America is known to dominate basketball over the years. However, team USA saw a new low when they could only win a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. To bring back glory to America’s basketball team, they created the Redeem Team, which was full of NBA stars.
The team had the likes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade. In the recent documentary on Netflix, the Redeem Team, James was seen motivating his teammates. James said they have no excuses to not go all the way in the Olympics as they had a star-studded line-up
James said in the documentary, “We gotta be a no-excuse team. I know I’m guilty of this sometimes. I sit at home and say, ‘If I had Dwight Howard on my team, or if I had Carlos Boozer on my team or if I had Chris Paul as my point guard, I’d win an NBA Championship.’
He added: “I got all y’all on this team. So, what’s my excuse now? Do we all have an excuse? We don’t. This is everything that we always dreamed of, of having that guy next to us and winning something. I have no excuse now. None of us.”
The USA was able to beat Spain in the final by 118-107 to clinch the gold medal in China’s capital in 2008.
On the other hand, LeBron James went on to win his first NBA championship with Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009 along with Redeem team members Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.
James’ Lakers will open their NBA campaign against Golden State Warriors on 19th October.