April 6, 2021 • 48 mins
In the days leading up to the 2008 Games, Kobe Bryant gets away (barely) with tardiness but not with questionable shot selection. Once in Beijing, Yao Ming hits an opening shot heard throughout the land, but the U.S. at last gets the chance to flex its Olympic muscle. Starring Chris Bosh, Coach K, Craig Miller, Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony, Jerry Colangelo.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Dream Team Tapes Season two. Kobe Lebron and the
Redeem Team is a production of Diversion Podcasts in association
with I Heart Radio Diversion Podcasts. The players selected for
(00:27):
the honor of representing the United States in the two
thousand and eight Beijing Olympic Games are Kobe Bryant. We
look forward to this for a while, you know, to
be in this position now here we don't represent our
country Venice, especially special Lebron James. We look for an
(00:47):
opportunity of the weekend on a flam and being the
best in the world. I guess the Redeem Team is
because it is right. We're the best team in the world.
We're the best team in the world. Where we put
basketball America, basketball wheels beat. Which is that time? All,
(01:20):
Hello and welcome to Kobe Lebron and the Redeemed Team.
When at last we reached the Chinese capital city of Beijing,
one of the oldest cities in the world, with a
history that dates back at least three thousand years and
was once known still known in some quarters as pe King.
But we are not here co host j A Dande
to speak of a delicious crispy duck entree. We are
(01:43):
here to speak of the two thousand and eight team
that entered the Olympic Games as well. I suppose the favorite,
but not the overwhelming favorite, So how's that possible? And
just give a brief update before we talk about the
Olympics on how things were looking as they headed in
the world had clearly clawed up to the United States
(02:03):
and there were several US losses that we've chronicled here.
So this was a stronger U S team certainly, but
some people are calling this the strongest Olympic field that
we've ever seen, the deepest Olympic field that we've ever seen.
And Spain certainly was deep yed Palkasov Rudy Fernandez. It
was a caldron Argentina led by Manucan Nobli Andres Noconi.
(02:29):
So those are the two main threats. Lithuania still an
old threat from back in the days, Russia still couldn't
completely be counted out, and China was playing at home.
So even though they didn't have a tremendous amount of
NBA talent, they had had a couple of players, most
ob Yao Ming play in the NBA in recent years,
(02:52):
and they had a tremendous home court advantage. So those
are all the obstacles that in the path the team USA.
They were still the wonderful favorite. You would have had
a bet four hundred dollars to win one hundred dollars,
but it wasn't a dominant and and there was some
good value beds out there that we're worth a shot.
(03:13):
I don't think he wanted to bet against the Dream team.
You had a chance to make some money betting against
the redeem team. This is the pre Fandel's uh you know,
bet anyone line. It sounds like you know something about
this stuff. Man, I'm not a gambler, but I know
just enough to know about that. It's funny. Chris Sheridan
was covering international basketball for ESPN and and he had
(03:38):
somewhat of a gambling disposition, we could say. So. So
when you go back and you read his stuff previewing
those Olympics, you're gonna see a touch of that, more
than a touch. I just remember that movie that I
might have been called The Gambler. James Cohn is in
his bathtub in the beginning of the movie and he bets.
I think he bet on the Lakers and they lost
like by a basket at the buzzer. He almost throws
(03:59):
the radio into the bathtub to electric cute himself. You know,
since then I was not going to get it on gambling.
And the thing is, Jack on this team, you had
the guys with the memory of losing, which wasn't something
that we've seen before if you think about it, Uh,
you didn't have that predisposition. Maybe had it with with
David Robinson who was on the Olympic team and then
(04:21):
he was on the Dream Team in the team, but
you had more guys including Lebron and Dwayne Wade and
Carmelo Anthony who had been on that two thousand four team,
and then you had guys like Chris Bosh who his
last experience in a team you say uniform was losing
to Greece in the semifinals in two thousand and six,
and he didn't play in two thousand seven he was injured.
(04:43):
So the last time he really played in international competition
he had that loss and it stuck with him for
two years. And he told us how that that changed
his mindset heading into these games. And I think when
you when you're humbled by losing, it kind of helps
it out a little bit. You know, everybody is much
more willing I think, Um, you know, I forgot the saying.
(05:04):
But yeah, once you're successful, it's it's it becomes different.
But at that time, you know, we were in a
position of of sacrifice. We had to do more sacrifice
than what was done before in order to win because
we knew the world is better at basketball. We can't
just put a team together once for ten days and
just go out and whoop ass. And you know, we've
(05:26):
got to play some damn defense, you know. So it
was always a spirited effort from everybody to make sure
um that they were bringing what they needed to bring. Regardless.
Now tonight's episode eight, we're calling for reasons that will
become clear. No excuses and j A, So much happens
in this episode. There are no excuses for it not
being good. We have a memorable tour that the team
(05:49):
took in New York City. Um, we have a first
class Phil Jackson invitation. Unfortunately we won't be able to
see it, but we can hear about it. A party
in Macau when one of the teams, Superstar Ours gets
left behind and then they had to decide whether to
return for him or not if a mass of Chinese
welcome for Kobe Bryant, a game one of the Olympics
(06:09):
that drew a billion eyes literally and a memorable opening
jump shot by uh someone we're gonna talk about, as
well as an in game nap by a famous American.
But first, j A set up the meeting that sets
up the title no excuses. Well, we talked a lot
about meetings in this because there's some dramatic moments in meetings,
(06:32):
and it would be really easy to just say that
it all happened the first time they ever got together,
and they made it sound like that at times, like
there was this one super duper meeting and all these
things got said, and it really set the tone for
how this redeemed team story was gonna play out. But
Sean Ford and Craig Miller from USA Basketball were both
(06:52):
nice enough to break down what happened when and which
meeting some of these things took place. So in two
thousand and eight, they're opening meeting for what's going to
be the run through the Olympics. They they had their
usual get together and this time it was Lebron James
who spoke out and Mike Shazowski told us about that.
(07:13):
The last guy was Lebron, and he talked, he was eloquent,
he said no excuses, and that became our first standard
and they really kind of embraced that. And it was
our guy, Craig Miller, the longtime PR director for USA Basketball,
who filled us in really on what Lebron had to say.
And I remember Lebron saying there's no excuses, and and
(07:37):
then he elaborated. He said, you know, in the NBA,
I can kind of write off not winning an NBA
championship by saying, I wish I had Kobe, I wish
I had Chris Paul is my point guard. I wish
I had Carmelo out there. I wish I had d
Wade running with me because we're all here, we're all
together because we've got no excuses now, right, there's no
there's no town excuse. There's no not working hard if
(08:00):
there's no And to me, that was that was a
really strong openings statement by Lebron to the team. You know,
it's funny, Jay help people everybody we talked to remember
those meetings and when teams are together for a long time,
like over the season meetings, become a problem. Chuck Daily
used to have this great soliloquy he would go on.
(08:21):
I asked him one time why once in a while
during a time out, Chuck would just sit there with
his arms folded, and Chuck went, well, there's too many meetings.
Time out. That's a meeting, half time, that's a meeting.
After the game, that's a meeting. Next day at practice,
that's a meeting. Pregame meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting. That's all
we did. You get sick of them. But when these
(08:41):
teams are together for a short amount of time and
they have a great collection of players together. I remember
it was the same thing with the Dream Team, um
that they the meetings do not become just another thing.
They become sort of a real important part of what happened. Now,
these guys were a really almost perfect mixture of being
(09:02):
a young and an old team. You had the young
bucks Lebron d Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo. Then you had
the grizzled veteran Jay Kidd. I don't know what you
call Kobe in the apex of his career, maybe or
just yeah, he's he's twenty eight years old and into
that summer. So he's right in the heart of his
career and he just he's he's coming off the m
(09:22):
v P, his first and only m v P award. Yeah,
so you had a really great mixture, guys. But the
important thing is what we're gonna talk about is they
were young enough and enthusiastic enough that you'd get him
to do things. You know, And I don't think you
if you would have said to Michael Jordan's before the
ninety two Dream Team crusade to Barcelona, you know, Mike,
we're gonna take a little goodwill tour of the United States.
(09:46):
You know, we want you to pack a bunch of
clothes and we're, uh, we're gonna take off and promote
the team. And no, that was not gonna happen. But
I know you remember this sort of pre Olympic tour
that the the Redeemed Team did and it produced some
pretty pretty cool moments. Yeah, they went to New York
and the reason it stands out is they packed so
(10:08):
much into that trip. There. They were going on the
morning shows like Good Morning America. They were showing up
at Rucker Park and and doing stuff on the playgrounds
with the kids. They were all over the place. Uh.
