he thought the first time
Speaker 1: he saw that team assemble when we got together, and
Speaker 1: I was like looked that. I was looking at like
Speaker 1: the lineup, and I was just like, man, this is uh,
Speaker 1: it's a pretty good team. I don't see anybody beating us. Honestly,
Speaker 1: that's that was my first name. Just I didn't see
Speaker 1: anybody beating us. How do you then fight off the overconfidence,
Speaker 1: right that that could be a dangerous attitude to come into.
Speaker 1: I don't think while I while I felt like I
Speaker 1: didn't see anybody beating us, that didn't it wasn't It
Speaker 1: wasn't cockiness. It wasn't it was kind of cockiness, I think,
Speaker 1: but it was you know, it was just at the
Speaker 1: same time, we just we had a goal when you
Speaker 1: put that much talent in the room, with that, you know,
Speaker 1: with some of the hardest workers in the game. Uh
Speaker 1: was some of the best leaders in the game, with
Speaker 1: one of the best coaches that's ever coached the game.
Speaker 1: And the coaching staff was an unbelievable coaching staff behind
Speaker 1: Coach K. Because it wasn't just Coach K. I mean,
Speaker 1: we had we had a great coaching staff and so
Speaker 1: all those things together, great leadership from the top from
Speaker 1: Jerry Colangelo. You know, I just didn't see us losing.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind they had lost to Greece in the
Speaker 1: World Championships the year before, and Lebron Carmelo and Dwight
Speaker 1: Howard were the key players from that OH. Six team
Speaker 1: who were back in OH seven Chris Bosh and Dwayne
Speaker 1: Wade round OH six team and they're in Vegas in
Speaker 1: the summer of O seven, but they're injured, so they're
Speaker 1: not on the active roster. But Boss was there and
Speaker 1: he told us the most noticeable difference was having Kobe
Speaker 1: on the court. Yeah, I mean, um, Kobe is playing.
Speaker 1: Kobe is here. You know it's and you know you
Speaker 1: have to even though you play against him. He he
Speaker 1: has an aura. So when you know he walked in
Speaker 1: the room, you're you know, everything stops. I didn't play
Speaker 1: in over seven. I was there, but I didn't play.
Speaker 1: I have planning fashitists, which made me a little nervous
Speaker 1: as far as making the team. But I didn't get
Speaker 1: those those experiences in the game with Kobe at that point.
Speaker 1: But just being a spectator and watching him and Jason Kidd.
Speaker 1: I'll be on the bench and in practice, you know,
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd throws the past to Kobe and he goes
Speaker 1: right by his face because he didn't know he was open.
Speaker 1: So they had that chemistry that they were working out
Speaker 1: getting used to each other. And I mean Kobe, he
Speaker 1: was um, he was always a serious person. You know,
Speaker 1: he was always very very uh meticulous about basketball. So
Speaker 1: anytime he's playing basketball serious, like every single time, so
Speaker 1: that definitely um changed the narrative a bit. And we
Speaker 1: we were unsuccessful in the last minute, So it's not
Speaker 1: panic or anything like that, but it's definitely like, Yo,
Speaker 1: we gotta we gotta get better. You know, we have
Speaker 1: to do better. You're listening to Kobe Lebron and the
Speaker 1: redeem Team will be back in a minute. I always
Speaker 1: wondered what it was like for those, you know, a
Speaker 1: guy like Jim Beheim by that time had been around
Speaker 1: the game for fifty years and he was one of
Speaker 1: the assistants, And I always wondered what it was like
Speaker 1: for those guys that have complete command over their team,
Speaker 1: you know that their their rule is uh is absolute,
Speaker 1: and then they come in and and meet up with
Speaker 1: a guy like Kobe and Lebron, who are basically the bosses,
Speaker 1: you know, of their own team. And I think Beheim
Speaker 1: probably one of these guys that didn't love Kobe to
Speaker 1: begin with, but boy, he certainly developed a a grudging
Speaker 1: respect and admiration for the guy. And here's what he
Speaker 1: had to say about Kobe coming in. Kobe really changed
Speaker 1: the whole focus of the team. He came in. I
Speaker 1: remember he came in, he worked out in the morning,
Speaker 1: he came to them and worked out at night, came
Speaker 1: to practice and just attacked everybody, just literally literally attacked
Speaker 1: whoever he was guarding. You know, And I've never been
Speaker 1: around Kobe other than the state he lo to him,
Speaker 1: but he attacked everybody in that first couple of days
Speaker 1: of practice. And then it was a matter of would
Speaker 1: it be a fair fight? So if he's attacking everybody,
Speaker 1: are the people on the other side of the scrimmage
Speaker 1: is going to have the weapons and the wherewithal to
Speaker 1: be able to go back at him. And of course
Speaker 1: the best way to assure that was to put Lebron
Speaker 1: on the other team. And if you wanted that creative
Speaker 1: tension that you talked about, Jack, I'd say it goes
Speaker 1: beyond just creative tension. But if you if you wanted
Speaker 1: that competitive desire to come out into practice, you definitely
Speaker 1: separate Kobe and Lebron and have them go at it
Speaker 1: in the quest for supremacy of the team in the league.
