User reviews

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.

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.

Jon Weinbach (who was one of the producers of The Last Dance) showcases the journey of redemption for the U. S. Olympic Men's Basketball team and tells us why we refer to this team as one of the greatest ever. We get perspective from all the key folks involved, including coaches, announcers, and the players themselves. I stopped watching the NBA in 2006, and gave up playing the yearly EA Sports videogames too, eventually. But this piece is such a well-made throwback to something that took the Olympic games by storm and reinstates why Kobe Bryant is among the all-time greats in the game of basketball. To hear from the top guys (including Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and more) adds much-needed depth to the story, and gives everyone who loves the game plenty to cheer about.

The games themselves prove to be more about Kobe's workmanship than anything else. While the main ingredient here is missing (i.e. Sitdown interviews with Kobe), it still has enough for anyone who enjoyed the game in the 2000s and still harbors a liking to the GOATs of that particular era. Also, they've included some brilliant cutaways during the end credits.

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.

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.

An amazing documentary that gives perspective not just on how great the USA basketball team was but also about the types of people it takes to be great.

Lebron and Kobe are the definition of being the best athletes of all time and the best people of all time.

These types of people don't come around often and we should feel blessed that we were privileged enough to be able to see their greatness.

To think this was only a part of all the great things they achieved in their lives puts it in perspective how many levels there is to this game that we call life.

Much respect for the gods and RIP to the GREAT Kobe Bryant!

It is a nice documentary but it hides that the final against Spain was a thief: USA team did more than 20 travelling situations and the referees did nothing but penalized Spanish team with technical fouls as everyone can find on Youtube.

This was admitted on BasketNews months after the final by Chantal Julien, one of the referees of USA-Germany game. Chantal said "they could not penalize travelling with every Kobe Bryant's dribbling" and also that "the final was a shame".

It is specially funny that the documentary does not show the last seconds of the final game when Juan Carlos Navarro did intentionally travelling with 4 or 5 steps in order to protest while he was looking into the eyes of the referee.

By the other hand, it is nice to see how some of the best players of NBA History was scared by players without NBA experience as Carlos Jiménez, Álex Mumbrú or 17 y.o. Ricky Rubio.

Wow. Great lessons for building pride and respect. History lessons utilized to educate the team and viewers on the importance of both elements to becoming champions. Shout out to Coach K for his leadership in coaching the egos and the players. The importance of the China market to the NBA is highlighted especially with the ever valuable Kobe Bryant on the team. Last the humble Kobe applying himself for this team and national redemption. Just wow. Great documentary to teach Respect and Pride in the beautiful game of basketball from the American perspective. Team work and Olympic fans themselves.

A documentary shot with pride, class & respect to it's source material.

"The Redeem Team" is a prideful inspirational film, that tells the story of the dominant rise of the USA basketball team on a global scale , the standard of excellence set for years and how it was in many ways neglected and taking for granted.

The failure of victory in 2004 and their difficult road back to greatness at the 2008 Olympic Games.

As an retired athlete, and a basketball fan. I felt educated, sadness, and tremendous emotion while watching this film. This is a document shot with class, respect, and immense quality.

If you love sports, or inspiring true stories, you will enjoy this documentary.

'The Redeem Team' (2022) is nothing special like the 2008 U. S. Men's Basketball Team, but it will make you smile as you see the "downfall" and "return-to-form" of USA basketball.

I thought this documentary was pretty good especially with conveying its narrative of redemption not just for Team USA or American basketball players, but also for the United States searching to return to form after the tumultuous early-to-mid 2000's.

I will say though, this documentary doesn't really do anything unique and seems to rely on archival footage for its narrative instead of bringing in more individuals from previous US Olympic teams or players from rival countries.

There is a touching tribute to Kobe Bryant as the film progresses and everyone seems impacted by Kobe in some way. This documentary is kind of a "sub-doc" on Kobe and makes you feel the energy and legacy he had across the world. Just a thought.

Keen to try and emulate the global success of their 10 part documentary mini-series on the Chicago Bulls The Last Dance, Netflix have given one of the series producers Jon Weinbach a spot in the directional chair with one off feature doco The Redeem Team.