They even took a boat trip out through uh, you know,
Harbor with Statue of Liberty in the background. All this
(10:28):
stuff was going on. And one of the moments that
that was captured on the mini cameras that were around
to chronicle this whole thing was this this interplay between
Kobe and Lebron, And to me, it was really indicative
of how Lebron was able to break through the I
wouldn't even call a facade Jack the fortress, this impenetrable
(10:50):
fortress that Kobe and Kobe. That was Kobe. And so
there's this this interplay and it's joking around and in
it Lebron actually has the audacity to imitate Kobe Bryant
the way he wore his his warmups and and everything
else and just the way he operated. And Mike Sizevsky
(11:13):
told us about it. It really stuck out in his
mind and he's got fond memories of that. Both those
guys have great, a great sense of humor, you know, like, uh,
you know, Lebron really likes to joke a lot and
goof around a lot. And I can remember we're doing
a photo shoot. We did all these iconic things with
(11:34):
each team so that they would get a field. So
we're on a boat, a ferry boat in New York,
going out to the statue a Liberty where we're going
to use that as a backdrop. And there Lebron. We're
in our warm ups. Then they also had suits, and
Lebron put his warm up pants up to his chest
(11:56):
and his pants were high then and he was in
Kobe and then he filled with Kobe's coach and uh,
say triangle triangle. He put up one finger, Yeah, waiting
a game. You know that. That was Felst triangle. And uh,
(12:16):
Kobe's rolling around on the floor. And so they used
that sense of humor a lot. So Kobe's more serious
than yet he's he's cracking up at Lebron. Lebron was
definitely the jokester. Some people thought Lebron didn't take things
quite seriously enough. We've seen obviously he's serious enough to
(12:38):
be a four time NBA champion. Uh, but at this point,
I think it was something that Kobe needed, Uh, you know,
somebody who he respected enough to allow him to pope
fund at him and uh, someone who was playful enough
to bring out that playful side of Kobe. Shack was
a big, playful guy. But Kobe at that time was
trying to establish himself when he first came into League
(13:00):
and was a little bit resentful of the big brother
label that had tried to be a fixation act. Kobe
was tired of being the little brother. He grew up
with two older sisters. He wanted to be his own man.
But now he and Lebron were there somewhat as peers,
and for whatever reason, and I think for that reason,
the relationship worked better. You know, we don't say enough
(13:21):
about this, but you know, Lebron is really good at
that stuff. Like Lebron's an actor. I mean, you you know,
he cast in that like, Okay, he's not playing Hamlet
next to Amy Schumer, but he's damned good in that movie.
And we always looked at Michael Jordan's as the ultimate,
you know, crossover guy kind of, but Michael really was
(13:44):
sort of wooden and I'm probably gonna get in trouble
with that, but you know, he had he had a
certain range for for to to act interact with Spike
and you know, hayneses underwear. Lebron is like, you know,
he's an old guy in a barber shop. I mean,
he he is a true actor and I would have
I wish I could have. I would have paid some
(14:05):
money to watch his uh invitation of Phil Jackson. That
would have been pretty cool. Well, it was mostly Kobe.
He did a little bit of Phil calling in the
plays from the side, but the fact that he was
able to imitate Kobe to Kobe's face is not something
that many people could have gotten away with. Uh. You know,
that wasn't all they were doing. That. The reason they
were on the boat in the first place was Jerry
(14:27):
Colangelo wanted to get the shot, a shot with the
members of the Deemed Team in their Team USA outfits
with the Statue of Liberty in the background, And so
Craig Miller described for as how they pulled that photo off.
We have a really cool iconic photo of the team
(14:49):
with the Statue of Liberty in the background around the
front of the boat and they turned the boat and um,
it's an amazing photo. Was a beautiful blue day. It
was done before we started training camp. Um, we carved
out like I think two or three days in New
York where we did all these things, and uh, I
think it really just set the tone for the bonding,
(15:11):
the importance of representing your country, and then the committment
that was going to be needed by all the players. Nobody,
nobody skipped the event, nobody lepped out of the media. Um.
Everybody did what was asked a woman and it was
a huge, huge success, Jack. That doesn't mean that everyone
was all gung ho about this and USA ra RA,
(15:36):
And if you think about it, Ski and Jerry Colangelo
were very big on Statue Liberty and the entry point
in Ellis Island and all time because that's probably the
way that their answers came to the country. If you
think about the makeup of the players on the team,
I'm guessing their origin story in their arrival in the
(15:58):
United States isn't quite the old Las Island saga, if
you if you know what I mean, Jack, So not
at all. They didn't They didn't necessarily have the same
sentiment and and the motions that had seen the statue
and this eagerness to have their picture taken in front
of the Statue of Liberty, and but they went along
with it, and I think they got what was going on,
(16:21):
and I think they understood that this was part of
what being on this team meant, and Jason Kidd described
to us his memories of that day on the boat
and the stature of Liberty. Yes, Um, when you look
at the photo on the boat, um statue of Liberty, right, Like,
I don't think there was a lot of people excited
about going on the boat and try and take a
(16:43):
picture and have to you know, be perfect and everybody
be still. But again I think you just nailed it.
Like they were young enough like, hey, guys, let's just
get on our place. So as sooner we do this
as soon as the boat can head in, right, and
they get it and so but they were like, why
are we you know, taking up a picture on the boat,
(17:03):
you know, like like so you know, there was probably
a look, you know, complaining. But at the end of
the day, as long as you told them we can
get to the finish line, as sooner you do it,
the sooner we're going back in. So um that's how
that worked. And I remember being on that boat because
they weren't very happy about the boat picture, but it
(17:24):
all worked out. Yeah. I kind of came more from
because of age and the color of my skin, I
can and came more from the Colangelo Mike Shaski. Uh,
my my wife's grandmother landed at Ellis Island. Her plaque
from Italy, you know, is up there, and it meant
something to me. And I took that music cruise one time.
I remember my wife and I walking through, uh, towards
(17:47):
the harbor boat with a cooler and people shouting tourists, tourists,
you know. But we got on the boat and got
that shot of the Statue of Liberty behind us, and
we both went, you know, all right, it was embarrassing
walking up there, but uh, but this is pretty cool.
You're listening to Kobe Lebron and the redeem Team. Jay
(18:07):
and I will be back in a minute, you know,
before we go any further, Jay, these these things. He's
even going out to dinner with a team, a famous team.
(18:29):
When you have Kobe Lebron, you know, it's not a
simple thing. And one guy, before we go any further,
I think we should mention and he's kind of been
with us on this tour all the way through. And
that's Sean Ford, now called the director of Basketball Operations,
and uh, every I think just about every person mentioned
(18:49):
Sean Ford, through whom most of the arrangements were made
and uh, here's Mike Saski talking about Sean Ford, the
guy who never get the at A for being like
m v P of Shawn Ford. Shaun Ford and I
lived with each other, so to speak. He would know everything.
These guys we're planning to do and we gotta gotta
(19:15):
take care of this this and there are a lot
of moving parts. Once they're off the court, So the
tour is over, they come back to Las Vegas. They
demolished Canada in one exhibition game, and then they packed
their bags for two games in Macau, two games in
Shanghai before reaching the Olympics. Well, one of the things
(19:36):
that struck me ja was these just weren't any teams
they were playing. I was a little surprised. I don't
remember these games, to be honest, But they played Turkey, Lithuania, Russia,
and Australia. They won all of the games. First of all,
you're surprised they played that kind of exhibition schedule or
is that sort of what you do? I mean, a
dream team didn't play any exhibitions, you know, they just
(19:58):
went to the Olympics. Yeah, they just they did the
Turn of the America's and they won those handily. I
mean I think they were prep Remember they played that
college Select team. They had guys like Penny Hardaway, grand Hill,
and Chris Webber. And remember that was the only team
that beat the Dream Team in the scrimmage in right,
that was like the second or third day of practice,
(20:18):
just kind of get it ready. But you know, the
idea playing these good A teams, I don't know. It
just surprised me a little bit. But anyway, not everything
went uh smoothly, including on the social front. Yeah, so
they're still bonding, still hanging out. And one of the
reasons I think they went to matt Macau is that
it's the Las Vegas of China, basically, right, A lot
(20:41):
of the same hotel properties that you see in Vegas
are there in Macau, and so it was a good
socializing opportunity for some of the guys in this group
is coming together and believe it or not, there even
inviting Kobe Bryant. Now, Jack, I was trying to think
in Kobe's Laker years, I do on'tly remember him going
out and seeing him out at a post championship party
(21:03):
and that two thousand, two thousand to three run Shack
had a party one year and and Kobe showed up
at that, but noticeably, Kobe was back in the VIP
area and Shack was out in the main area. And
I'm not even sure how much they interacted throughout the night.
I was going back and forth, but Kobe stayed back
in there and Shack stayed out in the main area.
But guys like Rick Fox and Derek Fisher would have
(21:26):
parties and you wouldn't see Kobe at those. I don't
recall seeing him at some of the hotel parties on
the road when they were they won the championship in Philly,
or they won the championship in New Jersey, and their
partying back at the hotels, you wouldn't see Kobe there. Uh.
I didn't see Kobe at the party the Lakers had
had at the Playboy Mansion when they won in two
(21:46):
thousand and So he's not someone you see out and
about partying at that stage in his career. One thing
we're learning here, by the way, is you went to
a hell of a lot more parties than I did.
By the way, that was life come from the Lakers, Jack.
I mean, I see that's the problem. That's the one
drawback sports illustrated. Right that the series ends, the finals
are over, and you gotta be up in your room
all night writing man. I had a ten thirty Pacific
(22:09):
time deadline, and once that thing was in, it was
time to go hang out. But by this time, this age,
and with this group most significantly, I think Kobe is
becoming somewhat of a socialite, and that leads to this
little misadventure that they have when they're going out for
a night on the town of Maccau. You know, we
were going, um, leaving the hotel to go to a party,
(22:32):
and uh we were waiting, and unfortunately he wasn't on time,
so we left and and Lebron was like, hey, you said,
you know, we be on time. If you're not all
the time, we leave. So we we left, and uh
we got a call that we had to turn around
and go kick him up. Um. Lebron wasn't too happy
(22:53):
about that. Where was it that, Uh, this was in
Macau and so um we were going from the Hotel
Macau to the win um to see the win and
so when we left, um, alright, Lebron was like, you
said on time, we gotta go. So we left and
mid way through the drive, we get a call that
(23:15):
we have to turn around and go get Kobe, and
Lebron was not happy about it, but um to Lebron's
you know, give Lebron credit. We did turn around and
we went back to pick up Kobe, and we let
Kobe know that you know that you can't you have
to be on time or we're leaving. But we can't
leave any man behind. So we came back to get
(23:36):
you this one time. And that was Jason Kidd, who
in a minute or two is going to tell us
about another sort of Kobe thing that happened when they
moved on to Shanghai. But and it's about shot selection
and the shots that Kobe took before we do that. Ja,
It's always interesting to me shot selection for a superstar player,
(23:58):
for a score, a dry dead guy that you're gonna
ride his points to the championship or wherever it's gonna
take you. Shot selection something you can always talk about.
