When the Dream Team shone around the world in 1992, it was said that American basketball had led the world basketball for 50 years.
In fact, this team, which once regarded the Olympics as a fan meeting, has been defeated by other countries for 6 consecutive years and has not won the gold medal. If the Beijing Olympics in '08 don't win gold, the direction of American basketball will change significantly.
Therefore, this dream eight team in Beijing is also known as the "redemption team".
And the leader who led this group of NBA stars to complete the "redemption" is a face we are not familiar with. He has never coached the NBA, but he has condensed a group of stars who like to fight alone. His name was Mike Šashevsky, and people liked to call him, Coach K Sr.
The 2004 Athens Olympics were the most humiliating edition since FIBA allowed NBA players to participate, and Duncan, the number one forward in history, even announced his permanent retirement from the national team after this Olympics!
The painstricken FIBA decided to make a change, choosing Jerry Cronquillo as managing director, and he chose his coaches and players.
When Kronquillo laid out a list of all potential coaches at the meeting, former North Carolina coach Dean Smith told him: "Jerry, the only person who can do this is Shashevsky. As the greatest coach in the history of the University of North Carolina, Smith not only trained Jordan, but also the first two national team coaches George Carr and Larry Brown, and the only choice for this legendary coach turned out to be Duke's old rival.
K had already won three national championships in the NCAA and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. As one of the most outstanding coaches in college basketball, even though the elder K never coached the NBA, he served as an assistant coach for Chuck Daly's 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, winning the Olympic gold medal with the amazing "dream team".
Therefore, when Cronquillo asked Coach K if he was willing to be the coach of the national team, it was this valuable experience that made Old K agree to his invitation without hesitation and officially serve as the head coach of the US national team!
Despite his numerous accolades in college basketball, as the first head college basketball coach since 1992, many still believe that choosing him to coach a professional player was a crazy decision, because Popovich had just received his third NBA championship ring.
But Cronquillo gave him the greatest support: "Old Coach K is the right person at the right time," and he also made changes in the system, requiring coaches and athletes to sign an unprecedented three-year contract. And in the offseason, the national team training began early to prepare for the 06 Japan World Championships.
But even if they begin to pay attention, the speed of progress in world basketball is far beyond their imagination, and at this time, there is no team in the international arena that fears this former king. Puerto Rico, who severely humiliated Team America at the Athens Olympics two years ago, scored another 100 points on their heads.
They trailed by double digits in the second half against Italy until Cameron Anthony scored a game-high 35 points. After stumbling to win seven games, they still fell in the semifinals under the Greek men's basketball team led by "European Kobe" Spanorics and European Cup MVP Papalukas.
The Greek players who beat the dream team were so excited that they won the championship, they rushed to the field to celebrate this historic victory.
The first international loser to win the game was a nod on his face, and the old K smiled and greeted Greece coach Giannakis. As a Hall of Famer coach, this match against Greece became the worst defeat of K's coaching career, but fortunately he did not mess up, but patiently learned the lessons. Studying at West Point taught him to accept failure and rediscover himself through it.
After all, their ultimate goal is to win gold at the Beijing Olympics. After the World Championships, the old K decided that the current squad depth was not enough, and they lacked experienced veterans.
So, he asked Cronquillo, "We need Jason Kidd". The 34-year-old won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and has never tasted defeat on the international stage. As early as 1993, when the reigning NCAA champion Duke was eliminated by Kidd's UC Golden Bears in the second round of "March Madness", the two sides intersected, and it was a great honor for Kidd to personally feel the coaching of Coach K Sold.
In addition to Kidd's warm joining, what makes Old K happiest is Kobe's return.
He had two opportunities to coach Kobe, the first was when Bryant was still in high school, and the elder K wanted to recruit him to Duke University, but the latter directly entered the NBA draft: and another time was in 2004, when the dynasty collapsed Lakers offered the old K a five-year 40 million contract, but he still gave up the opportunity to coach the world's best player and stayed at Duke.
In 2006, when the elder K thought he was finally going to coach Kobe, he missed the World Championships due to knee surgery. It wasn't until the summer of '07 that Bryant finally returned to the national team.
He himself is very happy that he can represent his country under Old K. When Old K asked him what role he wanted to play on the team, the 06-07 scoring champion was full of defense. Old K admired his ideas, which were consistent with his coaching philosophy for 27 years, but he didn't expect Kobe to be so stubborn, not shooting a single basket in training, and fully immersed in defense.
The U.S. Championship soon arrived, and Kobe, who was addicted to defense, really became a nightmare for all opponents. In the match against Brazil, Kobe Bryant made a death entanglement against "Brazilian Lightning" Barbosa.
The US Championship scoring champion, who averaged 27 points per game, scored only 4 points in the whole game, and staged a wave of "flying rescues" in the first quarter. Under his infection, the US men's basketball team became more and more tough, and they won all ten games in the US Championship and successfully obtained a ticket to the Beijing Olympics.
But as a battle-hardened leader, K knows that a great team needs multiple leaders and multiple voices.
Kidd is a veteran of a hundred battles, and Kobe is a killer who has seen blood and sealed his throat. Whenever the elder K wanted to send a message to the team, he needed a third leader — LeBron James. Unlike Kidd's experience and Kobe's example, the 24-year-old James is an atmosphere mover within the American team, he will always urge his teammates on the court and will also play funny off the court.
The elder K needed James' energy to unite the young players in the team as a whole, and it turned out that he did, he became the most talkative person on the team, he became the link between all his teammates.
