Team USA is unarguably the most dominant team in men’s basketball in the Olympics. They have won 16 gold medals, which is obviously the most by any team in the competition.
But at the 2004 Olympics, Team USA had one of its worst runs in the competition. They were expected to cruise through the competition. Instead, they barely managed to win the bronze medal.
Following that frustrating run, the 2008 Olympics were incredibly important for the USA. As a result, the most talented American players from the NBA were called up to represent the country.
At the time, Jerry Colangelo served as the national director of Team USA, and he was tasked with the duty of recruiting talented players.
Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, And Jerry West Helped In Recruiting 2008 Redeem Team
Colangelo knew that a lot was on the line for Team USA in the 2008 Olympics, so he couldn’t make a mistake. As a result, he asked the likes of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Jerry West, and many other NBA legends to help him in the recruitment process.
“Before I did anything else, I brought together in Chicago about 30 of the great basketball minds in the country, people like John Thompson, Dean Smith, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Jerry West. The purpose was to use them as a sounding board. I also had each of them talk about their Olympic experience, their thoughts on the currents state of affairs and what they thought needed to be done. It was tremendous to have that kind of brainpower in one room. I put a bunch of names, coaches and players on a board and got a real strong read on who they liked. The first person I needed was my partner, my coach, and that was Mike Krzyzewski.”
Having almost 30 great basketball minds working together certainly did wonders for the team. Coach K’s addition was pretty crucial as he later recruited Kobe Bryant to the team.
Kobe was brought in to lead the team and make sure that the chemistry between the stars was good. He even had a powerful message for the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade right after joining the team. Well, at the end of the day, Colangelo’s efforts worked as The Redeem Team had a dominant run in the Olympics and once again won the gold medal.