But to me, it's not that important. I mean, people
used to bitch about some of the shots Kobe took. Well,
let me tell you something, Larry Bird. You know, Mr
(24:18):
Fundamental took some of the for one of a better
word shittiest shots you could ever take Jordan's did. It's
part of kind of the deal, isn't it with being
a scorer, like this is what this is what you do?
You know once in a while, somewhat Kobe took it
to an extreme and Kobe seemed to relish in the
(24:39):
degree of difficulty. Uh. That did lead to this maybe
someone dubious title, but I think he was the best
bad shot maker of all time, and that he could
get himself in a position where it was a bad shot,
but he could make it, and he was comfortable taking
and making those shots. It's one of the reasons I
always say, if I had a second left for the
(25:00):
last shot, I'm going to Kobe. If I've got eight
seconds and there's enough time to create a good shot,
then I'm putting the ball in Michael Jordan's hands. If
I've only got a second or a few fractions of
a second left to take a shot and that means
I can't get a good shot, I'm going to Kobe Bryant,
who is the best bad shot maker of all time.
I ran that by Phil Jackson one time, who coach
(25:20):
both Michael and Kobe, and he agreed with me. So,
so that's that's one notion. Jack. Another thing with this
is that the fact that these players and his coaching
staff had to encounter that and had to figure out
a way to get Kobe to take less of those
and to trust his teammates a little more. In some ways,
the entire Kobe experience that we heard Phil Jackson describe
(25:42):
in in the second episode of this podcast series, it
was condensed into these couple of summers with the Olympic
basketball team, and so they experienced the whole run of
Kobe and and all the pluses and the minuses that
come with Kobe having on your team, the experience in
a very short period of time. But I'd say the
outcome was ultimately the same that Kobe looked, learned to
(26:03):
work within the system, and the team was successful because
of it. But it doesn't always come easily, Jack, No,
you know, this just occurred to me. The mega Outlander shot,
which is the Steph Curry Damian Lillard a little bit
hard and thirty footer. I wonder which came about, you know,
the three point shots. Now a decade we've been talking
(26:26):
about it, but those bombs is a new thing, a
little bit new four or five years, and I wonder
if Kobe would have got it, would have got into
the thirty ft thirty two ft jump shot type of thing.
You know, he would have done it against the double team.
Though these guys are doing it. They're they're they're finding
some space. If you leave them open from thirty, they're
(26:47):
gonna pull up. If you double team Kobe from thirty.
In this era of the NBA, he's suiting it against
the double team. That's the difference. And and you know,
it's funny. Right around this time I was when I
did you know, I did this book on the Sons
oh five six. They spent three quarters of their time
for the first round playoff talking about how to defense
Kobe and mark I VRONI would lose hours of sleep
(27:09):
trying to figure out do we let him shoot and
guard everybody else or do we really shut down on
Kobe and feel that they can't, you know, sort of
the elemental question when you're playing against a great player.
And he said, well, if he goes this way, will
double him this way and all this, and d'An Tony
says to him, well, what happens when there's four goddamn
guys around him, and he just gets the ball and
(27:29):
shoots and goes does what he does the rise up
he called it. Ronny goes, well, there's nothing we can
do about that. That's just that's what's gonna happen. But anyway,
so Jason Kidd and then Carmelo is going to follow him,
both talk about this inclination of Kobe, no surprise, but
now they're seeing it firsthand there on his team, this
(27:50):
inclination to take really uh wild shots, crazy shots even
for somebody as skillful as Kobe. And here's Jason Kidd
and then Mellow talking about it. Kobe would take some
crazy shots. You know. There was a point in practice
where I asked him could he catch and shoot? And
he looked at me like I was speaking a different language,
(28:12):
and so, um, I just said, do you always have
to dribble the ball? You know, to to shoot? You know?
And uh, I think he took offense to it at first,
but I think I was really actually just trying to
help him make the game easier. Um, and I my
whole thing was to say, hey, if you just can
catch and shoot, that sets up the whole dribble, That
(28:33):
sets up everything that you are extremely good at and
I and I thought, you know, I was trying to
help him, but I think he was. He was looking
at me like, no, no, that's how I get my rhythm,
that's how I play. And I was like, okay, all right,
we'll figure out something else. But he he took some
some crazy shots. Um, but I understand why, because you know,
(28:54):
you just never know, and at the time I didn't know.
But understanding who Kobe is now, um, he was always
going to be prepared for a situation that he had
to make a shot, a tough shot, someone would call
it a crazy shot, but he would always have the
answer that I've worked on this. And most people would
not believe that. The pre notion that everybody had about
(29:14):
Kobe him coming on the team, everybody expected that him
to bring what he was doing with the Lakers, and
you know, everybody just thought that's what he was gonna
do coming on that team. And that was as leaders
on the team that was approached before that. You know,
it was sit down with Code like listen, bro, like,
(29:34):
we don't need the Laker Kobe, Like you know what
I'm saying, Like we we need like, we we need
you to be who you are, but you're playing with
you know, you're playing with the best. Now you're playing
the best of the best. So I think at first
it took him a little while for for him to
adjust to that. So these guys are learning the delicate
dance not always so delicate at times that that comes
(29:56):
with playing alongside Kobe Bryant. And it sort of comes
to ahead right before the Olympics in the last these
exhibition games. Jack you question why they did it. Apparently
they needed it to to work out some of the
kinks that they had going on this team. So they're
they're playing Australia in Shanghai and it's their last of
these exhibitions tour games. But before they get to Beijing
(30:19):
and play and it gets a little out of hands
with some of these shots that that Kobe is taking,
and it leads to a showdown, a meeting that Showski
felt he had to take and schedule with Kobe Bryant,
and he did so with great trepidation. And so coach
(30:41):
k describes that that whole build up and how that
meeting went down. We're gonna win, and in the first half,
Kobe start taking Kobe Waker shots, which they had not
been doing and you could see the whole team and
Lebron is, you know, like you're sitting and the team's
(31:02):
suiting the free throw or something, and you know how
Lebron can look at you, and he looks at me.
I know we got a real problem. And I said,
I will take care of this. Trust me, and he
looked again. I said, please trust me, let's not and
(31:23):
I don't want this whole thing blowing up right now,
and and uh he did so. But then we were
going to Beijing. So we were up all night as
the staff literally all night trying to figure out how
to handle this. And I said, give me his shots
(31:45):
with a you know, a computer. I'll have an individual
meeting with Kobe. So I'm scared, really apprehensive. Let's put
it this one meeting. But I said, I gotta do it.
I have to do it. I said, I'll take care
of it. So I brought him in. I said, look,
(32:07):
I want to talk to you about shots selection. I said,
let's take a look at these shots. I said, they're
bullshit shots. You know you can't do that when you
have Carmelo Lebron and it e rodes what we're what
we're doing and so I don't know what I'm gonna get,
(32:29):
but what I get was like a gift from God.
He just said, you're right, I won't do that because
what else to myself? I said, funk, that's that math,
you know. But I said, all right, yes, but it was,
(32:51):
you know, And so there weren't like too many of
those moments. I didn't I didn't think, and but that
was one of them. You're listening to Kobe Lebron and
of a deem team. We'll be back after this. Like
(33:19):
you said, it probably was, you know, in retrospect. I mean,
coach k didn't want to make it sound like it
was the whole shooting match, but it was right before
the Olympics. And uh again back to the Dream team.
You know, they had this legendary scrimmage in uh in Monico,
in Monte Carlo, just because they had a really crappy
(33:39):
practice right before they were gone to the Olympics. And
that's kind of not the note that you want to set.
So this happened presumably there's air clearing of some kind
on they go to Beijing, and one of the first
things everybody noticed over there, and it even took some
people by surprise, and I think I think me too,
(34:00):
little bit um and that was how big Kobe Bryant
was in that particular era of of Asia, of of China.
Did you get a sense of that back in l
A during by that time? Was he that he was
that kind of a global star? I'm not sure I
got it at that moment, but I certainly was quickly
(34:23):
made aware of it. And so one year, one of
the All Star Games in l A. And and they've
had so many recently, but I think it was the
twenty eleven maybe maybe yeah, I'm I'm thinking twenty eleven
All Star weekend in l A. And we're sitting in
there in the workroom, which also is adjacent to the
press conference room, and all of a sudden, they bring
(34:47):
in Kobe, but only for Chinese media, so the American
media was not allowed to go sit in there or
ask any questions he's doing there. It's an appearance for
Sprite and Jack. I'm trying to imagine how much money
they had to pay him to take time the day
of the All Star Game to come in and do
this press conference. But they debut this new commercial that
(35:07):
he'd done with this Chinese pop star and then they
had him take questions from the Chinese media and packed
ton of ton of reporters. They're all from China, all
eager to hear what Kobe had to say, and in
this pairing with this this pop superstar, and I thought, Okay,
(35:27):
this is something I wasn't aware of prior to this,
but it was obvious that there was so much interest
in Kobe Bryant and that this was such a big deal,
and that there was so much money for him to
make over there. And you did see at this point,
player after player going over to China and making these trips,
usually sponsored by their shoe companies, and you did see
(35:49):
the popularity. And I would hear stories from Kobe security
people about just how crazy it was when he went
over there, and we heard similar tales from the likes
of Jerry Colangelo as we heard him in the preview
for this episode, and also Sean Ford telling us about
the insane popularity for Kobe Bryant the game's leading up
(36:10):
to the Olympics. You know, two o'clock in the morning
and ten thousand people are on the streets lined up
waiting for yelling Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, I mean he was.
