U.S. men rise to new heights, on court and off

By Alan Abrahamson, NBCOlympics.com
Posted Sunday, August 24, 2008 3:20 AM ET
BEIJING - Anything less than gold simply would not do. That was the mission. That was the mandate. Gold, and only gold, would redeem recent American failures -- the missteps that had reduced American stature in the game Americans had long dominated.

The U.S. men's basketball team hung tough on Sunday to defeat Spain, 118-107, to win the 2008 Beijing Games gold medal. It was a victory that culminated the journey of the so-called "Redeem Team," a collection of NBA stars - Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and others - that came together to play together.

Bryant screamed amid an embrace with Wade just moments after the final buzzer. The two of them pulled at their blue road jerseys to show off the "USA" emblems and Bryant yelled, "I'm just so excited. We all are."

On the podium, Bryant blew kisses to the crowd, raised his hands in triumph, held his hand to his heart and, after he got it, kissed his gold medal. Repeatedly. "The moment is finally here," he said.

"It feels," Deron Williams said, clutching his medal, "like gold."

Just because it was expected - indeed, demanded - doesn't make the 2008 gold medal any less special, and didn't make the moment any less worth savoring. The rest of the world has gotten better at basketball, and even a collection of some of the best ballplayers in the world were always going to have to play better than those who came before them - pointedly, the 1992 Dream Team - to prevail at the Olympics.

Spain, for instance, is the 2006 world champs. The United States is not.

Spain's roster includes star center Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles Lakers and other NBA standouts, including Jose Calderon of the Toronto Raptors, fifth last season in the league in assists. The 1992 opposition is remembered mostly for a skinny Angolan.

The 1992 team was legendary. So, too, should this 2008 team be.

"Man, this feels great," Wade said. "We haven't won in eight years," a reference to the last time the Americans won gold at the Olympics, in Sydney in 2000.

The victory Sunday also validates the enormous culture change and shift in direction for American basketball at the Olympics that one man, more than any other, knew would have to be implemented for Team USA - a program stung by a third-place finish at the 2004 Athens Games and a semifinal defeat to Greece at the 2006 FIBA world championships.

Jerry Colangelo, the former owner of the Phoenix Suns who after Athens was charged with making sure Olympic bronze in 2004 would turn to gold in 2008, could write a book about what he got done that would be a must-read case study at the top American graduate business schools.

Surveying the landscape after those Athens Games, Colangelo saw, among other issues, these:

An American roster of stars but no cohesivness.

Little understanding that role players and jump shooters are essential in international ball.

No continuity - no commitment from the players beyond a short training camp leading up to the Olympics themselves.

Uncertain desire from some stars to play in a red, white and blue jersey after the rigors of an NBA season.

And, finally, little appreciation of the perceptions created by even the slightest wrong note struck by any NBA player, typically among the biggest of the big stars at every Olympics since the Dream Team in 1992.

Colangelo set out to change all that.

He convened a meeting in Chicago in June, 2005, at which he summoned coaches and players from prior Games. That one meeting was the defining moment - the turn in the direction of American basketball that led inexorably to Sunday's gold.

At that meeting, coaches and players - everyone from John Thompson to Michael Jordan - stood up and said things had to change.

From that point on, Colangelo had, in business terms, buy-in.

He also had momentum.

Word began to spread among players and their agents that Team USA for 2008 was the thing to do.

Eventually, Bryant and James signed up. So, too, did the likes of Michael Redd, an outside shooter who -- upon arriving in sweats for his interview in Chicago with Colangelo, having just driven down after from practice in Milwaukee -- said "excuse me," walked into the bathroom, changed into a suit, came back out and said, "now I'm ready to tell you why I want to play."

At that moment it was plain, too, that the culture had changed.

"It's about winning with dignity. It's showing humility, showing respect for the game and the people in the game internationally," Colangelo said.

The difference from some prior American teams would manifest itself time and again here at the 2008 Olympics.

"We stayed at the soccer matches to see the U.S. women get their gold medals - just to see what that was going to be like," Bryant said.

"We had our flag and we were holding our flag and waving it around, just to support them, just to see their families, how they interacted with them - with the emotion that comes along with that.

"Months and months and months of preparation - it was good for us to see that and draw inspiration from that."

Colangelo was moved by the effort his players showed throughout the three weeks in China.

"We are very, very proud of the way our players have conducted themselves, how engaging they've been during the entire Olympics ...They scored a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10."

As for the basketball itself, the U.S. roared through pool play undefeated despite a mysterious inability in the first few games to shoot threes - relying instead on quickness and athleticism to depose of the likes of China, 101-70, in a game attended by President Bush and other American and Chinese dignitaries.

In the preliminary round game in which the Americans finally started shooting threes (12 of 25, 48 percent), the U.S. beat up on Spain, 119-82.

In the medal round, the Americans dispatched Australia in the quarterfinals, Argentina in the semis.

At practice Saturday, preparing for Spain, no one expecting another 37-point blowout, Wade observed, "The last eight years have been talked about as - you know, this is not our game anymore, we're nothing but showboat players, all the bad things that have been said about NBA players about Team USA.

"We're 40 minutes away from shutting that all up. That'll be good."

As they lined up at halfcourt for the start of Sunday's final, Bryant brushed by Gasol. The Spanish center patted his Laker teammate on the backside - and it was game on.

From that point on, they were combatants, not friends. Spain hung tough, and a 7-0 Spanish run at the start of the fourth closed the American lead to two with 8:13 to go.

But the Americans responded, with the professionalism and passion Colangelo expected. After Bryant hit two free throws with 26.1 seconds left, he came out to high fives and hugs all around with Team USA firmly in control.

After the final buzzer, Bryant and Gasol met again. They embraced and rubbed each other's heads in friendship and respect. "It was fun," Gasol said later of the championship-game experience.

A few minutes laer, the world watching, they played the Star Spangled Banner for the 2008 U.S. men's basketball team.

They put their hands over their hearts.

"Man," Carlos Boozer said, an American flag draped over his shoulders, "this is something special."

Copyright 2008 NBC Universal. All rights reserved. Any use, reproduction, modification, distribution, display or performance of this material without NBC Universal's prior written consent is prohibited.