Photo Credit: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY Sports

Dwyane Wade On Kobe Bryant During 2008 Olympics: “He Would Be Able To Talk To Everyone In Their Own Language”

Team USA’s 2008 Olympics Team the ‘Redeem Team’ was one of the best basketball teams assembled in the history of the sport. 

The team was filled with absolute legends and some of the best players in NBA history – LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Jason Kidd, to only name a few – and cruised through the tournament, bringing home what had always been theirs, the Olympic Gold in basketball.

So when Dwyane Wade recently was guest on ‘The Platform Basketball Podcast’, he, among other things, talked about the infamous team and their time in China. What stood out for Wade was the hype surrounding Kobe Bryant and the fact that Kobe was able to trash-talk every opponent in their native language.

“That dude was cold blooded… We got into the competition, and he’s talking to other players in their language and we don’t know what he was saying, but for us it was the dopest thing ever. Just being around him, we’d go around in the athletes village, and Kobe was… you seen the Jordan doc and how everybody ran up on Jordan when he went out to Paris?! That’s how it was in China for Kobe.

 Whenever we went anywhere, it was just a crowd of people. You got some of the best players of the world on this team, but it was Kobe. It was all about Kobe and he would be able to talk to everyone in their own language man, and to me, it was the dopest thing to just sit back and watch and experience…”