He had invested a lot of time over in China
in Japan and had built quite a business for himself
and follow him, and he was larger than life for
(36:34):
for those people. That was kind of a revelation for me,
just how big he had become and how big the
market was over there for NBA players. I don't know,
but it was amazing, you know, the players when we
would go and if we were gonna go somewhere where
(36:54):
the crowd was gonna kind of like her, they would
always make Kobe go first, right is then they would
go crazy about him, and then the other guys could
just like walk around and like not be noticed. But
it was amazing to me everywhere he went, when we
pulled in and out of the hotel and in the
game and there were crowds there and stuff. They it
(37:16):
was always they were yelling Kobe. They were always yelling Kobe.
But now there was one name. I guess you could
say as big, big in a different big in a
different way. I suspect if you gave the Chinese people
a choice between hanging out with Kobe for a while
or hanging out with Yao Ming, I will say this,
Jack that remember Tracy McGrady sold more jerseys in China
(37:40):
than Yao Ming for a while, and they were both
playing on the rockets. So I don't think it's too
far fetched to think that Kobe Bryant could have been
more popular than Yaoming in China. We're gonna go with that.
But the first game, and I don't I don't know
whether they arranged the draw in the Olympics to have,
but you know, Game one, at any way, at any rate,
(38:01):
is the United States versus China, and I you know,
it's hard to imagine anything that big. You know, the
home country. They built this, They built this Olympics up
like nobody had ever done a more efficient job of
constructing a whole Olympics than the Chinese people did. The
(38:23):
first game is gonna be, uh, your guy, do you
have anything comparable of a home not in the United States,
but being somewhere overseas? You had mentioned you saw the
World Cup in Germany. You know you're watching it there.
Do you have any experience comparable to what this would be,
not of being there, I remember just watching on TV
and Jack, you might have been there for this opening ceremonies.
(38:46):
But the U the archer that lit the flame in
Barcelona for the opening ceremony. Oh, I was there, unbelievable.
And I know it wasn't a hero, you know, it
wasn't It wasn't like one of their great sports heroes.
But uh, it just felt like there was that pride
and and that was a little bit different too, because
Barcelona you're dealing with like Catalonian pride in addition to
(39:09):
Spanish pride, and those are two separate things, right, So
I think it was the pride of the region, the
pride of the country, and I felt that even through
the television. Um, just in terms of a hero Jack.
I went to a promotional event for Alberto Tomba, the
great Italian skier and the swaggering self styled playboy. So
(39:29):
they did a promotional event for a credit card company
in Turin, Italy when the Olympics were there in two
thousand and six, and it was a Valentine's Day promotion
and I think, you know, women could win like a
lunch with Alberto Tomba. Uh, and so you know he's
he's one of their great Winter Olympic heroes. So I
did get to see that. I did get to see
(39:51):
Tombo's popularity in his own country, but I don't think
it was comparable to Yea Megan China. So I will
say that I think one of my top five moments
as a sportswriter was in in Australia in two thousand
at the Olympics. Fortunately I wasn't even working. I was
at the track the night that Kathy Freeman took the
(40:13):
starting line for the fours. And Cathy Freeman and an
Aboriginal athlete who had been gone through I can't even
imagine what, you know, what kind of prejudice. But by
the year two thousand, everybody in Australia realized, okay, well,
we gotta get together. She is an amazing athlete. She's
our hero. She was the face of those Olympics. And
(40:36):
that guy was sitting in the in the track stadium
that night. I don't know how many were there, but
every seat is taken always in the Olympics, and that
gun went off. I never heard anything like it. You
I was sitting next to somebody from Sports Illustrated. We
couldn't we were shouting and we couldn't hear each other.
We were, you know, twelve inches apart. And she went
(40:59):
around and on and I just uh, I just never
never forgot that, you know, and I guess this, you know,
this moment for Yao was something like it. So, uh
set the seat a little bit. What's happening? Here comes
Yallo out for the opening tip. Yeah, it felt more ceremonial, Jack,
maybe than Cathy Freeman winning the gold medal. Remember y'all
had carried the the Chinese flag into the stadium and
(41:22):
the opening ceremonies, and it really was. He was the
face of the Chinese delegation, that this humongous Chinese sporting
delegation as the host country, and uh, here he is.
They had to have drawn his play up for him, Jack, right,
even though it's not exactly his sweet spot. Uh yeah.
(41:44):
Ming isn't known as a long distance shooter. But here
they are the first game and from the first play
China against the ball, and they set up a screening
roll for yell Ming. Maybe they'd seen the Skuyting report
that Greece game where Greets killed him on the screen
and roll in the World Championships. So they run like
(42:05):
a maybe more of a pick and pop, and yeah,
Ming gets a three pointer straight away and drains it
and the place goes crazy and yeah, does this gigantic
fish pump? And it was a pretty cool moment. Chris
Boss described it to us. It was a surreal feeling
kind of pulling up to the stadium seeing I mean,
it was it's the Olympics, right, Yeah, you see the
birds nests and then the aquatic center, and you see
(42:30):
all the people in the streets and all that stuff.
We had already taken part in the ceremony and now
it's time to get down to business. But I think
that was I mean, it was a huge game for
everybody because you know, um, we had all been to
China a couple of years before, we had seen the growth.
So like I said before, this was their moment to
really kind of just established themselves as a basketball power
(42:53):
in the world. We knew, I mean, once we got
the schedule, we knew, Okay, all right, this is gonna
be crazy China basketball. This is their moment for the
world to showcase to the world. Um, they had a
pretty good team as well. Um, and yeah, yeah, it
comes out and hits the first the first shot and
(43:15):
it's the three, and I mean it was deafeningly loud.
I remember asking Chris during our interview with him, he
was on the you know, he didn't start. Dwight Howard
started at center, and I said, Chris, were you screaming
Dwight get out on him. You gotta get out on him,
you know. But that's not what they were thinking for
the first play the game, and it was it was beautiful,
(43:36):
and I wondered, probably the States didn't think this dre
In the middle of the game, I wondered, Okay, that's great,
let's get at the hell over with and uh and
go on. But it wasn't. After y'all hit that shot.
I think it inspired China a little bit. They played
a good game, so it wasn't all that easy of
a game for him, Jay, It wasn't. It took a
(43:57):
while for them to pull away. But as was the case,
inevitably and just about every game they played over there,
they would have this run. Uh. I like to call
it the can opener, when they would just have this
moment and it would just you know, pry the lid
off the game and then forget it. In this game,
the can open a moment was uh, uh box gets
(44:19):
a rebound those in the haad the kid and uh
he throws along pass the Dwayne Wade who throws this
incredible alley you to Lebron, and Lebron throws it down
one handed, and that makes it for two and and
and they're off and here they go, uh and and
it was just a breathtaking display of the athleticism of
(44:41):
Lebron and the firepower of Team USA. And so you
think that all of this going on, all this excitement
China hosting the Olympics, this redeemed team, and the incredible
athleticism of the American players, But there was one person
in the American delegation in the stad ends who wasn't
all that impressed. Is the guyfather Jerry Colangelo told us
(45:04):
about the whole experience of playing China in the first game.
The most watched televised game in the history of televised
basketball was that game. And obviously being in China playing them, um,
that's the reason for all of that. But it was
you know, a funny story is President Bush and his
(45:26):
father and the whole Bush clan wanted me to sit
with them. And usually during the game, I'm either playing
or coaching, and I'm not a very good host, you know,
in terms of small talk during the game because I'm
into the game, but I agreed to do that when
the President requested you do it. So I'm getting to
(45:50):
my seat with them and the President of China, the
their top chelon of people who are right there. We're
all together. But as I'm going to my seat, I
just kind of noticed somebody sleeping in the midst of
all of this, and it was Kissinger. Kissinger was sound
(46:13):
asleep during everything that was going on. In all fairness,
Jay football was really Kissinger's game. He constantly dropped soccer
metaphors into his negotiating, and he was supposedly the person
most responsible for getting uh Pail to play over here
in the North American Soccer League. So he was probably
(46:35):
waiting for, you know, Jay Kid to set up Lebron
with a corner kick or something like that for ahead
or otherwise. He probably wasn't interested. But the games went
on and rarely was the United States asleep during that
rest of the Olympics, although one member of the American
contingent was. So we have another dozing story j A
(46:57):
for episode nine, as well as accounts of the games
the way the team really came together. And here's Chris
Bosh to close us out. I mean, you know, as
close you man. I mean, you see how talented guys were,
And I always tell people that was some of the
best basketball I've ever seen. I remember just being happy
(47:17):
of having that luxury just to kind of playoff guys,
just to see how really how talented guys are, what
their work ethic is and all these things, and just
to be able to take part in that and have
a good summer roader. I'm Jack McCallum. That's all for
episode eight, and I'm J Donne. Will be back with
more in episode nine. The Dream Team Tapes Season two,
(47:41):
Kobe Lebron and the Redeem Team is a production of
Diversion Podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. For more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season
is written and hosted by me, Jack McCallum and j A. Dande.
(48:04):
Executive producer Scott Waxman and Mark Francis for Diversion podcast
and Shawn's High Tone for I Heart Radio. Our editorial
director is John Tuttle, Supervising producer Brian Murphy, Legal producer
Freddie Overstegen editing, mixing and sound designed by Mark frances Verna.