An insightful if only skin-deep examination of the USA men's national basketball teams quest to overcome a dwindling standing in the world ranks that came to a head with their bronze medal display at the 2004 Olympics and find redemption at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Redeem see's Weinback given access to some of the most famous talking heads in the sport as the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Doug Collins and Mike Krzyzewski all recall the history behind getting one of the most talent filled national teams on record together to achieve the greatest success possible.

A proud country and one that prides itself even more when it comes to their national sports and sporting feats, Redeem does a great job at showing what representing their country meant to the players that coach Krzyzewski assembled to work together for 4 years of hard training as some of the most gifted players to ever grace the courts of the NBA formed together to try and bring their team back to the glory days of old.

Much like The Last Dance knowing the results and key instances of this journey doesn't stop Weinbach's doco from being a white knuckle one that does a great job of editing together countless hours of footage to a short and and sharp 90 minute product that never attempts to add additional weight or sub-plots to the central story that naturally finds extra meaning and interest from the presence of James and the late Kobe Bryant who at the time of this moment was dealing with some huge upheavals in his career that threatened to derail his legacy.

After watching Bryant's feats as part of the Olympic team here and the type of effort he put in behind the scenes to drive a new standard within the team it's hard not to be inspired by the controversial figures works on and off the court and for any fans of the late superstar Redeem once more gives you a chance to watch one of the greatest basketball players of all-time work his magic, in this instance for no selfish reasons but reasons relating to his beloved country.

Free of any extra emotional weight or baggage, Redeem never threatens to become an addition of the upper-echelon of sporting documentaries both from the feature or mini-series landscape but its another strong addition to the growing Netflix catalogue of quality basketball related products that are accessible for fans and casuals alike.

Final Say -

A short, sharp and fun examination of a group of sports superstars determined to make their country proud, The Redeem Team is a quality Netflix doco that is sure to please a wide ranging audience of sport and non-sport enthusiasts alike.

3 1/2 early morning gym sessions out of 5

Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)

The NBA represents the best of the best in basketball. Every kid with a gaming console knows it. So when America gets beaten at one of their own national sport, it's incredibly humbling, and embarrassing.

The Redeem Team tells a gripping behind-the-scenes look at how individual superstars came together as a team, so that the American flag, and anthem, could return back to the gold medal podium. The leadership, the stepping up, the discipline, the pride of the country over individual egos... all for America... is an incredible story put together brilliantly in this documentary.

A very good sports documentary indeed that's more than worth your time.

If you watched the Last Dance and got a glimpse of what true inspiration looks like don't expect to get anything out of this.

This documentary just shows how the Dream Team was abominable and the new US team a disappointment and a boring ego driven spectacle. Every player is simply unremarkable and has little to no charisma (aside from Dwayne Wade). Same with the coaches. There really seemed to be no heart in this. And by the end you feel unaccomplished and like you simply sat through an hour of drab conversations and some okay highlight reels.

Was the goal of this film to show a "good" comeback story? Feed off these basketball documentary trends? Remind people that modern day basketball players are human? Maybe be patriot? Whatever the goal it failed.

Was an okay watch as a backdrop to cooking 6.36/10.

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.

Not a great documentary, but good enough to make you feel something.

I appreciated the history of USA Men's Basketball provided in the first half of the movie, though. It was fairly thorough in covering major events like the 1972 controversy, the 1988 loss that prompted the introduction of pros with the 1992 Dream Team, the 2004 team that had multiple losses, and even a couple of FIBA World Championships. I think they should have covered the 2000 team because that was when everyone knew the world had caught up to the United States in basketball (and so they would show that Vince Carter dunk).

Overall, I'm just not a big fan of the players on the 2008 gold medal team. From Melo to Bron to Wade to CP3, it feels like a lot or entitlement in one locker room. My favorite parts were pretty much anything Kobe was in. I can't say I was a Kobe fan during the majority of his career either, but no one could ever claim Bryant felt entitled to anything. He worked for everything he got, and his example taught the other guys how to be better prepared, more committed and disciplined, and more engaged in the game.