Speaker 1: And to me, it seems similar and you can tell
Speaker 1: me because you were there with this dream team, but
Speaker 1: it seems like a similar dynamic to Michael Jordan's magic
Speaker 1: Johnson Duking out for supremacy on the Dream Team. But
Speaker 1: the difference that I see is that Magic. You know,
Speaker 1: Magic hadn't even played the year before, he had announced
Speaker 1: his retirement with HIV, whereas Kobe is in his prime.
Speaker 1: He's twenty seven in the summer of two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: He turns twenty eight in August, and he just led
Speaker 1: the NBA in scoring for the past two seasons, as
Speaker 1: opposed to Magic coming off an All Star appearance, that
Speaker 1: memorable All Star Game in Orlando, but that was it
Speaker 1: for him in season. Yeah, I would pay, and sports
Speaker 1: writers don't pay for very much. I would have paid
Speaker 1: a lot of money to watch a Kobe Lebron one
Speaker 1: on one game right about then, I I don't I
Speaker 1: couldn't even begin to tell you who would have won.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you a Michael Magic game, who
Speaker 1: would have won fifty and nothing? Maybe so but the
Speaker 1: but the in its own way, though, ja the Magic
Speaker 1: Michael thing, the relationship was almost as interesting in a
Speaker 1: ceremonial kind of way. And there what they were dueling
Speaker 1: about was whose league is it? You know? And the
Speaker 1: one thing Magic it was the most a one of
Speaker 1: the most unselfish guys who ever played the game. But
Speaker 1: Magic had this idea of the proprietary thing, that this
Speaker 1: was still my league and it was still Larry's league.
Speaker 1: Bird gave up that long ago, and it could have
Speaker 1: been during the playoffs, you know, uh, six years before
Speaker 1: the Dream Team when Michael went for what was it
Speaker 1: sixty three and forty eight in Boston Garden. But Magic
Speaker 1: held onto that and it was very much of a
Speaker 1: ceremonial argument until he finally said, uh, now, okay, I
Speaker 1: gotta admit, I hear you, this is now Michael's Michael's
Speaker 1: leg And it wasn't the same thing for Kobe and Lebron.
Speaker 1: I mean, I if you would have asked whose league
Speaker 1: it was, then you could have probably got a pretty
Speaker 1: even vote on that, I would imagine. Yeah. And and
Speaker 1: like that Dream Team was the passing of the torch,
Speaker 1: and you described it that way in your chronicling of
Speaker 1: that team. So the torches officially passed probably after that
Speaker 1: that infamous scrimmage. And there's no torch passing here. They're
Speaker 1: they're fighting for the torch when Kobe Lebron are going
Speaker 1: at it. And Jason Kidd said, uh, you know when
Speaker 1: when they're on separate teams in the scrimmage, you knew
Speaker 1: it was going to be a battle. It was that
Speaker 1: competitive nature. I think Kobe would have won one on
Speaker 1: one game between the two of them because he was
Speaker 1: the better one on one player. Lebron was more pass
Speaker 1: oriented player. Hope. We never spent much time looking for
Speaker 1: the open guy. That wasn't That was Let's It was shock,
Speaker 1: you know, shock at the shock at the rim he
Speaker 1: found him. He was a good passer and could pass,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that that wasn't his thing, that that wasn't
Speaker 1: his mindset necessarily. But also Lebron wasn't as good an
Speaker 1: outside shooter. That was something that he developed. And even
Speaker 1: that year in the finals, one of the reasons they
Speaker 1: got swept by the Spurs was the spurs defensive strategy
Speaker 1: was to basically give Lebron that eighteen to shot and
Speaker 1: he couldn't make them pay often enough to do that.
Speaker 1: And it used to be the difference around that time,
Speaker 1: I think was that Kobe could lay off Lebron a
Speaker 1: little bit if he's guarding him. Lebron couldn't lay off Kobe.
