Jason Kidd joked he was the “water boy” on Team USA’s 2008 Redeem Team, but his leadership helped restore the program’s Olympic dominance.
Jason Kidd added humor to a historic moment as Team USA’s famed 2008 “Redeem Team” entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Dallas Mavericks head coach and iconic point guard downplayed his role with that group, joking about the limited minutes he logged in Beijing.
“I might have been the captain, but I was more like the water boy, the towel boy,” Kidd said. “Asked everybody what Gatorade color they liked.”
Kidd, then 35, was one of the elder statesmen on a roster packed with stars, including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. He averaged 1.6 points and two assists in just over 13 minutes per game, but his leadership carried more weight than the box score.
LeBron James quickly brushed off Kidd’s modesty.
“Stop it,” James said. “He’s the only one that’s never lost a game in international play ever.”
Kidd went 56–0 in international competition, winning Olympic gold medals in Sydney in 2000 and Beijing in 2008. Younger teammates such as Chris Paul and Deron Williams often credited him for setting a tone of unselfishness and maturity, traits that allowed the team’s younger core to flourish.
That buy-in culture was critical after the disappointment of the 2004 Athens Olympics, when the United States fell to Puerto Rico in the opener and settled for bronze after losing to Argentina in the semifinals. Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski took over the program, and Bryant’s arrival in 2007 alongside Kidd’s steady presence helped restore balance.
The Redeem Team rolled through Beijing and defeated Spain 118–107 in the gold-medal game, a win that reestablished Team USA as the global standard. Carmelo Anthony described the run in the 2022 Netflix documentary, saying the players rallied around something bigger than themselves.
“My jersey didn’t have ‘Denver Nuggets’ on there. ‘Bron didn’t have ‘Cleveland,’ Kobe didn’t have ‘Lakers,’” Anthony said. “We had ‘USA.’”
Kidd's willingness to defer became a blueprint for future American teams, which continued to collect Olympic gold in 2012, 2016, 2021, and 2024.
The jokes about being a “water boy” landed, but his legacy is clear: Kidd provided the bridge between the Dream Team era and the generations led by James, Kevin Durant, and Stephen Curry.