Fields is our technical producer and our Director of Marketing
(48:26):
and business Development is Jacob Bronstein. Diversion Podcasts
The Dream Team Tapes Season two. Kobe Lebron and the
Redeem Team is a production of Diversion Podcasts in association
with I Heart Radio Diversion Podcasts. The players selected for
(00:27):
the honor of representing the United States in the two
thousand and eight Beijing Olympic Games are Kobe Bryant. We
look forward to this for a while, you know, to
be in this position now here we don't represent our
country Venice, especially special Lebron James. We look for an
(00:47):
opportunity of the weekend on a flam and being the
best in the world. I guess the Redeem Team is
because it is right. We're the best team in the world.
We're the best team in the world. Where we put
basketball America, basketball wheels beat. Which is that time? All,
(01:20):
Hello and welcome to Kobe Lebron and the Redeemed Team.
When at last we reached the Chinese capital city of Beijing,
one of the oldest cities in the world, with a
history that dates back at least three thousand years and
was once known still known in some quarters as pe King.
But we are not here co host j A Dande
to speak of a delicious crispy duck entree. We are
(01:43):
here to speak of the two thousand and eight team
that entered the Olympic Games as well. I suppose the favorite,
but not the overwhelming favorite, So how's that possible? And
just give a brief update before we talk about the
Olympics on how things were looking as they headed in
the world had clearly clawed up to the United States
(02:03):
and there were several US losses that we've chronicled here.
So this was a stronger U S team certainly, but
some people are calling this the strongest Olympic field that
we've ever seen, the deepest Olympic field that we've ever seen.
And Spain certainly was deep yed Palkasov Rudy Fernandez. It
was a caldron Argentina led by Manucan Nobli Andres Noconi.
(02:29):
So those are the two main threats. Lithuania still an
old threat from back in the days, Russia still couldn't
completely be counted out, and China was playing at home.
So even though they didn't have a tremendous amount of
NBA talent, they had had a couple of players, most
ob Yao Ming play in the NBA in recent years,
(02:52):
and they had a tremendous home court advantage. So those
are all the obstacles that in the path the team USA.
They were still the wonderful favorite. You would have had
a bet four hundred dollars to win one hundred dollars,
but it wasn't a dominant and and there was some
good value beds out there that we're worth a shot.
(03:13):
I don't think he wanted to bet against the Dream team.
You had a chance to make some money betting against
the redeem team. This is the pre Fandel's uh you know,
bet anyone line. It sounds like you know something about
this stuff. Man, I'm not a gambler, but I know
just enough to know about that. It's funny. Chris Sheridan
was covering international basketball for ESPN and and he had
(03:38):
somewhat of a gambling disposition, we could say. So. So
when you go back and you read his stuff previewing
those Olympics, you're gonna see a touch of that, more
than a touch. I just remember that movie that I
might have been called The Gambler. James Cohn is in
his bathtub in the beginning of the movie and he bets.
I think he bet on the Lakers and they lost
like by a basket at the buzzer. He almost throws
(03:59):
the radio into the bathtub to electric cute himself. You know,
since then I was not going to get it on gambling.
And the thing is, Jack on this team, you had
the guys with the memory of losing, which wasn't something
that we've seen before if you think about it, Uh,
you didn't have that predisposition. Maybe had it with with
David Robinson who was on the Olympic team and then
(04:21):
he was on the Dream Team in the team, but
you had more guys including Lebron and Dwayne Wade and
Carmelo Anthony who had been on that two thousand four team,
and then you had guys like Chris Bosh who his
last experience in a team you say uniform was losing
to Greece in the semifinals in two thousand and six,
and he didn't play in two thousand seven he was injured.
(04:43):
So the last time he really played in international competition
he had that loss and it stuck with him for
two years. And he told us how that that changed
his mindset heading into these games. And I think when
you when you're humbled by losing, it kind of helps
it out a little bit. You know, everybody is much
more willing I think, Um, you know, I forgot the saying.
(05:04):
But yeah, once you're successful, it's it's it becomes different.
But at that time, you know, we were in a
position of of sacrifice. We had to do more sacrifice
than what was done before in order to win because
we knew the world is better at basketball. We can't
just put a team together once for ten days and
just go out and whoop ass. And you know, we've
(05:26):
got to play some damn defense, you know. So it
was always a spirited effort from everybody to make sure
um that they were bringing what they needed to bring. Regardless.
Now tonight's episode eight, we're calling for reasons that will
become clear. No excuses and j A, So much happens
in this episode. There are no excuses for it not
being good. We have a memorable tour that the team
(05:49):
took in New York City. Um, we have a first
class Phil Jackson invitation. Unfortunately we won't be able to
see it, but we can hear about it. A party
in Macau when one of the teams, Superstar Ours gets
left behind and then they had to decide whether to
return for him or not if a mass of Chinese
welcome for Kobe Bryant, a game one of the Olympics
(06:09):
that drew a billion eyes literally and a memorable opening
jump shot by uh someone we're gonna talk about, as
well as an in game nap by a famous American.
But first, j A set up the meeting that sets
up the title no excuses. Well, we talked a lot
about meetings in this because there's some dramatic moments in meetings,
(06:32):
and it would be really easy to just say that
it all happened the first time they ever got together,
and they made it sound like that at times, like
there was this one super duper meeting and all these
things got said, and it really set the tone for
how this redeemed team story was gonna play out. But
Sean Ford and Craig Miller from USA Basketball were both
(06:52):
nice enough to break down what happened when and which
meeting some of these things took place. So in two
thousand and eight, they're opening meeting for what's going to
be the run through the Olympics. They they had their
usual get together and this time it was Lebron James
who spoke out and Mike Shazowski told us about that.
(07:13):
The last guy was Lebron, and he talked, he was eloquent,
he said no excuses, and that became our first standard
and they really kind of embraced that. And it was
our guy, Craig Miller, the longtime PR director for USA Basketball,
who filled us in really on what Lebron had to say.
And I remember Lebron saying there's no excuses, and and
(07:37):
then he elaborated. He said, you know, in the NBA,
I can kind of write off not winning an NBA
championship by saying, I wish I had Kobe, I wish
I had Chris Paul is my point guard. I wish
I had Carmelo out there. I wish I had d
Wade running with me because we're all here, we're all
together because we've got no excuses now, right, there's no
there's no town excuse. There's no not working hard if
(08:00):
there's no And to me, that was that was a
really strong openings statement by Lebron to the team. You know,
it's funny, Jay help people everybody we talked to remember
those meetings and when teams are together for a long time,
like over the season meetings, become a problem. Chuck Daily
used to have this great soliloquy he would go on.
(08:21):
I asked him one time why once in a while
during a time out, Chuck would just sit there with
his arms folded, and Chuck went, well, there's too many meetings.
Time out. That's a meeting, half time, that's a meeting.
After the game, that's a meeting. Next day at practice,
that's a meeting. Pregame meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting. That's all
we did. You get sick of them. But when these
(08:41):
teams are together for a short amount of time and
they have a great collection of players together. I remember
it was the same thing with the Dream Team, um
that they the meetings do not become just another thing.
They become sort of a real important part of what happened. Now,
these guys were a really almost perfect mixture of being
(09:02):
a young and an old team. You had the young
bucks Lebron d Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo. Then you had
the grizzled veteran Jay Kidd. I don't know what you
call Kobe in the apex of his career, maybe or
just yeah, he's he's twenty eight years old and into
that summer. So he's right in the heart of his
career and he just he's he's coming off the m
(09:22):
v P, his first and only m v P award. Yeah,
so you had a really great mixture, guys. But the
important thing is what we're gonna talk about is they
were young enough and enthusiastic enough that you'd get him
to do things. You know, And I don't think you
if you would have said to Michael Jordan's before the
ninety two Dream Team crusade to Barcelona, you know, Mike,
we're gonna take a little goodwill tour of the United States.
(09:46):
You know, we want you to pack a bunch of
clothes and we're, uh, we're gonna take off and promote
the team. And no, that was not gonna happen. But
I know you remember this sort of pre Olympic tour
that the the Redeemed Team did and it produced some
pretty pretty cool moments. Yeah, they went to New York
and the reason it stands out is they packed so
(10:08):
much into that trip. There. They were going on the
morning shows like Good Morning America. They were showing up
at Rucker Park and and doing stuff on the playgrounds
with the kids. They were all over the place. Uh.
They even took a boat trip out through uh, you know,
Harbor with Statue of Liberty in the background. All this
(10:28):
stuff was going on. And one of the moments that
that was captured on the mini cameras that were around
to chronicle this whole thing was this this interplay between
Kobe and Lebron, And to me, it was really indicative
of how Lebron was able to break through the I
wouldn't even call a facade Jack the fortress, this impenetrable
(10:50):
fortress that Kobe and Kobe. That was Kobe. And so
there's this this interplay and it's joking around and in
it Lebron actually has the audacity to imitate Kobe Bryant
the way he wore his his warmups and and everything
else and just the way he operated. And Mike Sizevsky
(11:13):
told us about it. It really stuck out in his
mind and he's got fond memories of that. Both those
guys have great, a great sense of humor, you know, like, uh,
you know, Lebron really likes to joke a lot and
goof around a lot. And I can remember we're doing
a photo shoot. We did all these iconic things with
(11:34):
each team so that they would get a field. So
we're on a boat, a ferry boat in New York,
going out to the statue a Liberty where we're going
to use that as a backdrop. And there Lebron. We're
in our warm ups. Then they also had suits, and
Lebron put his warm up pants up to his chest
(11:56):
and his pants were high then and he was in
Kobe and then he filled with Kobe's coach and uh,
say triangle triangle. He put up one finger, Yeah, waiting
a game. You know that. That was Felst triangle. And uh,
(12:16):
Kobe's rolling around on the floor. And so they used
that sense of humor a lot. So Kobe's more serious
than yet he's he's cracking up at Lebron. Lebron was
definitely the jokester. Some people thought Lebron didn't take things
quite seriously enough. We've seen obviously he's serious enough to
(12:38):
be a four time NBA champion. Uh, but at this point,
I think it was something that Kobe needed, Uh, you know,
somebody who he respected enough to allow him to pope
fund at him and uh, someone who was playful enough
to bring out that playful side of Kobe. Shack was
a big, playful guy. But Kobe at that time was
trying to establish himself when he first came into League
(13:00):
and was a little bit resentful of the big brother
label that had tried to be a fixation act. Kobe
was tired of being the little brother. He grew up
with two older sisters. He wanted to be his own man.
