The U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team entered the 2008 Beijing games looking for redemption, as Team USA was coming off a humbling third-place finish at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
Nearly 15 years after LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade led the ’08 team to a gold medal-clinching victory in Beijing, Netflix has released a trailer for its documentary The Redeem Team, set to debut on Oct. 7. Wade is attached as an executive producer to the project, as is LeBron, Maverick Carter, Jamal Henderson, and Phillip Bryon of Uninterrupted.
For the first time in history, the International Olympic Committee provided Netflix with archival footage for The Redeem Team. “This film will bring viewers directly inside that team…by showcasing the personality and dynamics of a special group of superstars who came together as one to reclaim basketball supremacy on the biggest stage in sports,” Mark Parkman from the Olympic Channel Services told Netflix.
Upon the doc’s announcement in August, Wade—who was also joined by Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, and more on the squad—reflected, “In 2008, I played with heroes of mine, all stars, friends, and future teammates. Outside of winning and showing the world that we were still the most dominant, our other big challenge was changing the perception of what everyone thought about the NBA and USA Basketball!”
Director Jon Weinbach shared what makes the redemption of Team USA’s 2008 group a “human story.”
“It’s a story about a team, [but] it’s also personal. They wanted to prove something to themselves, to the world and to each other,” he said. “What makes [the Redeem Team] significant is that unlike every American basketball team, these guys had lost not once, not twice, but three times… The bloom was off the rose with USA basketball. I wanted to remind people why it was a redemption. What does it mean? It wasn’t just that they needed to win a gold medal.”
Weinbach, who also helmed Uncompromising: Kyrie Irving and 30 for 30’s Sole Man, added, “I felt that the guys really wanted to talk about this. They’ve all won stuff. They’ve all done incredible things. But I think the enthusiasm, the candor and the emotion they brought showed that they wanted to honor the memory of the team and the significance of it. It was so clearly emotional for the guys on this team.”
Watch the trailer for The Redeem Team up top, see the official poster below, and stream it on Netflix next month.
