Beloved US Olympic Team Featuring LeBron James, Kobe Bryant Makes Basketball Hall of Fame

The class of the 2025 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has been announced, per Shams Charania of ESPN.

13-time former WNBA All-Star point guard Sue Bird, former 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony, former eight-time WNBA All-Star center Sylvia Fowles, and former eight-time NBA All-Star center Dwight Howard are the individual retired players who made the cut.

Longtime league official Danny Crawford, current Miami Heat majority owner Micky Arison, and former two-time NCAA champion head coach Billy Donovan will all also be honored in Springfield, Mass., during this year's Sept. 6 enshrinement ceremony.

Anthony and Howard will actually become two-time honorees during the ceremony.

As Charania first reported, the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team will also be enshrined. USA Basketball itself tweeted the happy news.

USA Basketball's official X account also celebrated the three WNBA superstars making the grade, as all are alums of the program, too. Fowles won four Olympic gold medals between 2008-20, Bird won five between 2004-20, and Moore won two, in 2012 and 2016.

The loaded 2008 U.S. men's Olympic team, dubbed "the Redeem Team," is generally considered to be one of the best collections of talent in the program's history, along with the 1960 and 1992 squads (both also enshrined).

That 1960 squad boasted four Hall of Fame players and a pair of Hall of Fame coaches. The '92 team, hailed as "the Dream Team," fielded 11 Hall of Fame players (only one-time All-Star big man Christian Laettner didn't make the grade) and was guided by three Hall of Fame coaches.

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In 2004, the U.S. men's club fell to eventual gold medal-winning Team Argentina in its semifinal game. It marked the first time a U.S. club didn't secure a gold medal since American pros were permitted to play in 1992.

USA Basketball opted to overhaul its program, bringing in longtime Phoenix Suns CEO Jerry Colangelo to help plot the club's return to international dominance. With an emphasis on cultivating continuity and cohesion, Colangelo hired then-Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski to guide the squad.

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2004 holdovers LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Anthony, and Carlos Boozer returned. They were either in their first or second seasons the first time around, but by 2008 all were All-Stars. Howard, Dallas Mavericks point guard Jason Kidd, Toronto Raptors power forward/center Chris Bosh, Utah Jazz guard Deron Williams, Milwaukee Bucks swingman Michael Redd, point guard Chris Paul, and Detroit Pistons small forward Tayshaun Prince all joined the party.

Los Angeles Lakers superstar shooting guard Kobe Bryant, fresh off an NBA Finals loss, galvanized the club by joining its ranks.

From among that group, six are now All-Stars. James, a 21-time All-Star with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Paul, a 12-time former All-Star now with the San Antonio Spurs, will join their ranks whenever they call it a career.

They ran roughshod through the competition that fateful summer, 8-0. They bested Bryant's Hall of Fame then-Lakers teammate Pau Gasol, his brother Marc, and the rest of Team Spain in a 118–107 gold medal game win.

Team USA basketball hasn't lost a gold medal since. The success of the group eventually yielded a 2022 documentary, "The Redeem Team," on Netflix.

Wade led all scorers as a reserve guard that year, averaging 16.0 points per. Bosh's 6.9 rebounds paced everyone, while Paul led all passers with 4.0 dishes a night.

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