El equipo redentor

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.

7.5 Overall a good documentary although there have been numerous documentaries before. I just wish there was more players interviewed from the redeem team. Kobe was one of if not the main focus of the documentary as he should be. All respect and honor to the late KOBE. Great showing how USA BASKETBALL dominated for many years until not winning the GOLD and then to finding their way back to glory. I felt like it would been better if this was a mini series documentary like the one with JORDAN and the BULLS. What I learned is Kobe was different from the rest and TEAM USA is just unfair with the individuals talents they have.

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.

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.

Nice recap and highlight reel of the Redeem Team's 2008 Olympic run, but aside from that, it was a somewhat hollow rehashing of events. The documentary didn't tell us anything we didn't already know about this team. There was no greater message to take away from this event.

Since the first series of ESPN 30 for 30 was released, the standard for sports documentaries has been raised and ths doc didn't come close to that standard. The level of journalism here amounts to nothing more than an NBA Championship DVD.

Documentarians need to understand that the biggest stars and teams don't always make the best documentary subjects and this is a prime example.

Team USA definitely deserved the gold medal in this Olympics but my biggest takeaway tells me that there are major cracks in USA Basketball development programs and how the AAU is ruining American basketball. It was embarrassing to see a team of nearly-all Hall of Famers pounding their chests and talking trash about beating a Spanish team led by one NBA Hall of Famer, an all-star, and a group of fringe NBA role players and benchwarmers. USA needed every single ounce of effort that LeBron and Kobe gave to win that medal or else they wouldn't have been enough to beat Spain.

A more interesting documentary might be how Team USA has become a victim of its own success and how the 1992 Dream Team inspired a legion of international players to take on and beat Team USA.