Speaker 1: Now fast forward a few years, you can't afford to
Speaker 1: lay off Lebron anymore. Complete game. Now he can pull
Speaker 1: up from the logo at near half court and make threes,
Speaker 1: but he couldn't back then, and so that was one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I think Kobe still had the edge
Speaker 1: back then. But you know, as much as they were
Speaker 1: maybe competing with each other, Coach k knew that it
Speaker 1: was essential for Lebron and Kobe to co exist for
Speaker 1: this team to work and their own individual teams. They're
Speaker 1: exalted to be the one or two superstars on the team,
Speaker 1: but we could not have that. And that's where the
Speaker 1: relationship between Kobe and Lebron really became the centerpiece of
Speaker 1: of that foundation of that building. And those two guys
Speaker 1: were magnificent and how they brought it together. And so
Speaker 1: at that point, Coach k had a little more history
Speaker 1: with Lebron than he did with Kobe, since they had
Speaker 1: gone through that humbling loss to Greece together in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, and Shoki actually went to Akron, Ohio
Speaker 1: to meet with Lebron and to get his feedback on
Speaker 1: some of the new players who were joining the team
Speaker 1: in two thousand seven. You know, like all of us,
Speaker 1: me too, we had a lot of growing up to
Speaker 1: do for international or otherwise, and so we learned from
Speaker 1: some of the mistakes that were made. And I said,
Speaker 1: I want to bring these three guys in and he
Speaker 1: I said, how do you feel about it? Because I
Speaker 1: don't know some of those guys might feel no one's
Speaker 1: as good as them, you know. And uh so, he
Speaker 1: this is a true start, that's all true. He said, Well,
Speaker 1: Jake Kidd is the best passer in the n B
Speaker 1: A I can really pass two. I can learn from him.
Speaker 1: And at that time, Kobe was the best player in
Speaker 1: the NBA. And he didn't say that, but he did say,
Speaker 1: nobody prepares like Kobe. I can learn from that. And
Speaker 1: Chauncy is really smart. And on every meeting that we
Speaker 1: had with that team, Lebron sat next to Jake Kidd
Speaker 1: and almost every night. People don't realize how much extra
Speaker 1: these guys do. Jason and Lebron went to shoot together
Speaker 1: and they weren't I call it when I speak to you,
Speaker 1: sharing best practices. And how would they have ever shared
Speaker 1: best practices if they had not come together and be willing,
Speaker 1: since they owned the same thing, be willing to share
Speaker 1: that that stuff. And it's at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it was beautiful, really and I give so much credit
Speaker 1: to those guys you're listening to Kobe Lebron and the
Speaker 1: redeem Team will be back in a minute now. Jason
Speaker 1: Kidd and Lebron, who are sort of the two sides
Speaker 1: of you know, the veteran leader and the kind of
Speaker 1: coming leader, they got very close, and so close that
Speaker 1: Jason even became intimately familiar with Lebron's preferred alcoholic beverage,
Speaker 1: which I would not have guessed, but here it is, well,
Speaker 1: um understanding. I had to get used to drinking strawberry
Speaker 1: Jacaris with Lebron, and I was number one. Um. I
Speaker 1: think we set a record in Vegas of drinking strawberry decoras.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't all about drinks by the pool at
Speaker 1: the Wind Hotel. Kid delivered an important message at the
Speaker 1: outset of that summer season. I was self spoken, but
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, starting the meeting off by saying,
Speaker 1: can we be on time? You know, because we don't
Speaker 1: want to sit here and wait for someone, because that
Speaker 1: will start to chip away at the foundation of the
Speaker 1: team will start to click. We'll start to say negative
Speaker 1: things about one another, and and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: it falls apart. So um, I always thought if a team,
Speaker 1: all star team could come together and be on time,
Speaker 1: I thought, one that's respectful to the coaches and also
Speaker 1: to each other, and sometimes that's overlooked. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of how I wanted to start the meeting. Again. I
Speaker 1: didn't yell at out um, I knew my place, but
Speaker 1: I thought if we could start on time, that would
Speaker 1: help coach k and I also would help with the team.
Speaker 1: So it feels like Kid was the camp counselor that summer,
Speaker 1: but it was really important that rather than Kobe or
Speaker 1: Lebron fighting over the leadership role, Kid could sort of
Speaker 1: step in as a third party and take on that position. Well,
Speaker 1: I think one trust UM. I think they all felt
Speaker 1: um that I played at a high level, that I
Speaker 1: was about winning UM and playing the game the right way.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think they trusted, you know that what
Speaker 1: I said or was gonna do, was gonna was gonna
Speaker 1: help them, wasn't gonna mislead them. And uh, that's a
Speaker 1: big thing when you talk about that that group of brothers,
Speaker 1: brotherhood of being honest and trying to help from past experiences.
