The United States Men’s Basketball team, the Redeem Team, went into the gold medal game against Spain last night, and captured the gold medal for the United States once again.  While the team may not have made it look as easy as they did in 1992, they certainly improved on the performances of the U.S. national team over the past few years.

It is hard to say that this team was led by any one player because they all contributed and they are all so good.  But some of the players who stuck out in my mind were Dwyane Wade (rejoice Heat fans, there is hope!) because of his resurgence after an injury plagued year, Chris Bosh who finally got the recognition that he deserves after being trapped in the media black hole of Toronto Raptors basketball, and of course Kobe Bryant and LeBron James simply taking over when it was crunch time.

To me, the most impressive thing about this team was not that they won by 30 or 40 points almost every game, the most impressive thing was how they went about winning.  This team tried their asses off every single game, and when they weren’t playing or practicing they were out watching fellow Americans.  This team was bigger than the individuals on it, it was even bigger than USA basketball, it was all about the USA Olympic Team, and that was refreshing to see.

I have no doubt that people will be saying that the celebration after winning gold was excessive.  People will say that they should have acted in a more reserved manner because they were the clear favorites going into the games.  I disagree on all counts with those critics.  Seeing the team celebrate like that after they won the gold medal made me realize that this team wanted it more than they could ever express in words.  They didn’t expect to win the gold, they expected a hard fight the entire way and while it appeared they were able to coast some of the time they never rubbed it in, they never showboated, and they always kept grinding and the result was an Olympic gold.