The Dream Team Tapes – Details, episodes & analysis

The real story of the greatest team in NBA history, the 1992 Dream Team that won Olympic gold in Barcelona. Hear the incomparable players in their own words, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Karl Malone and the others. Renowned sportswriter and author Jack McCallum was there with the guys and brings us the thrilling memories, personal stories, and sometimes surprising anecdotes of the twelve historic players.

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The real story of the greatest team in NBA history, the 1992 Dream Team that won Olympic gold in Barcelona. Hear the incomparable players in their own words, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Karl Malone and the others. Renowned sportswriter and author Jack McCallum was there with the guys and brings us the thrilling memories, personal stories, and sometimes surprising anecdotes of the twelve historic players.

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Get a preview of Season 2 of the #1 New Sports Podcast of 2020. Sports journalist vets Jack McCallum and J.A. Adande take listeners through an insider's study of the 2008 US Olympic Men's Basketball Team and the legendary players that defined a new generation of NBA basketball, including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Jason Kidd. Season 2 features guests including Carmelo Anthony, Phil Jackson, Chris Bosh, Robert Horry, Jerry Colangelo, Deron Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and many more, bringing you an epic examination in athletic challenge, transformation, and ultimate victory. 

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In an often-overlooked story, the 2008 US Men's Olympic basketball team made magic. Led by two NBA superstars, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James (who many thought couldn't play together) and coached by Mike Krzyzewski (a “college guy” many first dismissed as unable to handle pro players) the US overcame the stifling embarrassment of their 2004 showing and won a decisive gold victory in 2008. Hosts Jack McCallum and J.A Adande begin a fascinating exploration of how the 2008 "Redeem Team" also succeeded in much more: it not only made the tough and fundamental move of changing a culture that had grown toxic in the years following the Dream Team’s world conquest in 1992 but also marked an historical inflection point in NBA basketball that set the stage for everything — and every superstar player — that has come since. Hear a revealing interview with current Portland Trailblazer and former Redeem Teamer, Carmelo Anthony, as well as interviews with Redeem Teamer and now assistant coach for the LA Lakers, Jason Kidd, the one and only Phil Jackson of numerous Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers NBA victories, and Coach K himself, Mike Krzyzewski.

FROM THE EPISODE:

JACK MCCALLUM: I’m Jack McCallum, who brought you The Dream Team Tapes podcast and this is its worthy sequel. The story of The Redeem Team — sometimes overlooked — is, on its own, in my opinion, every bit as intriguing as the Dream Team that proceeded them by 16 years. One of the things I've found out by doing The Dream Team Tapes is how eager these guys were to talk about it. For even guys that were All-Stars, Hall of Famers, won championships, it was a really special time in their lives. Which is why I was able to get inside the heads of players like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson.

In the same way, The Redeem Team defines a lot of these guys' careers. In the coming weeks you're going to be hearing from the players, the coaches, and the executives who were so eager to share their thoughts on what was an important part in their lives. So here's a quick snapshot of some of those voices you'll be hearing:

ROBERT HORRY: We understood the pecking order. We knew Kobe and LeBron were going to shoot the ball or, more or less, Kobe was going to shoot the ball.

JASON KIDD: I’ve never said this, but I remember sitting there and watching those guys. When we were in harmony, you can't play better than this

COACH K: The most pressure moment I've ever had as a coach was the gold medal game with eight minutes to go.

JACK MCCALLUM: The year is 2008: The Games of the 29th Olympiad. An American basketball team — an American basketball program, really — bent on turning around its diminished fortunes, which included a 6th place finish in the 2002 World Championships and even worse, a mere Bronze Medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The United States team was on a mission. There was magic in the air.

Actually there was smog in the air. Hey, we're in Beijing after all, but this 2008 team turned out to be a breath of fresh air for our Olympic program. But it wasn't easy.

I'll be joined by J.A. Adande, who himself was heard recently talking about a Dream Teamer, somebody named Michael Jordan, in the terrific, “Beyond the Last Dance” that he did with B.J. Armstrong, a former teammate of Jordan's...

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The creation story of the 2008 Redeem Team begins in the residue of the 1992 Dream Team, as does the redemption story of Kobe Bryant, who played such an important role when he later not just joined the Redeem Team but played the pivotal role of "team energizer." Hosts Jack McCallum and J.A Adande examine the young Kobe — fresh out of high school, clueless in many ways about the NBA baskeTball game — and, with a lot of Zen Master insight from guest (and winningest coach in NBA history) Phil Jackson — follow Kobe through the highs of championship glory, the painful lows of a sexual assault charge, and the dismantling of a mini-dynasty.

FROM THE EPISODE:

We asked Phil Jackson to summarize his relationship with Kobe Bryant and he made it sound like something from a work of literature:

PHIL JACKSON: I think it's almost like a Prodigal Son story. There I go into a father limination illustration. There's a conflict and there’s a willfulness and there's selfishness and there's “I could do this on my own” type of thing. And then there's a the second life or second opportunity that really brings back tenderness, yielding. It really took two of us to have that complicated relationship early on, trying to both be willful or directed, and Kobe’s was to establish himself.

His identity and maybe to establish what a team had to do to win, the direction that teams have to have: this unselfish behavior. And bending that will I think was done, sometimes, in unusual ways. Like one time, I arrived at the facility where I had a parking spot that was designated as mine, and there was Kobe’s car in my parking spot; things like that. Just to know that he was going to irritate me and me not reacting to it at all, just going on about the day, not taking on umbrage. So we forged something that was harmonious and that was one of the joys of our life. My former pal and partner Jeanie Buss says that we raised him as a son of our own.