Speaker 1: So I think it was just a trust and they
Speaker 1: knew that I was not trying to infringe on on
Speaker 1: their their territory or take the territory. I was there
Speaker 1: just I was Switzerland. I was just there to help.
Speaker 1: Kobe was not Switzerland. Kobe was more of the UH.
Speaker 1: Kobe was the the British Empire or the Soviets in
Speaker 1: the fifties. He was a little bit more acquisitive. But
Speaker 1: I thought that was an interesting historical reference. By the
Speaker 1: way by J Kidd and UH Coach k could tell
Speaker 1: the players were still eyeing Kobe, still looking at him
Speaker 1: kind of warily, wanted to know what he was willing
Speaker 1: to give up for the sake of the team, and
Speaker 1: he got a preview of that even before they started practicing.
Speaker 1: Two days before we started the meeting, you know, for
Speaker 1: that team, we were in Vegas as a staff and
Speaker 1: we uh, we're planning, and all of a sudden knock
Speaker 1: on the door and it's Kobe. He's there two days early.
Speaker 1: And again I'm not embellishing this at all. He said, Coach,
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk to you for a little bit.
Speaker 1: So we went to another place and he said, I
Speaker 1: need for you to do me a favor, and I said,
Speaker 1: of course, what's the favor? He said, I want to
Speaker 1: guard the best perimeter player of every team that we play.
Speaker 1: And then he paused, and you know his eyes where
Speaker 1: he and Jordan's. No one really has had those eyes
Speaker 1: those two guys. Maybe Bird a little bit, Yeah, but
Speaker 1: those two guys. And he leans forward and he says,
Speaker 1: and I promise you I'll destroy him. When I speak,
Speaker 1: I ambellished. I said, I pulled out a contract right there.
Speaker 1: And but uh so fast forward the meeting. He talks
Speaker 1: about a rebounding and defense. Right the first practice. The
Speaker 1: first practice, he does not take a shot. He did
Speaker 1: not take one shot. Afterwards, I brought him and said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know this destroy thing. I've seen you get multiple
Speaker 1: fifty point games this year. He said, you know what
Speaker 1: I was doing. I said, yeah, but please shoot. We
Speaker 1: would we would kid one another that I was the
Speaker 1: only coach ever that had to plead for him to shoot.
Speaker 1: And but set to stage another interesting thing. From the
Speaker 1: first practice, we're doing a fast break drill and we're
Speaker 1: throwing the damn thing all over the place. Jason has
Speaker 1: got more turnovers in that game than he hasn't half
Speaker 1: the season in the n b A. And we come
Speaker 1: together and in Jason says to the team, I'll tone
Speaker 1: it down, and Carmelo and Lebron and Kobe they said
Speaker 1: to him, don't tone it down. We've never played with you.
Speaker 1: You know we'll get your passes. You see things, We've
Speaker 1: adjusted our game. Two people who don't see what you do,
Speaker 1: don't stop seeing what it was an unbelievable right, How
Speaker 1: cool is that? That's like a musician, you know, you
Speaker 1: get at and somebody's going on and more. No, no,
Speaker 1: keep playing the fucking piano. You know. You know I'm
Speaker 1: going to play my guitar better or I'm gonna sing better.
Speaker 1: And those who were the some of the moments that
Speaker 1: just kind of happened by those guys given to one another.
Speaker 1: Crazy just crazy good stuff, crazy good stuff. That summer,
Speaker 1: it was really just a matter of the team USA
Speaker 1: sorting itself out more than worrying about the competition. The
Speaker 1: tournament was really more of a formality than anything else.
Speaker 1: They would have been the automatic entrance in the two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight Olympics if they had won the gold
Speaker 1: medal in two thousand four, or if they had won
Speaker 1: the two thousand and six World Championships, but since they didn't,
Speaker 1: they had to qualify by winning what used to be
Speaker 1: called the Tournament of the America's when the Dream Team
Speaker 1: did it in ninety two. Now it was going by
Speaker 1: the FIBA America's Tournament, but at least it wasn't an
Speaker 1: inconvenience logistically. Originally it was supposed to be played in Venezuela,
Speaker 1: but Venezuela was delinquid and their payments to FIBA. So
Speaker 1: the USA just outbid everyone for the hosting riots and
Speaker 1: they held it in Vegas and the guys didn't even
Speaker 1: have to leave their hotel rooms after training camp. That's right.
