The Redeem Team

A documentary shot with pride, class & respect to it's source material.

"The Redeem Team" is a prideful inspirational film, that tells the story of the dominant rise of the USA basketball team on a global scale , the standard of excellence set for years and how it was in many ways neglected and taking for granted.

The failure of victory in 2004 and their difficult road back to greatness at the 2008 Olympic Games.

As an retired athlete, and a basketball fan. I felt educated, sadness, and tremendous emotion while watching this film. This is a document shot with class, respect, and immense quality.

If you love sports, or inspiring true stories, you will enjoy this documentary.

It's an ok piece of film work, gives some historical context, and has some good and interesting behind-the-scene insights into the motivations and mindsets of coach K and some of the players.

But for a documentary which is trying to make the point that teamwork, camaraderie and chemistry are the most important ingredients in a successful team, it sure does a terrible job at including all players as an integral part. The film hypocritically preaches team spirit, then goes on to single out the individual contributions of 3-6 players at every possible turn, while pretty much ignoring the rest of the team.

So who was on the team? Yes, Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Melo, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer

But also:

• Jason Kidd
• Deron Williams
• Michael Redd
• Dwight Howard
• Chris Paul
• Tayshaun Prince

It could have been a lot better, if all players had been interviewed, or if they actually didn't want to (which I doubt), then at least give them their separate spotlight on the court. They were on the team, they made it work as well, they had their moments, not just the "main" characters.

I'm not going to pretend I know about all the history of all the NBA players so my perception might be off, but I enjoyed this documentary. It shows the intentions, personalities, and most of all humbleness of players when playing for something greater than themselves. In the NBA, many of these players are perceived to be best of the best, which results in development of inflated egos. To watch the journey of them temporarily putting it down for the benefit of others, fosters that belief that we as humans aren't always selfish.

There's a growing tumor of entitlement that been slowly festering in American culture. Watching the journey the team went through to overcome the difficulties is refreshing as well as inspiring.

I loved all the old footage that was used in this documentary. It was great to see the authentic "from the vault" film of all the players, coach K, and the Collins family.

It also was very touching how highly regarded Kobe was in this project. He truly was built different, and this documentary goes above and beyond to highlight that about him.

It could have gone a little deeper, done a bit more digging into the storytelling. However, I enjoyed this documentary very much. It got the adrenaline going as a basketball fan to watch all the highlights from 2008! It brought out a lot of emotions for me as a viewer.

Jon Weinbach (who was one of the producers of The Last Dance) showcases the journey of redemption for the U. S. Olympic Men's Basketball team and tells us why we refer to this team as one of the greatest ever. We get perspective from all the key folks involved, including coaches, announcers, and the players themselves. I stopped watching the NBA in 2006, and gave up playing the yearly EA Sports videogames too, eventually. But this piece is such a well-made throwback to something that took the Olympic games by storm and reinstates why Kobe Bryant is among the all-time greats in the game of basketball. To hear from the top guys (including Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and more) adds much-needed depth to the story, and gives everyone who loves the game plenty to cheer about.

The games themselves prove to be more about Kobe's workmanship than anything else. While the main ingredient here is missing (i.e. Sitdown interviews with Kobe), it still has enough for anyone who enjoyed the game in the 2000s and still harbors a liking to the GOATs of that particular era. Also, they've included some brilliant cutaways during the end credits.