We're less than one week out from the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, and as is so often the case when the Olympic Games are on the horizon, much of the media's attention has been focused on the USA men's basketball team. With the exception of a handful of Team USA athletes who have managed to gain worldwide notoriety — think Simone Biles, Sha'Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles, and Katie Ledecky — the biggest stars will be competing on the hardwood, and that's been the case since the Dream Team forever changed international basketball in 1992.
There have been many star-studded versions of the Team USA basketball squad since 1992… perhaps most notably, the 2004 and 2008 teams, which will be forever linked given their respective outcomes. In 2004, a hastily put together all-star team was upended in their opening game against Puerto Rico, and ended up barely escaping with a bronze medal. Four years later, after a complete overhaul of the program, the Redeem Team came together and captured Gold in Beijing.
Basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade played for Team USA in both 2004 and 2008, so he's uniquely positioned to talk about each of these teams, along with the challenges that the 2024 squad has ahead of them in Paris. During an appearance on the Wave Sports + Entertainment Original, 7 PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & Kid Mero, Wade spoke glowingly about the role that head coach Mike Krzyzewski had on allowing the Redeem Team to succeed in such a pressure-packed situation.
“I always say Coach K was the perfect coach for us. He had the right temperament, he had the right toughness, he had the right pressure on the team and ultimately the coach gotta check his ego as well. It is a lot of egos that gotta be checked at the door, but also as Coach K told us but I need you to bring it too because that's what make you who you are.”
The experience of playing for Coach K in 2008 was drastically different than Wade's previous experience in the Summer Olympics. In 2004, veteran head coach Larry Brown notoriously clashed with his team, in large part because he didn't do what Mike Krzyzewski did so well four years later.
“I think Larry Brown tried to use the USA team as a tool,” former Team USA member Richard Jefferson said in an oral history about the 2004 Olympics (h/t Eric Freeman of Yahoo! Sports). “It was when AND1 basketball was going on. He was trying to do something for the game of basketball and trying to put out a certain style of play and a certain style of message versus us just going out there and trying to win games and trying to accomplish things. I remember in the qualifier for the Olympics, he told Jason Kidd, ‘Hey Jason, I know you’re really good at the fast break, but I want you to stop at the free-throw line and throw a bounce pass to one of the wings.' And you’re sitting here talking to the second all-time leading assist guy.”
How will Steve Kerr and his staff handle Team USA challenges?
“The coaches, they're going to have to check their egos,” Wade continued. “It's going to be moments where it's going to get testy. It's going to be moments where fingers want to point, right and so your leader at that point is going to be very important. Especially when you got a group of guys on the court that are used to being him and they can't be him and they're frustrated, you are the one that got to figure all this out. So it's going to be very important what Steve Kerr and Erik Spoelstra and Tyronn Lue and their coaching staff, how they handle that team.”
Joining Steve Kerr, Erik Spoelstra, and Tyronn Lue on the Team USA bench will be Gonzaga Bulldogs head coach Mark Few. Together, this quartet of coaches will be tasked with coaching Team USA to their 5th straight Olympic Gold Medal. Fortunately, Kerr, Spoelstra and Lue all have experience coaching players with big egos and a long list of accomplishments in the NBA.
Having a few elder statesmen, like LeBron James and Stephen Curry, to set the proper example is a great place to start. Spoelstra and Lue have each won NBA Titles while coaching LeBron James. Steve Kerr has been on the opposite bench four times against LeBron in the NBA Finals, and as you'd expect given Kerr's well-documented admiration for James, the experience of being on the same side as him has been a pleasure.
“I'm just blown away by LeBron's effort and concentration and focus,” Kerr said recently, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. “On every single drill he talks. He's even in a shootaround walkthrough his voice behind the play, yelling out what's happening, yelling out the scheme, his leadership by example. The guy is incredible and I mean I've known that forever, but to see it up close is pretty special.”
Managing egos will only be half the battle for Team USA. The rest of the world continues to catch up to the United States on the basketball court, and there will be loads of talent on display for two weeks in Paris.
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