But now he and Lebron were there somewhat as peers,
and for whatever reason, and I think for that reason,
the relationship worked better. You know, we don't say enough
(13:21):
about this, but you know, Lebron is really good at
that stuff. Like Lebron's an actor. I mean, you you know,
he cast in that like, Okay, he's not playing Hamlet
next to Amy Schumer, but he's damned good in that movie.
And we always looked at Michael Jordan's as the ultimate,
you know, crossover guy kind of, but Michael really was
(13:44):
sort of wooden and I'm probably gonna get in trouble
with that, but you know, he had he had a
certain range for for to to act interact with Spike
and you know, hayneses underwear. Lebron is like, you know,
he's an old guy in a barber shop. I mean,
he he is a true actor and I would have
I wish I could have. I would have paid some
(14:05):
money to watch his uh invitation of Phil Jackson. That
would have been pretty cool. Well, it was mostly Kobe.
He did a little bit of Phil calling in the
plays from the side, but the fact that he was
able to imitate Kobe to Kobe's face is not something
that many people could have gotten away with. Uh. You know,
that wasn't all they were doing. That. The reason they
were on the boat in the first place was Jerry
(14:27):
Colangelo wanted to get the shot, a shot with the
members of the Deemed Team in their Team USA outfits
with the Statue of Liberty in the background, And so
Craig Miller described for as how they pulled that photo off.
We have a really cool iconic photo of the team
(14:49):
with the Statue of Liberty in the background around the
front of the boat and they turned the boat and um,
it's an amazing photo. Was a beautiful blue day. It
was done before we started training camp. Um, we carved
out like I think two or three days in New
York where we did all these things, and uh, I
think it really just set the tone for the bonding,
(15:11):
the importance of representing your country, and then the committment
that was going to be needed by all the players. Nobody,
nobody skipped the event, nobody lepped out of the media. Um.
Everybody did what was asked a woman and it was
a huge, huge success, Jack. That doesn't mean that everyone
was all gung ho about this and USA ra RA,
(15:36):
And if you think about it, Ski and Jerry Colangelo
were very big on Statue Liberty and the entry point
in Ellis Island and all time because that's probably the
way that their answers came to the country. If you
think about the makeup of the players on the team,
I'm guessing their origin story in their arrival in the
(15:58):
United States isn't quite the old Las Island saga, if
you if you know what I mean, Jack, So not
at all. They didn't They didn't necessarily have the same
sentiment and and the motions that had seen the statue
and this eagerness to have their picture taken in front
of the Statue of Liberty, and but they went along
with it, and I think they got what was going on,
(16:21):
and I think they understood that this was part of
what being on this team meant, and Jason Kidd described
to us his memories of that day on the boat
and the stature of Liberty. Yes, Um, when you look
at the photo on the boat, um statue of Liberty, right, Like,
I don't think there was a lot of people excited
about going on the boat and try and take a
(16:43):
picture and have to you know, be perfect and everybody
be still. But again I think you just nailed it.
Like they were young enough like, hey, guys, let's just
get on our place. So as sooner we do this
as soon as the boat can head in, right, and
they get it and so but they were like, why
are we you know, taking up a picture on the boat,
(17:03):
you know, like like so you know, there was probably
a look, you know, complaining. But at the end of
the day, as long as you told them we can
get to the finish line, as sooner you do it,
the sooner we're going back in. So um that's how
that worked. And I remember being on that boat because
they weren't very happy about the boat picture, but it
(17:24):
all worked out. Yeah. I kind of came more from
because of age and the color of my skin, I
can and came more from the Colangelo Mike Shaski. Uh,
my my wife's grandmother landed at Ellis Island. Her plaque
from Italy, you know, is up there, and it meant
something to me. And I took that music cruise one time.
I remember my wife and I walking through, uh, towards
(17:47):
the harbor boat with a cooler and people shouting tourists, tourists,
you know. But we got on the boat and got
that shot of the Statue of Liberty behind us, and
we both went, you know, all right, it was embarrassing
walking up there, but uh, but this is pretty cool.
You're listening to Kobe Lebron and the redeem Team. Jay
(18:07):
and I will be back in a minute, you know,
before we go any further, Jay, these these things. He's
even going out to dinner with a team, a famous team.
(18:29):
When you have Kobe Lebron, you know, it's not a
simple thing. And one guy, before we go any further,
I think we should mention and he's kind of been
with us on this tour all the way through. And
that's Sean Ford, now called the director of Basketball Operations,
and uh, every I think just about every person mentioned
(18:49):
Sean Ford, through whom most of the arrangements were made
and uh, here's Mike Saski talking about Sean Ford, the
guy who never get the at A for being like
m v P of Shawn Ford. Shaun Ford and I
lived with each other, so to speak. He would know everything.
These guys we're planning to do and we gotta gotta
(19:15):
take care of this this and there are a lot
of moving parts. Once they're off the court, So the
tour is over, they come back to Las Vegas. They
demolished Canada in one exhibition game, and then they packed
their bags for two games in Macau, two games in
Shanghai before reaching the Olympics. Well, one of the things
(19:36):
that struck me ja was these just weren't any teams
they were playing. I was a little surprised. I don't
remember these games, to be honest, But they played Turkey, Lithuania, Russia,
and Australia. They won all of the games. First of all,
you're surprised they played that kind of exhibition schedule or
is that sort of what you do? I mean, a
dream team didn't play any exhibitions, you know, they just
(19:58):
went to the Olympics. Yeah, they just they did the
Turn of the America's and they won those handily. I
mean I think they were prep Remember they played that
college Select team. They had guys like Penny Hardaway, grand Hill,
and Chris Webber. And remember that was the only team
that beat the Dream Team in the scrimmage in right,
that was like the second or third day of practice,
(20:18):
just kind of get it ready. But you know, the
idea playing these good A teams, I don't know. It
just surprised me a little bit. But anyway, not everything
went uh smoothly, including on the social front. Yeah, so
they're still bonding, still hanging out. And one of the
reasons I think they went to matt Macau is that
it's the Las Vegas of China, basically, right, A lot
(20:41):
of the same hotel properties that you see in Vegas
are there in Macau, and so it was a good
socializing opportunity for some of the guys in this group
is coming together and believe it or not, there even
inviting Kobe Bryant. Now, Jack, I was trying to think
in Kobe's Laker years, I do on'tly remember him going
out and seeing him out at a post championship party
(21:03):
and that two thousand, two thousand to three run Shack
had a party one year and and Kobe showed up
at that, but noticeably, Kobe was back in the VIP
area and Shack was out in the main area. And
I'm not even sure how much they interacted throughout the night.
I was going back and forth, but Kobe stayed back
in there and Shack stayed out in the main area.
But guys like Rick Fox and Derek Fisher would have
(21:26):
parties and you wouldn't see Kobe at those. I don't
recall seeing him at some of the hotel parties on
the road when they were they won the championship in Philly,
or they won the championship in New Jersey, and their
partying back at the hotels, you wouldn't see Kobe there. Uh.
I didn't see Kobe at the party the Lakers had
had at the Playboy Mansion when they won in two
(21:46):
thousand and So he's not someone you see out and
about partying at that stage in his career. One thing
we're learning here, by the way, is you went to
a hell of a lot more parties than I did.
By the way, that was life come from the Lakers, Jack.
I mean, I see that's the problem. That's the one
drawback sports illustrated. Right that the series ends, the finals
are over, and you gotta be up in your room
all night writing man. I had a ten thirty Pacific
(22:09):
time deadline, and once that thing was in, it was
time to go hang out. But by this time, this age,
and with this group most significantly, I think Kobe is
becoming somewhat of a socialite, and that leads to this
little misadventure that they have when they're going out for
a night on the town of Maccau. You know, we
were going, um, leaving the hotel to go to a party,
(22:32):
and uh we were waiting, and unfortunately he wasn't on time,
so we left and and Lebron was like, hey, you said,
you know, we be on time. If you're not all
the time, we leave. So we we left, and uh
we got a call that we had to turn around
and go kick him up. Um. Lebron wasn't too happy
(22:53):
about that. Where was it that, Uh, this was in
Macau and so um we were going from the Hotel
Macau to the win um to see the win and
so when we left, um, alright, Lebron was like, you
said on time, we gotta go. So we left and
mid way through the drive, we get a call that
(23:15):
we have to turn around and go get Kobe, and
Lebron was not happy about it, but um to Lebron's
you know, give Lebron credit. We did turn around and
we went back to pick up Kobe, and we let
Kobe know that you know that you can't you have
to be on time or we're leaving. But we can't
leave any man behind. So we came back to get
(23:36):
you this one time. And that was Jason Kidd, who
in a minute or two is going to tell us
about another sort of Kobe thing that happened when they
moved on to Shanghai. But and it's about shot selection
and the shots that Kobe took before we do that. Ja,
It's always interesting to me shot selection for a superstar player,
(23:58):
for a score, a dry dead guy that you're gonna
ride his points to the championship or wherever it's gonna
take you. Shot selection something you can always talk about.