J.A. ADANDE: So you can see why we had to clear the way for this. Much like Kobe isolating on the wing so he could go one-on-one — although I'd say Kobe's ability to steal the spotlight is part of The Lakers and the way they steal the spotlight. There's something about that franchise…

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After a memorable 2003 NBA draft that included four eventual iconic champions that would enrich the 2008 Redeem Team including LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, three of these young stars are thrust into the spotlight at the 2004 Olympics. The experience is anything but golden and the U.S. Olympic program arrives at a crossroads. On this episode you'll hear from Dwyane Wade (Redeem Teamer, 3-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat, 13-time NBA All-Star), Carmelo Anthony (Redeem Teamer, 10-time NBA All-Star and current Portland Trail Blazer), Deron Williams (NBA champion, former Utah Jazz point guard, and Redeem Team member), Grant Wahl (Former senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports correspondent, host of podcasts including "Fútbol with Grant Wahl" and "American Prodigy: Freddy Ad‪u"), Craig Miller (USA Basketball's Chief Communications Officer extraordinaire, headed PR for the 1992 Dream Team and the 2008 USA Basketball Men's Senior National Team), and Sean Ford (USA Basketball's National Team Director).

FROM THE EPISODE:

JACK MCCALLUM: Ladies and gentlemen, Darko Miličić went 2nd to the Detroit Pistons before Carmelo Anthony, who was 3rd before Chris Bosh, who was 4th. And before Dwyane Wade who was 5th. So that is fully, as we said before, that is 1/3 of the kids who five years later would be on The Redeem team. But that draft interestingly gave us those guys. I think that's probably ranked among the greatest drafts of all time. Do you have any memories of other great drafts?

J.A. ADANDE: It’s right up there. To me, I think the standard has to be the 1984 draft. If nothing else it gave us Michael Jordan, but also Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley, John Stockton's in there as well. So if you think about stocking Olympic teams, you've got Barkley, Jordan, and John Stockton. So there's a third of the 1992 Dream Team comes out of that one draft, similar to the way that the 2003 draft stocked the Redeem Team of 2008.

JACK MCCALLUM: Yeah. Another great draft was your guy: Kobe Bryant in 1996. You got Kobe, you got Ray Allen, you got Steve Nash. You got —

J.A. ADANDE: Allen Iverson at the top of that —

JACK MCCALLUM: AI was right there, Peja Stojaković, Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, a bunch of guys… Derek Fisher, who watched for a hundred years 

J.A. ADANDE: Won five championships with Kobe.

JACK MCCALLUM: …making jump shots out in LA. But 1996 was a great NBA draft. What's to me is why — I don't remember, maybe because nobody gives too much of a damn about Cleveland, but was there ever an examination of how LeBron James got to Cleveland? You remember Patrick Ewing and the New York conspiracy? Good ol’ LeBron only had about a 22% chance of going to a Cleveland, but nevertheless, there he was. I don't think there has ever been one athlete — correct me if I'm wrong — who has ever brought more of a renaissance to one city. When Michael Jordan went to Chicago, Chicago was already a pretty damn great city, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe later. LA was a pretty good city, too; they had other stuff going on. LeBron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers? That set things off, man. 

J.A. ADANDE: That was everything. There is that great YouTube video. The Cleveland Tourism Board or something like that, it was like a mock Cleveland promotional video which really pointed out all the things that were *wrong* with Cleveland. But one of the lines in there is, “Our economy is built on LeBron James.” 

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With USA Basketball in shambles, they turn to "The Godfather," Jerry Colangelo, who proved to be instrumental in reviving the program. There are other "Great Men" with courage, intellect, and leadership that made The Redeem Team great, including of course Mike Krzyzewski, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James, but the first Great Man to come along and change the course of USA basketball's history was Jerry Colangelo. Colangelo has owned, general managed, and coached the Phoenix Suns basketball team, he was Chairman of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers, he owned the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball, the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League, he was instrumental in relocating the Winnipeg Jets hockey team to become the Phoenix Coyotes, he built a basketball program at Grand Canyon University, and he's been president of the NBA Board of Governors. And that's not even the most interesting part of his bio. This episode also includes stories and interviews with Portland Trailblazer and Redeem Teamer Carmelo Anthony, Redeem Teamer and now assistant coach for the LA Lakers Jason Kidd, NBA champion and Redeem Teamer Deron Williams, and winningest coach in NBA history Phil Jackson, among others.

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We unlock the secret of why players like Carmelo Anthony, Jason Kidd and Chris Bosh buy into the coaching style of Mike Krzyzewski. Why, Coach K’s not some gentleman from Duke; he’s a swearing machine from the mean streets of Chicago.

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While an injury keeps Kobe Bryant away from USA Basketball after his highest-scoring season, newly crowned champion Dwyane Wade joins LeBron James for version 1.0 of the Redeem Team. But trouble awaits in the semifinals of the FIBA World Championships.

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LeBron James led a so-so team into the Finals during the regular season, but Kobe Bryant, by the measure of most, including Coach Mike Krzyzewski, is the league’s best player. So when Mamba joins the Redeem Team in the summer of 2007, which one is really in charge on the court? Starring Chris Bosh, Phil Jackson, Anthony Carmelo, Deron Williams, Coach K, Jason Kidd.

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