Kobe Bryant Helped Rebuild Team USA And Probably Saved Coach K’s Job.

Mike Krzyzewski took over USA Basketball in 2005 and it’s hard to remember that when he did, every other team felt they could now take the Americans. It’s a measure of his immense success that the aura of invincibility returned to the US, which now seems like the inevitable winner in any competition.

However, it was not pre-ordained. Not everyone bought in right away, with LeBron James in particular being initially skeptical of playing for a college coach.

Indeed, Coach K felt like his time as the USA coach might have come to an early end if not for one player: Kobe Bryant.

For Duke fans, we were pretty sure that the formula – highly athletic players who could get the ball and run – would work against international teams.

There were no guarantees however, and the aura of invincibility had not yet been restored.

Indeed, in the 2008 Games, Spain pushed the US and K’s team was in a vulnerable spot. So who stepped up?

Coach K: “I would not have been the coach in Istanbul in 2010 if Kobe Bryant didn’t step up there. But thank goodness that we had that type of team dynamic where he felt good and the guys felt good about him stepping up. And he did…That was the most pressure I’ve ever felt in international competition, and in that timeout, Kobe and the rest of these guys — but especially Kobe — said, ‘We got it. We didn’t even run a play. We got accustomed to just believing in one another. [Kobe] made a couple plays … and all of a sudden we won.”

He doesn’t say so here, but while Kobe stepped up offensively against Spain, one of the reasons why he became a leader on a team of leaders was because Bryant was willing to primarily be a defender on a team of brilliant offensive stars.

As a matter of fact, there is a funny story about Kobe and the game against Spain.

One of the best players for Spain was Bryant’s Laker’s teammate Pau Gasol. Bryant told his US teammates that he was going to just run straight through Gasol on the opening play and lay him on his ass, and that’s exactly what he did. The look on Gasol’s face is priceless.