Early next month, Netflix will premiere its new documentary that covers the iconic 2008 United States men’s Olympic basketball team, otherwise known as the “Redeem Team.”
As Miami Heat fans know, former Heat superstar Dwyane Wade played a pivotal role on that team. He’s also an executive producer for the documentary alongside LeBron James. For those reasons, it was not much of a shock to see Wade take to social media to post his own excitement about the coming documentary.
The 2008 team had a lot of pressure on its shoulders following the embarrassing result for the team that came prior in 2004. In the 2004 Olympics, the United States failed to extend the three-peat of gold medals that it held at the time.
In those 2004 Olympics, the team lost three contests and ended up taking home a bronze medal.
For that reason, a whole new approach was taken by the team heading into the 2008 Olympics. The team was filled with the biggest stars in the league, including Kobe Bryant, James, Wade and more.
The team went on to dominate the 2008 Olympics, winning every game it played by double digits.
Wade was the team’s leading scorer, averaging 16.0 points per game. Surely, he’s looking forward to reliving some of those wonderful moments that will undoubtedly be covered in the upcoming documentary.
Beyond simply winning the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, that team has also been credited for being one of the buildings blocks of what would eventually become the Heat’s Big 3 era.
After all, those games were the first time that James, Wade and big man Chris Bosh got to play together as teammates. It’s very possible that the fun they had as teammates and success they enjoyed on the court played a role in convincing the three stars that they should join forces.
As Heat fans know, their teaming up in 2010 led to one of the more dominant eras for an NBA team in recent memory. From 2011 to 2014, the Heat went to four NBA Finals and won two championships.
As for the United States men’s Olympic team, it’s won the gold medal in every Olympics since 2008.