But to me, it's not that important. I mean, people
used to bitch about some of the shots Kobe took. Well,
let me tell you something, Larry Bird. You know, Mr
(24:18):
Fundamental took some of the for one of a better
word shittiest shots you could ever take Jordan's did. It's
part of kind of the deal, isn't it with being
a scorer, like this is what this is what you do?
You know once in a while, somewhat Kobe took it
to an extreme and Kobe seemed to relish in the
(24:39):
degree of difficulty. Uh. That did lead to this maybe
someone dubious title, but I think he was the best
bad shot maker of all time, and that he could
get himself in a position where it was a bad shot,
but he could make it, and he was comfortable taking
and making those shots. It's one of the reasons I
always say, if I had a second left for the
(25:00):
last shot, I'm going to Kobe. If I've got eight
seconds and there's enough time to create a good shot,
then I'm putting the ball in Michael Jordan's hands. If
I've only got a second or a few fractions of
a second left to take a shot and that means
I can't get a good shot, I'm going to Kobe Bryant,
who is the best bad shot maker of all time.
I ran that by Phil Jackson one time, who coach
(25:20):
both Michael and Kobe, and he agreed with me. So,
so that's that's one notion. Jack. Another thing with this
is that the fact that these players and his coaching
staff had to encounter that and had to figure out
a way to get Kobe to take less of those
and to trust his teammates a little more. In some ways,
the entire Kobe experience that we heard Phil Jackson describe
(25:42):
in in the second episode of this podcast series, it
was condensed into these couple of summers with the Olympic
basketball team, and so they experienced the whole run of
Kobe and and all the pluses and the minuses that
come with Kobe having on your team, the experience in
a very short period of time. But I'd say the
outcome was ultimately the same that Kobe looked, learned to
(26:03):
work within the system, and the team was successful because
of it. But it doesn't always come easily, Jack, No,
you know, this just occurred to me. The mega Outlander shot,
which is the Steph Curry Damian Lillard a little bit
hard and thirty footer. I wonder which came about, you know,
the three point shots. Now a decade we've been talking
(26:26):
about it, but those bombs is a new thing, a
little bit new four or five years, and I wonder
if Kobe would have got it, would have got into
the thirty ft thirty two ft jump shot type of thing.
You know, he would have done it against the double team.
Though these guys are doing it. They're they're they're finding
some space. If you leave them open from thirty, they're
(26:47):
gonna pull up. If you double team Kobe from thirty.
In this era of the NBA, he's suiting it against
the double team. That's the difference. And and you know,
it's funny. Right around this time I was when I
did you know, I did this book on the Sons
oh five six. They spent three quarters of their time
for the first round playoff talking about how to defense
Kobe and mark I VRONI would lose hours of sleep
(27:09):
trying to figure out do we let him shoot and
guard everybody else or do we really shut down on
Kobe and feel that they can't, you know, sort of
the elemental question when you're playing against a great player.
And he said, well, if he goes this way, will
double him this way and all this, and d'An Tony
says to him, well, what happens when there's four goddamn
guys around him, and he just gets the ball and
(27:29):
shoots and goes does what he does the rise up
he called it. Ronny goes, well, there's nothing we can
do about that. That's just that's what's gonna happen. But anyway,
so Jason Kidd and then Carmelo is going to follow him,
both talk about this inclination of Kobe, no surprise, but
now they're seeing it firsthand there on his team, this
(27:50):
inclination to take really uh wild shots, crazy shots even
for somebody as skillful as Kobe. And here's Jason Kidd
and then Mellow talking about it. Kobe would take some
crazy shots. You know. There was a point in practice
where I asked him could he catch and shoot? And
he looked at me like I was speaking a different language,
(28:12):
and so, um, I just said, do you always have
to dribble the ball? You know, to to shoot? You know?
And uh, I think he took offense to it at first,
but I think I was really actually just trying to
help him make the game easier. Um, and I my
whole thing was to say, hey, if you just can
catch and shoot, that sets up the whole dribble, That
(28:33):
sets up everything that you are extremely good at and
I and I thought, you know, I was trying to
help him, but I think he was. He was looking
at me like, no, no, that's how I get my rhythm,
that's how I play. And I was like, okay, all right,
we'll figure out something else. But he he took some
some crazy shots. Um, but I understand why, because you know,
(28:54):
you just never know, and at the time I didn't know.
But understanding who Kobe is now, um, he was always
going to be prepared for a situation that he had
to make a shot, a tough shot, someone would call
it a crazy shot, but he would always have the
answer that I've worked on this. And most people would
not believe that. The pre notion that everybody had about
(29:14):
Kobe him coming on the team, everybody expected that him
to bring what he was doing with the Lakers, and
you know, everybody just thought that's what he was gonna
do coming on that team. And that was as leaders
on the team that was approached before that. You know,
it was sit down with Code like listen, bro, like,
(29:34):
we don't need the Laker Kobe, Like you know what
I'm saying, Like we we need like, we we need
you to be who you are, but you're playing with
you know, you're playing with the best. Now you're playing
the best of the best. So I think at first
it took him a little while for for him to
adjust to that. So these guys are learning the delicate
dance not always so delicate at times that that comes
(29:56):
with playing alongside Kobe Bryant. And it sort of comes
to ahead right before the Olympics in the last these
exhibition games. Jack you question why they did it. Apparently
they needed it to to work out some of the
kinks that they had going on this team. So they're
they're playing Australia in Shanghai and it's their last of
these exhibitions tour games. But before they get to Beijing
(30:19):
and play and it gets a little out of hands
with some of these shots that that Kobe is taking,
and it leads to a showdown, a meeting that Showski
felt he had to take and schedule with Kobe Bryant,
and he did so with great trepidation. And so coach
(30:41):
k describes that that whole build up and how that
meeting went down. We're gonna win, and in the first half,
Kobe start taking Kobe Waker shots, which they had not
been doing and you could see the whole team and
Lebron is, you know, like you're sitting and the team's
(31:02):
suiting the free throw or something, and you know how
Lebron can look at you, and he looks at me.
I know we got a real problem. And I said,
I will take care of this. Trust me, and he
looked again. I said, please trust me, let's not and
(31:23):
I don't want this whole thing blowing up right now,
and and uh he did so. But then we were
going to Beijing. So we were up all night as
the staff literally all night trying to figure out how
to handle this. And I said, give me his shots
(31:45):
with a you know, a computer. I'll have an individual
meeting with Kobe. So I'm scared, really apprehensive. Let's put
it this one meeting. But I said, I gotta do it.
I have to do it. I said, I'll take care
of it. So I brought him in. I said, look,
(32:07):
I want to talk to you about shots selection. I said,
let's take a look at these shots. I said, they're
bullshit shots. You know you can't do that when you
have Carmelo Lebron and it e rodes what we're what
we're doing and so I don't know what I'm gonna get,
(32:29):
but what I get was like a gift from God.
He just said, you're right, I won't do that because
what else to myself? I said, funk, that's that math,
you know. But I said, all right, yes, but it was,
(32:51):
you know, And so there weren't like too many of
those moments. I didn't I didn't think, and but that
was one of them. You're listening to Kobe Lebron and
of a deem team. We'll be back after this. Like
(33:19):
you said, it probably was, you know, in retrospect. I mean,
coach k didn't want to make it sound like it
was the whole shooting match, but it was right before
the Olympics. And uh again back to the Dream team.
You know, they had this legendary scrimmage in uh in Monico,
in Monte Carlo, just because they had a really crappy
(33:39):
practice right before they were gone to the Olympics. And
that's kind of not the note that you want to set.
So this happened presumably there's air clearing of some kind
on they go to Beijing, and one of the first
things everybody noticed over there, and it even took some
people by surprise, and I think I think me too,
(34:00):
little bit um and that was how big Kobe Bryant
was in that particular era of of Asia, of of China.
Did you get a sense of that back in l
A during by that time? Was he that he was
that kind of a global star? I'm not sure I
got it at that moment, but I certainly was quickly
(34:23):
made aware of it. And so one year, one of
the All Star Games in l A. And and they've
had so many recently, but I think it was the
twenty eleven maybe maybe yeah, I'm I'm thinking twenty eleven
All Star weekend in l A. And we're sitting in
there in the workroom, which also is adjacent to the
press conference room, and all of a sudden, they bring
(34:47):
in Kobe, but only for Chinese media, so the American
media was not allowed to go sit in there or
ask any questions he's doing there. It's an appearance for
Sprite and Jack. I'm trying to imagine how much money
they had to pay him to take time the day
of the All Star Game to come in and do
this press conference. But they debut this new commercial that
(35:07):
he'd done with this Chinese pop star and then they
had him take questions from the Chinese media and packed
ton of ton of reporters. They're all from China, all
eager to hear what Kobe had to say, and in
this pairing with this this pop superstar, and I thought, Okay,
(35:27):
this is something I wasn't aware of prior to this,
but it was obvious that there was so much interest
in Kobe Bryant and that this was such a big deal,
and that there was so much money for him to
make over there. And you did see at this point,
player after player going over to China and making these trips,
usually sponsored by their shoe companies, and you did see
(35:49):
the popularity. And I would hear stories from Kobe security
people about just how crazy it was when he went
over there, and we heard similar tales from the likes
of Jerry Colangelo as we heard him in the preview
for this episode, and also Sean Ford telling us about
the insane popularity for Kobe Bryant the game's leading up
(36:10):
to the Olympics. You know, two o'clock in the morning
and ten thousand people are on the streets lined up
waiting for yelling Kobe, Kobe, Kobe, I mean he was.
