The Redeem Team follows the U.S. national basketball team from its demise at the 2004 Olympics through its gold recapture at 2008. It features behind-the-scenes footage and many of the people who were active on and around the team at the time comment. So The Redeem Team is a very interesting sports documentary on Netflix. What he does well isn’t phenomenal and what he does less well isn’t terribly bad.

Hundreds hours of footage filmed

From the hundreds of hours of footage filmed over the years, a coherent story has been put together that is told at a pleasant pace. During the credits, some material is shown that was not necessary for the story, but is very nice to watch. Fortunately, these images are not crammed into the documentary itself, because in this way every fragment used remains useful for the course of the story.

Redeem Team

That story is told in an hour and a half mainly through news items and newspaper articles that are creatively portrayed. Titles that appear word for word make it easy to quickly grasp the essence of the article. Someone who’s never heard of the Redeem team will be pleased with the depth of the story, but if you’re a seasoned basketball fan, you won’t learn a whole lot of new things. As a fan you will probably have seen and read the news items and newspaper articles at that time.

Never-before-seen footage

On the other hand, there is also never-before-seen footage from, among other things, private recordings by Dwyane Wade, who, like LeBron James, is involved as a producer. In addition, there are several players, the coach, a few journalists and others who come to have their say in front of the camera. Again, the editing is just right, because everything is said but no one talks too long. The music is also well implemented. Because while little uplifting there are a few very decent bits and these don’t detract from what’s happening on screen. The best part for me was the story about Kobe running in on Pau Gasol during the 2008 Olympics.

In addition to Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, Kobe Bryant also gets a lot of attention. The documentary neatly shows how he later joined the team and how driven he was, but there is no mention of his death in early 2020. Now The Redeem Team covers the period from 2004 to 2008, but a short statement about his death wouldn’t have been out of place, if it was just a line of text just before the credits or something like that.

American Basketball

Since The Redeem Team revolves around American basketball, it’s no surprise that the documentary is filled with expressions of patriotism. There are nationalist speeches, the American national anthem and even the American army. The lyrics that the players and the coach sometimes sprinkle with would lead to rolling eyes or giggles in a feature film, but since this is a documentary, these nationalistic expressions offer an insight into American culture and the realization that it is very different in this respect. the European.