Opinion | Beijing 2008: Team USA’s LeBron James and Kobe Bryant ‘Redeem Team’ basketball gold medal was most important
- Even before China’s first Olympic hosting the NBA’s relationship with the country was under scrutiny over politics and human rights
- LeBron James and Kobe Bryant thought their London 2012 team would beat 1992 ‘Dream Team’ but 2008 was most historic
On August 24, 2008, the Beijing Olympics ended with fireworks, a closing ceremony as lavish as the one that opened it 16 days before and the Olympic torch being handed to the next hosts, London.
London mayor Boris Johnson was there to take the mantle from his Beijing counterpart, Guo Jinlong. China’s coming out party to the world was officially over.
The real climax to the Games was several hours earlier in the Wukesong Indoor Stadium where the “Redeem Team” had indeed gained redemption, thanks to much bigger household names than even the 30 heads of state that would be in attendance at the “Bird’s Nest” that night.
The US men’s basketball team were so named as a play on words for the original Michael Jordan-led “Dream Team” at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and because of the disappointment in Athens in 2004 and the FIBA World Championships two years later.
If you could see the twinkling in Beijing’s night sky at the closing ceremony because of the anti-pollution measures put in place for the Games, there was no doubt who the real stars were: the NBA elite, including Kobe Bryant and a 23-year-old LeBron James, who were mobbed everywhere they went by Chinese fans and fellow Olympians.