I still think Argentina would have come back to beat Team USA if Ginobili hadn't gotten injured, but aside from that, it did feel good to have Coach K and the revamped USA basketball program comeback an dominate the sport again. I'm watching some of the highlights from the current FIBA tournament and the young guys look good. The point of the film is that the changes made 15 years ago got us here, and they may be right.

Really well made documentary, outlining the rise, fall and re-rise of the USA Olympic basketball team.

Great interviews, footage and stories from the early days up until the 2008 Olympics.

The Kobe chapter was my favourite.

The true GOAT.

Rest in Peace.

From start to finish this was so well made.

Highly recommend to watch for anyone just not sports fans.

It is inspiring and shows how important culture and team work is.

All these lessons can be applied to your professional and personal life.

All in all, this was a great product.

Made so well and squeezed into a very watchable 90 odd minute session.

Pretty emotional.

It largely focuses on how US basketball embarringly lost in the 2004 Olympics and only got bronze. Which is a rare disaster for the most talented national team in the world. So they return in 2008 to revenge the loss. This time they are not arrogant about it. Last time most of the big names dropped out as the team was not a huge thing like during the Dream Team days in Barcelona where US went professional in the Olympics as NBA wanted to put basketball on the world map. They also wanted to revenge the USSR loses. One loss was a game where USSR paid the refs to give them the win in the final so that after USA won the game USSR got to replay the last few seconds until they scored. This created the Dream Team with all the top players. Basketball got extremely popular worldwide because of this kind of outreach. Other national teams started to improve and beat USA. The Redeem Team was then created top-down where they had to play every summer together to become a real team as talent alone would not win you anything anymore. So they couldn't just get together and win easily anymore.

The doc largely focuses on Kobe and how hard he worked while the younger players partied. He and the coaching team got the team to really fight for it. The doc pays huge respect to him and his life and even shows his daughter at some points which is extremely emotional as he died with one of his daughters in a plane crash. It does get too melodramatic at times as they keep mentioning Kobe and his hard work rate.

It's also extremely shallow. Basically 90% of it is about the training camp and they never explain anything about basketball. They just claim they need to train hard and play hard. No tactics are explained, not tactical plays. It's just all "we need to get better". For someone who doesn't watch basketball this is all confusing. So it's not quite clear how the teams play tactically or even what the Olympic rules are. Which is a damn shame. The interviews are fun for sure, but they all sound fake to some degree. Knowing LeBron was one of the people behind this doc just makes it sound more fishy as he is a known liar who even lies about small things to make himself look heroic and smart. Shame they never explain tactical matters or how you build a team.

This review has been written on Octo 19 2022.

Please check out my review for the Last Dance. I'm a prolific reviewer. Press F3 and shift then type my name to find my name.

Who remembers the classic movie Rudy where the janitor states to Rudy that there are "greater tragedies in the world".

People caught feelings over a silly game because a team didn't play well. Who cares...

Years later people still catch feeling for a silly r*gged game.

It's just a group of people talking about playing baskethoops and to idolize and worship the Kobe Bryant fella who may or likely is still roaming about.

This is worse than actually watching these silly baskethoop games.

It's just people rambling about the U SA baskethoops team and teams. They consistently bring up the Dream Team led by Magic, Bird, Karl and Lattner

Oh they won gold... Yeah they won gold. YOU Didn't. Who cares... (It's not actual 100% gold. Technically they still won silver.)

This is a pure waste of time.

Oh yeah Wilt Chamberlain is the best Baskethoops player of alltime in my opinion. It's all subjective.

I loved this! Thank you for putting this together and sharing some of the backstory of this event. While I don't follow sports as actively as I used to, I'll always appreciate and admire great athletes. After watching this, I feel like I actually got to know some personally! They have every right to be proud of who they are and what they've accomplished. I agree with a few other reviews that referred to the Players and the documentary being first class... and I'm impressed with their attitudes, their behavior, and their achievement! As far as naysayers on any aspect of the film or the people involved, I can't understand what more they could want! It seems people, too often, glorify superficial nothingness, but can't give real credit when/where it's due. So, again, thank you to the Producers of this documentary... thank you for making it all more "real" for me.