Team USA and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is in the midst of celebrating after winning his third gold medal at the Olympics which the latest was achieved by beating France Saturday afternoon in Paris. Besides taking home the Olympics MVP, James spoke about which gold medal that he has won with Team USA is his favorite which the answer is likely to not surprise people.
Besides winning the gold medal this year, he also was a part of the team that achieved the honor in 2008 in Beijing, China and also in 2012 in London, England. However, James would choose the 2024 gold medal and even explained it by saying that “it's the one right now” even though the medal with the “Redeem Team” was a special event in 2008 according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.
“I mean, (this) is the best one because it’s the one that’s right now,” James said about what his favorite gold medal is to him. “I mean, obviously the Redeem Team (in ’08) had a lot of — you know, we had to come back, because we had a couple years where we weren’t playing to our capability. So in ’08, we had the Redeem Team come back, and then in ’12 we played some good ball as well and were able to win that in London.”
Besides the results on the court, it could also be James' favorite since he was the one that started the recruitment process to congregate the NBA's best stars and put them on one team.
LeBron James had major hand in Team USA
He has been credited with being the main factor for big stars like Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, and others to join after USA missed out on any hardware in the 2023 FIBA World Cup after their loss to Canada in the bronze medal game.
It was a treat for fans to see James pair with rival and friend in Curry who the Lakers star said that the Golden State Warriors guard is “just simply marvel, and it’s amazing.” Not even that, putting Durant and it forms the trifecta of players that ruled the 2010s which had people's fandom going crazy.
“KD’s [Durant} one of the all-time greats,” James said of Durant via The Athletic. “It’s not even a question. I mean, you just look at his silhouette, look at his skill. He’s one of the best basketball players we’ve ever seen play the game of basketball.”
Besides those three legends, many more of the league's top players were on the team as it had to be managed by Team USA head coach Steve Kerr and the rest of the staff. Kerr would say that it is a “blessing to coach” James since he has usually been on the other side of the aisle as the Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers faced off in many NBA Finals series.
“What a blessing to coach him finally after all these years of coaching against him and trying to figure out how to beat him,” Kerr said about coaching James “Just to see his approach, to see his professionalism, how coachable he is, and then of course how gifted he is, everything, every part of the game he seems to have mastered. I’m a LeBron fan for life.”
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