He had invested a lot of time over in China
in Japan and had built quite a business for himself
and follow him, and he was larger than life for
(36:34):
for those people. That was kind of a revelation for me,
just how big he had become and how big the
market was over there for NBA players. I don't know,
but it was amazing, you know, the players when we
would go and if we were gonna go somewhere where
(36:54):
the crowd was gonna kind of like her, they would
always make Kobe go first, right is then they would
go crazy about him, and then the other guys could
just like walk around and like not be noticed. But
it was amazing to me everywhere he went, when we
pulled in and out of the hotel and in the
game and there were crowds there and stuff. They it
(37:16):
was always they were yelling Kobe. They were always yelling Kobe.
But now there was one name. I guess you could
say as big, big in a different big in a
different way. I suspect if you gave the Chinese people
a choice between hanging out with Kobe for a while
or hanging out with Yao Ming, I will say this,
Jack that remember Tracy McGrady sold more jerseys in China
(37:40):
than Yao Ming for a while, and they were both
playing on the rockets. So I don't think it's too
far fetched to think that Kobe Bryant could have been
more popular than Yaoming in China. We're gonna go with that.
But the first game, and I don't I don't know
whether they arranged the draw in the Olympics to have,
but you know, Game one, at any way, at any rate,
(38:01):
is the United States versus China, and I you know,
it's hard to imagine anything that big. You know, the
home country. They built this, They built this Olympics up
like nobody had ever done a more efficient job of
constructing a whole Olympics than the Chinese people did. The
(38:23):
first game is gonna be, uh, your guy, do you
have anything comparable of a home not in the United States,
but being somewhere overseas? You had mentioned you saw the
World Cup in Germany. You know you're watching it there.
Do you have any experience comparable to what this would be,
not of being there, I remember just watching on TV
and Jack, you might have been there for this opening ceremonies.
(38:46):
But the U the archer that lit the flame in
Barcelona for the opening ceremony. Oh, I was there, unbelievable.
And I know it wasn't a hero, you know, it
wasn't It wasn't like one of their great sports heroes.
But uh, it just felt like there was that pride
and and that was a little bit different too, because
Barcelona you're dealing with like Catalonian pride in addition to
(39:09):
Spanish pride, and those are two separate things, right, So
I think it was the pride of the region, the
pride of the country, and I felt that even through
the television. Um, just in terms of a hero Jack.
I went to a promotional event for Alberto Tomba, the
great Italian skier and the swaggering self styled playboy. So
(39:29):
they did a promotional event for a credit card company
in Turin, Italy when the Olympics were there in two
thousand and six, and it was a Valentine's Day promotion
and I think, you know, women could win like a
lunch with Alberto Tomba. Uh, and so you know he's
he's one of their great Winter Olympic heroes. So I
did get to see that. I did get to see
(39:51):
Tombo's popularity in his own country, but I don't think
it was comparable to Yea Megan China. So I will
say that I think one of my top five moments
as a sportswriter was in in Australia in two thousand
at the Olympics. Fortunately I wasn't even working. I was
at the track the night that Kathy Freeman took the
(40:13):
starting line for the fours. And Cathy Freeman and an
Aboriginal athlete who had been gone through I can't even
imagine what, you know, what kind of prejudice. But by
the year two thousand, everybody in Australia realized, okay, well,
we gotta get together. She is an amazing athlete. She's
our hero. She was the face of those Olympics. And
(40:36):
that guy was sitting in the in the track stadium
that night. I don't know how many were there, but
every seat is taken always in the Olympics, and that
gun went off. I never heard anything like it. You
I was sitting next to somebody from Sports Illustrated. We
couldn't we were shouting and we couldn't hear each other.
We were, you know, twelve inches apart. And she went
(40:59):
around and on and I just uh, I just never
never forgot that, you know, and I guess this, you know,
this moment for Yao was something like it. So, uh
set the seat a little bit. What's happening? Here comes
Yallo out for the opening tip. Yeah, it felt more ceremonial, Jack,
maybe than Cathy Freeman winning the gold medal. Remember y'all
had carried the the Chinese flag into the stadium and
(41:22):
the opening ceremonies, and it really was. He was the
face of the Chinese delegation, that this humongous Chinese sporting
delegation as the host country, and uh, here he is.
They had to have drawn his play up for him, Jack, right,
even though it's not exactly his sweet spot. Uh yeah.
(41:44):
Ming isn't known as a long distance shooter. But here
they are the first game and from the first play
China against the ball, and they set up a screening
roll for yell Ming. Maybe they'd seen the Skuyting report
that Greece game where Greets killed him on the screen
and roll in the World Championships. So they run like
(42:05):
a maybe more of a pick and pop, and yeah,
Ming gets a three pointer straight away and drains it
and the place goes crazy and yeah, does this gigantic
fish pump? And it was a pretty cool moment. Chris
Boss described it to us. It was a surreal feeling
kind of pulling up to the stadium seeing I mean,
it was it's the Olympics, right, Yeah, you see the
birds nests and then the aquatic center, and you see
(42:30):
all the people in the streets and all that stuff.
We had already taken part in the ceremony and now
it's time to get down to business. But I think
that was I mean, it was a huge game for
everybody because you know, um, we had all been to
China a couple of years before, we had seen the growth.
So like I said before, this was their moment to
really kind of just established themselves as a basketball power
(42:53):
in the world. We knew, I mean, once we got
the schedule, we knew, Okay, all right, this is gonna
be crazy China basketball. This is their moment for the
world to showcase to the world. Um, they had a
pretty good team as well. Um, and yeah, yeah, it
comes out and hits the first the first shot and
(43:15):
it's the three, and I mean it was deafeningly loud.
I remember asking Chris during our interview with him, he
was on the you know, he didn't start. Dwight Howard
started at center, and I said, Chris, were you screaming
Dwight get out on him. You gotta get out on him,
you know. But that's not what they were thinking for
the first play the game, and it was it was beautiful,
(43:36):
and I wondered, probably the States didn't think this dre
In the middle of the game, I wondered, Okay, that's great,
let's get at the hell over with and uh and
go on. But it wasn't. After y'all hit that shot.
I think it inspired China a little bit. They played
a good game, so it wasn't all that easy of
a game for him, Jay, It wasn't. It took a
(43:57):
while for them to pull away. But as was the case,
inevitably and just about every game they played over there,
they would have this run. Uh. I like to call
it the can opener, when they would just have this
moment and it would just you know, pry the lid
off the game and then forget it. In this game,
the can open a moment was uh, uh box gets
(44:19):
a rebound those in the haad the kid and uh
he throws along pass the Dwayne Wade who throws this
incredible alley you to Lebron, and Lebron throws it down
one handed, and that makes it for two and and
and they're off and here they go, uh and and
it was just a breathtaking display of the athleticism of
(44:41):
Lebron and the firepower of Team USA. And so you
think that all of this going on, all this excitement
China hosting the Olympics, this redeemed team, and the incredible
athleticism of the American players, But there was one person
in the American delegation in the stad ends who wasn't
all that impressed. Is the guyfather Jerry Colangelo told us
(45:04):
about the whole experience of playing China in the first game.
The most watched televised game in the history of televised
basketball was that game. And obviously being in China playing them, um,
that's the reason for all of that. But it was
you know, a funny story is President Bush and his
(45:26):
father and the whole Bush clan wanted me to sit
with them. And usually during the game, I'm either playing
or coaching, and I'm not a very good host, you know,
in terms of small talk during the game because I'm
into the game, but I agreed to do that when
the President requested you do it. So I'm getting to
(45:50):
my seat with them and the President of China, the
their top chelon of people who are right there. We're
all together. But as I'm going to my seat, I
just kind of noticed somebody sleeping in the midst of
all of this, and it was Kissinger. Kissinger was sound
(46:13):
asleep during everything that was going on. In all fairness,
Jay football was really Kissinger's game. He constantly dropped soccer
metaphors into his negotiating, and he was supposedly the person
most responsible for getting uh Pail to play over here
in the North American Soccer League. So he was probably
(46:35):
waiting for, you know, Jay Kid to set up Lebron
with a corner kick or something like that for ahead
or otherwise. He probably wasn't interested. But the games went
on and rarely was the United States asleep during that
rest of the Olympics, although one member of the American
contingent was. So we have another dozing story j A
(46:57):
for episode nine, as well as accounts of the games
the way the team really came together. And here's Chris
Bosh to close us out. I mean, you know, as
close you man. I mean, you see how talented guys were,
And I always tell people that was some of the
best basketball I've ever seen. I remember just being happy
(47:17):
of having that luxury just to kind of playoff guys,
just to see how really how talented guys are, what
their work ethic is and all these things, and just
to be able to take part in that and have
a good summer roader. I'm Jack McCallum. That's all for
episode eight, and I'm J Donne. Will be back with
more in episode nine. The Dream Team Tapes Season two,
(47:41):
Kobe Lebron and the Redeem Team is a production of
Diversion Podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. For more
podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This season
is written and hosted by me, Jack McCallum and j A. Dande.
(48:04):
Executive producer Scott Waxman and Mark Francis for Diversion podcast
and Shawn's High Tone for I Heart Radio. Our editorial
director is John Tuttle, Supervising producer Brian Murphy, Legal producer
Freddie Overstegen editing, mixing and sound designed by Mark frances Verna.
Fields is our technical producer and our Director of Marketing
(48:26):
and business Development is Jacob Bronstein. Diversion Podcasts
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