The 2008 Olympics were vital for Team USA coming off a bronze medal finish in 2004. The USA Basketball program was in need of a revamp to get where they wanted to be and that was winning the gold medal. Team USA program director Jerry Colangelo was calling the shots and started with coaching by bringing in one of the greatest coaches ever in Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski along with Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant to lead the team.
Team USA also brought back players from the 2004 team like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Carlos Boozer with the new faces being Jason Kidd, Michael Redd, Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul and Tayshaun Prince in addition to Bryant. There are a lot of personalities and guys who are only familiar with being the No. 1 option on their respective teams and coach Krzyzewski had to figure it out.
The top dogs of the team were unquestionably Bryant and James, so those two had to figure out how to co-exist and play a style of basketball they hadn’t played up till this point in their careers. The Gold Medal game against Spain was a close and competitive one, and it seems that some audio leaked from that game of James motivating Bryant to be more aggressive on defense and not settle for jump shots:
LEAKED Audio Of LeBron James Motivating Kobe Bryant During The 2008 Olympic Finals?:
“Watch the shots that you’re taking motherf*cker… Drive that b*tch!”
Also, you can see LeBron telling Kobe that they only had 3 team fouls. He wanted him to be more aggressive defensively‼️ pic.twitter.com/POUWKKZmDB
— LegendZ (@legendz_nba) September 4, 2023
This USA team had a lot on the line, mostly in terms of reputation with not having the most success in those recent years. When it came to Bryant’s career, he was never challenged as the alpha on the team and was used to holding his teammates accountable.
To see James be able to confront and motivate Bryant to switch up his playstyle is something that doesn’t happen very often. Nonetheless being a gold medal game with a lot on the line, a back-and-forth contest with a very skilled and talented Spain squad, emotions were bound to be high with how badly everyone wanted to win.
This 2008 ‘Redeem Team’ would go on to defeat Spain 118-107, a high-scoring affair, which would change the trajectory and reputation of the Team USA program for years to come. It established a new standard when competing for the United States in the Olympics or FIBA, and both James and Bryant played a big part in that by checking their egos at the door for the betterment of the team and country.
Scott doesn’t see James’ record being broken
Fast forward to the current day and James is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history after passing another Lakers legend in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this past season.
One of Abdul-Jabbar’s former Lakers teammates Byron Scott recently said that he doesn’t see James’ record being broken and it’s hard to disagree with him given LeBron’s incredible longevity throughout his career.
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