Two years have passed. Under the leadership of the old K, the dream team has experienced the regrets of the World Championship and the comeback of the American Championship, but the ultimate goal set three years ago has not yet been achieved. When the 12 players competing in the Beijing Olympics settled in front of the Statue of Liberty, they were about to face the most important meeting in the history of American men's basketball, the Gold Standard-making meeting. Before the meeting, Old K approached each player individually and asked them to speak up in the meeting.
Unlike his previous absolute authority at Duke, this time, the old K let the players set their own rules.
Kidd, the oldest in his grade, was the first to ask for respect, not only for his teammates, coaches, but also for his opponents. Young Flash Wade spoke for the second time: "We want to commit to each other and support each other. "As a member of the Athens Olympics 4 years ago, he is more eager to prove himself than anyone else.
Bryant followed Wade and said: "Wherever we are, defend well, grab rebounds and we can win." Everyone's emotions were ignited, everyone was expressing their thoughts, but the old K who presided over the meeting still did not wait for the key person, just as he was about to start the summary meeting, LeBron James finally spoke: we want to be a team with "no excuses", do not blame the referees, the spectators, no blame anyone, anything, when I see the teammates I have, I can't find any excuse to lose!
Old K smiled gratifyingly, he didn't even need to refine James's words, because he knew that "no excuses" would be placed in the first rule of the golden rule.
These rules are not the old K forced the players to do, but their inner answers. When the Golden Rule was formulated, the dream eight team, which was entrusted with the task of "redemption", truly awakened. They were honest with each other, not afraid of sacrifice, and jointly attacked the gold-encrusted jade, which symbolized the Olympic spirit.
At the Beijing Olympics, we saw an unfamiliar dream team, who pressed from the back without saying a word, and quickly countered with a dunk after stealing. They crushed their opponents with unprecedented defensive intensity and reached the final with a total victory.
24 hours before the final, facing the last training of this Olympic trip, Old K began to become serious: "Today, no one is allowed to throw waves, let's take these 24 hours with the most serious attitude, let's train with real knives and guns!" "He is like a general about to go into battle, using exquisite eloquence to activate the minds of all soldiers, and for this group of the most talented athletes in the world, the most difficult thing to recover is not physical strength, but mentality.
The more important purpose of this training is to pull the mentality of all the players back to the right place, to the goal they have been preparing for three years!
The day before the final, it was also Bryant's 30th birthday, and although we don't know what he was thinking, we should be able to guess his wishes.
On August 24, 2008, the Redemption Team finally joined the Matador Legion at the Wukesong Gymnasium to compete for the final gold medal. The players entered one by one, and before the game, Old K told the players: "I want you to keep running, keep pestering them until you are exhausted, and if necessary, the coaches will carry you on the bus, but remember, we are still 40 minutes away from the gold medal." ”
At the beginning of the game, James hit the first shot of the game with a three-pointer, Paul Gasol immediately returned with a 2+1, and with the fierce defense of the Dream Team, they also paid several fouls, and the old K had to replace Kobe and James. Wade, who came off the bench, broke the deadlock by scoring five straight points in 45 seconds and hitting three three-pointers in the first half to give the Dreams a narrow lead. （69-61）
In the second half, the American team continued to maintain their offensive firepower, but Spain's golden generation was in vain, and they made the American team unable to pull the score apart with their exquisite cooperation again and again.
Until 3 minutes and 20 seconds before the end of the game, Wade broke through to the flank and distributed the ball to Kobe Bryant outside the three-point line, only to see the black mamba spitting letter, the ball was like a sharp arrow, hollow into the net, played 3+1, and gave Fernandez a 5th foul, extending the gap to 9 points. But the Matador Legion has not given up hope of winning gold.
At two minutes and 25 seconds, Jiminez received Navarro's breakaway shot and hit a bottom-corner 3-pointer to close the gap to four points.
Then, came the most crucial goal of the game. Wade, who led the court with 24 points, immediately returned a bloody three-point shot after receiving a pass from James! Stretch the gap back to seven points and stop Spain.
The game lost its suspense. After eight years, the dream team finally won the Olympic gold medal, and after paying respect to the strongest opponent (shaking hands), the group of young people hugged each other, they formed a circle on the field, like Greece beat them back then, but this time, they won the Olympic gold medal!
Coach K Sr. smiled and applauded them off the court (1:51:54), and if he were 20 years younger, he might join the carnival. During his time as a college coach, he tempered boys into men again and again, but in this thunderous moment, he saw this group of men happy like children, three years of work finally paid off, and the US men's basketball team finally completed its redemption.
After the award ceremony, all the players of the Dream Eight team hung the gold medal around the neck of Coach K and left this group photo, everything goes without saying...
Coach K, who returned to the top of the U.S. men's basketball team, continued to serve as national team coach for the remaining eight years and ended his national team career with a 75-1 record. Yes, the semi-final loss to Greece in '06 was the only defeat for his national team, and in the next 10 years, he didn't lose a single one.
What is greatness?
After achieving excellence in one field, daring to take on new challenges and achieving excellence again in new areas, this is the old Coach K, who can always condense his team as a whole, whether the team is a college student or a superstar. The success of his 10-year national team career proves that he doesn't need to coach in the NBA at all, because he has already brought NBA stars with him. Now, do you still think your grandmother can lead this dream team to the championship?
[More stories can be moved to the Old K Collection]: What kind of person is Old K who never enters the NBA to coach?