Emotions Run High As Carmelo Anthony & More Drop Hall of Fame Confessions

The week-long countdown to the Hall of Fame begins. Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles, and Billy Donovan, along with Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, longtime referee Danny Crawford, are probably putting the finishing touches on their speeches. The highlight of the night, though, will be seeing the 2008 Olympics Men’s Basketball Team enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. The headliners of the 2025 class, Melo and Dwight, are going to celebrate a dual honor. And emotions are running high.

While they were getting fitted for their identifiable orange jackets, the folks at Hoops Hall asked the NBA players and their former coach, Mike Krzyzewski, about their best memories from the Redeem Team.

Krzyzewski, adored in the basketball community as Coach K, had some profound words for the star player of the ’08 Team USA. “The very first memory is Kobe Bryant because we miss him terribly, and he was the key guy.” His memory involves how players like Dwight, Melo, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James deferred to Bryant as a natural leader. “He was the best player in the world at that time. And although we had other great players, some of the greatest ever, they looked up to him, and he set the standard really for how you needed to be committed and prepared,” Coach K said, also reflecting on his experience.

He was an assistant coach on the 1992 star-studded Dream Team, where Michael Jordan was the face, but Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were leaders, and Charles Barkley was the key guy. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001 and eight years later led the Redeem Team to a gold.

Krzyzewski is one of the presenters for the Redeem Team’s induction, along with ’08 squad member, Jason Kidd; the team’s scoring leader, Dwyane Wade; the rebounding leader, Chris Bosh; then managing director, Jerry Colangelo; and Coach K’s assistant, Jim Boeheim. As much as fans are looking forward to their reflections on the ’08 squad, it’s a lot more emotional for the two new HOFers in this team.

Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard reflect on the Redeem Team

Carmelo Anthony had some interesting memories of that 2008 team. But if you were expecting him to talk about how he and Carlos Boozer came back from a night out and found Kobe Bryant in the gym at 4 am, nope. He couldn’t cherry-pick one memory out of the entire experience.

“Yeah, I mean every, all the memories from day one all the way to the end. It was just a matter of like, how we put that team together, like what we had to actually go through to get that team.” The Redeem Team still left a strong impression on Melo, who would go on to become one of the finest scorers in Team USA history. “Again we was redeeming ourselves, you know what I mean. So it was definitely a mentality in 2008 that was a lot different than other years.”

Dwight Howard feels the same, being one of the young stars on the roster. He was more excited discovering about the Redeem Team’s induction than his own, “I was informed a little bit early about and I was like this is so amazing that the big honor of being in the hall of fame also being in the hall of fame for the Olympic Dream [Redeem] Team, that’s incredible you know so, anything is possible!”

Did he intentionally call it the Dream Team? This is the same guy who claimed the ’08 squad would beat the ’92 squad with Jordan and Barkley. So, yeah, it was probably intentional. And he’s also riding on getting his Hall of Fame dream, with Shaquille O’Neal being the one to present him.

From the most awe-inspiring presenters to the induction of Kobe Bryant’s Team USA, September 6 promises to be an emotional night for the inductees and fans. Keep those tissues ready for more heartwarming stories.