2008 United States men's Olympic basketball team
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The men's national basketball team of the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in
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, China. They qualified for the Olympics by winning the 2007 FIBA American Championship held in
Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...
. The team was nicknamed the "Redeem Team", a play on an alternative name for the legendary 1992 squad that was called the "Dream Team", and a reference to the fact that the United States came away with disappointing Bronze Medals during the 2004 Summer Olympics and the
2006 FIBA World Championship The 2006 FIBA World Championship was the 15th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. The tournament was hosted by Japan and held from 19 August to 3 September 2006. It was co-organised by ...
. Former Phoenix Suns chairman and CEO Jerry Colangelo was named Managing Director of the national team program by the USA Basketball Executive Committee in 2005. Kobe Bryant was named the team captain and
Mike Krzyzewski Michael William Krzyzewski ( ; born February 13, 1947), nicknamed "Coach K", is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at Duke University from 1980 to 2022, during which he led the Blue Devils to five nati ...
was named the head coach of the 2008 team." An ESPN program, ''
Road to Redemption ''Road to Redemption'' was a 2008 sports documentary presented by Nike that follows the Men's USA Basketball Team as it prepared for the Beijing Olympics. The documentary included behind-the-scenes footage of the team, how they trained, and wh ...
'', followed the team's preparations. Additionally, a Netflix produced documentary titled ''The Redeem Team'' was released in 2022. The United States defeated
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
118–107 in the final to win the gold. Dwyane Wade was the leading scorer for team USA averaging 16 points per game. The withdrawal of all major stars prior to the 2004 Olympics and an embarrassing performance of those young and inexperienced who were called to replace them prompted USA Basketball to change its approach to the formation of a national team. As a result, the organization initiated a long-term project that saw NBA players committing to play for the team long before the start of the 2008 Olympics (instead of hastily accepting invitations merely weeks prior to the start of the tournament). Many 2008 Olympians participated in the 2007 Americas championships, where the US won gold, thus qualifying for the Olympics. The final roster featured eleven
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, a Hall of Fame coach, and two NBA MVPs.


Record


Preliminary Round

The team competed in Group B of the Preliminary Round.


Tournament bracket


Roster

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References


External links


USA Basketball
official site
The Redeem Team
2022
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
documentary {{Summer Olympics basketball tournament winners United States at the Olympic men's basketball tournament
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Olympics