Speaker 1: A similar thing had happened back in ninety two. That now,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, the Dream Team had to qualify because
Speaker 1: we had only won the bronze in in you you
Speaker 1: actually had to explain what Olympic qualifying was to a
Speaker 1: lot of the guys. That's something not the United States did. Anyway.
Speaker 1: That tournament was also supposed to be in South America,
Speaker 1: but David Stern said, now now we're not sending Uh,
Speaker 1: Mike Michael's not packing his bags. Uh. Right after the finals,
Speaker 1: and I think the NBA gave him five million dollars
Speaker 1: or something and moved to to Portland, and I'm not
Speaker 1: going to talk about it, but in retrospect, that was
Speaker 1: the greatest week with the Dream Team. It was it
Speaker 1: was a little bit more intimate, you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: the Olympic restrictions. Could still hang out with the guys.
Speaker 1: I've said this before. The most supreme moment of covering
Speaker 1: those guys was the first time the Dream Team ran
Speaker 1: out together, and that happened at that tournament, the America's
Speaker 1: in Portland and nine two. Naturally, it was magic and
Speaker 1: Larry came out first, and as soon as they came
Speaker 1: out Cuba, the opponent stopped practicing and started reach for
Speaker 1: their cameras and began taking pictures. So Jack Team say
Speaker 1: swept through the two thousand seven version of the tournament.
Speaker 1: They went by an average of forty points per game.
Speaker 1: And really this was like the test run, sort of
Speaker 1: like one of the earlier Apollo mission when they run
Speaker 1: through things like docking two vehicles and space, or they
Speaker 1: orbited the Moon before they went for the actual moon landing.
Speaker 1: And in this case they had successfully integrated Kobe with
Speaker 1: Lebron and Team USA. Kobe loved the game. He wanted
Speaker 1: to be perfect in the game, you listen to some
Speaker 1: of his interviews now, they're they're like the wisest coach
Speaker 1: talking about the game. And and I really believe that
Speaker 1: worked its way through our whole team a greater love
Speaker 1: for the game. And so that finishes off their time
Speaker 1: together in two thousand and seven. In episode eight, will
Speaker 1: look at two thousand and eight, the preparation and the
Speaker 1: final steps as they get ready for the Olympic Games
Speaker 1: in Beijing and the Redeemed teams arrival in China. Well
Speaker 1: one was a little bit later arriving when they were
Speaker 1: trying to go out, as Jason Kidd told us, we
Speaker 1: were leaving the hotel to go to a party, and uh,
Speaker 1: we were waiting and unfortunately he wasn't on time. So
Speaker 1: we left and and Lebron was like, hey, you said,
Speaker 1: you know, we be all time. If you're not all time,
Speaker 1: we leave. So we we left, and uh we got
Speaker 1: a call that we had to turn around and go
Speaker 1: kick them up. Um, Lebron wasn't too happy about that.
Speaker 1: But also the immense popularity of these players overseas and
Speaker 1: in China, and in particular Kobe Bryant, as we heard
Speaker 1: from Jerry Colangelo, the game's leading up to the Olympics.
Speaker 1: You know, two o'clock the morning and ten thous people
Speaker 1: are on the streets, lined up waiting, yelling Kobe, Kobe, Kobe.
Speaker 1: I mean he was. He had invested a lot of
Speaker 1: time over in China, in Japan and had built quite
Speaker 1: a business for himself and following and he was larger
Speaker 1: than life for for those people. That was kind of
Speaker 1: a revelation for me, just how big he had become
Speaker 1: and how big the market was over there for NBA players.
Speaker 1: I'm Jack McCallum, I'm j Thanks for listening to Kobe
Speaker 1: Lebron and the Redeemed Team. The Dream Team Tapes, Season two.
Speaker 1: Kobe Lebron and the Redeem Team is a production of
Speaker 1: Diversion Podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This season
Speaker 1: is written and hosted by me, Jack McCallum and j. A. Dande,
Speaker 1: Executive producer Scott Waxman and Mark Francis for Diversion podcast
Speaker 1: and Shawn's High Tone for I Heart Radio. Our editorial
Speaker 1: director is John Tuttle, Supervising producer Brian Murphy, legal producer
Speaker 1: Freddie Overseeghen editing, mixing and sound designed by Mark Frances Verna.
Speaker 1: Fields is our technical producer and our Director of Marketing
Speaker 1: and business Development is Jacob Bronstein. Diversion Podcasts