Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is most well-known for his five championships with the purple and gold, but he’s also responsible for helping turn Team USA around.
Bryant agreed to join USA Basketball when the program started to slip in international play, most notably finishing third in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Bryant’s commitment to the Olympics was a game-changer for Team USA as he was at the peak of his powers and would bolster a young roster headlined by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony.
The 2008 Olympics team, dubbed the “Redeem Team,” was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2025 and James was in attendance for the celebration.
During the ceremony, James called Bryant Team USA’s missing link and credited him for raising the bar for the program, via NBA:
“I think he was just the missing link that we needed in order to regain our dominance with Team USA. He brought a sense of seriousness to the team. He made us lock in and we knew once he joined and he was going to be committed that we couldn’t be doing nothing half-assed. Kob’ wasn’t going for that. So it made myself, CP, D-Wade, Melo, we all locked in even more cause we wanted to show him that we could get to that level as well. It was just an honor to be out there with him. I was 23 years old and being out on the floor with him he had already won championships before and things of that nature so it was levels that I was trying to get to. D-Wade had already won one, so we just wanted to get to his level and make him proud. By the end of that trip when we was hoisting that gold medal on top of that podium we for sure made him proud.”
James hadn’t quite reached his full potential yet, so Bryant stepped in and immediately led the Redeem Team to victory during the 2008 Olympics. What made Bryant’s run even more impressive was that he accepted the responsibility of guarding the best perimeter player on the other team, a sign that he was fully bought in on whatever it took to win.
It was sad not to see Bryant up on stage with James and other members of the squad, but his memory and legacy will live on forever.
Charles Barkley on differences between Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and LeBron James
Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and LeBron James are widely known as three of the greatest basketball players ever. In the eyes of Charles Barkley though, the mentality of James on the court was different than that of Bryant and Jordan.
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