Retired NBA center Dwight Howard, once the most dominant big man in the league, recently appeared on “Gil’s Arena,” the popular podcast of another former All-NBA star, ex-point guard Gilbert Arenas.
When asked directly whether he believed the 2008 Team USA “Redeem Team” that dominated the Beijing Olympics could take down the 2024 Paris Olympics gold-medal winners, Howard said his 2008 club would emerge victorious in a seven-game series. The only player to overlap on both squads is 20-time All-NBA Los Angeles Lakers combo forward LeBron James, who’s about to play a record-tying 22nd season in 2024-25.
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As Howard noted, the 39-year-old James was far closer to his athletic prime back in 2008 than he is now.
“I’m going with our team,” Howard asserted. “Well, we got a prime Kobe [Bryant]. We got young Bron [LeBron James]. We got the bald-head D-Wade [Dwayne Wade],” Howard opined. “We [were] young. Talk about Bron at 23, I’m 22, Melo [Carmelo Anthony] at 24, Chris Bosh at 24… and [Carlos] Boozer was going crazy.”
Bryant, then 29, was appearing in his first Olympics, fresh off his lone MVP season with the Lakers in 2007-08. L.A.’s triumphant run ended with Bryant’s first NBA Finals appearance since 2004.
The “Redeem Team” earned that nickname after a miserable 2004 Olympic run in Athens, Greece, in which a loaded but disconnected Team USA earned a meager bronze medal.
That club did include James, Wade, Anthony, Bosh and Boozer. The four future Hall of Famers (James, Wade, Anthony and Bosh) were all coming off some very enticing rookie seasons in 2003-04, while Boozer was only playing in his second season.
Coached by then-Detroit Pistons head coach Larry Brown, the 2004 team was captained by Bryant’s fellow 1996 draftee Allen Iverson (another 1996 lottery pick, Stephon Marbury, was also playing) and San Antonio Spurs superstar power forward Tim Duncan.
Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, LeBron James and Carlos Boozer of the United States hold their gold medals after defeating Spain 118-107 in the gold medal game during Day 16 of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium on August 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. Howard believes the 2008 club would beat the 2024 Team USA, on which a 39-year-old James once again starred.
Harry How/Getty Images
James, still just 23, was a year removed from his first NBA Finals berth, where his Cleveland Cavaliers were swept by Duncan’s Spurs. Wade had already won a Finals MVP after his Miami Heat rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Dallas Mavericks for their first-ever title in 2006. He would go on to win two more, alongside James and Bosh, in 2012 and 2013. Anthony would eventually become a 10-time All-Star.
“[I’m going to] go with the ’08 because everybody was young. Everybody was young enough to be dominant,” Arenas concurred. “The problem is the young guys on this… [2024 team], they wasn’t playing like that.”
The 2008 team was led in scoring by Wade’s 16.0 points off the bench. Bosh paced everyone in rebounds with 6.9, while point guard Chris Paul, appearing in his first Olympics, averaged a team-most 4.0 dimes a night. That squad would go on to best Team Spain, led by Bryant’s eventual Hall of Fame Lakers teammate Pau Gasol, in a close gold medal game, 118-107.
Beyond James, Wade, Bosh, Paul, Howard, Anthony, and Bryant, Team USA also included another future Hall of Famer in 2008: point guard Jason Kidd. All-Stars Boozer, Deron Williams and Michael Redd, plus four-time All-Defensive Team small forward Tayshaun Prince, comprised the rest of that year’s squad, coached by Duke legend Mike Krzyzewski.
