They might be recognized as the most successful international team in the Olympics, but the men's USA basketball team had a pretty unlucky year back in 2004, marking a pretty questionable era for the NBA players who played for their national team. With the pressure on for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the U.S. put together the squad of a lifetime, who would later become known as the Redeem Team, in order to win the title four years later. Last week, Netflix dropped the first trailer for The Redeem Team, a documentary chronicling the team's 2008 gold medal win and all it took to get there, and well, it looks unreal.
NBA players only began representing the U.S. back in 1992, when the Dream Team was formed. Legendary players from Magic Johnson to Michael Jordon, Larry Bird, and more all formed the actual Dream Team, and together they dominated the Barcelona Olympics taking home the Gold Medal. The U.S. men's team took home the win again and again until the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, when the team ended up in third place, shocking the nation and the entire world. So, when the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing were approaching, all eyes were on the Redeem Team to take back the title, and that's exactly what they did.
Nearly 15 years later, Netflix has released a trailer for the documentary, providing behind-the-scenes footage from the International Olympic Committee of the team that led the U.S. to victory after a heavy loss four years earlier. Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony were all tasked with restoring the team to its place at the top, and luckily for us, we can see what it took for them to get there, with exclusive interviews from some of the team's players.
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Director Jon Weinbach shared what it meant to create The Redeem Team, pointing out it was "so clearly emotional for the guys on this team" to be a part of this experience. "I felt that the guys really wanted to talk about this. They've all won stuff. They've all done incredible things. But I think the enthusiasm, the candor, and the emotion they brought showed that they wanted to honor the memory of the team and the significance of it." So make sure to check out this special story, premiering on Netflix on October 7.
