Lakers: Dream Team Or "Redeem Team?" LeBron James Picks Top All-Time International Squad In Netflix Doc

Two all-time Olympic squads. One choice.

In the excellent new Netflix feature documentary "The Redeem Team," current Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James at one point reveals that he believes the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team was the best international basketball club in history. By extension, that would make it the best basketball team ever (All-Star teams aside, anyway).

The Redeem Team fielded a totally stacked roster, featuring eight Hall of Famers. James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwight Howard comprised the five once-or-future Lakers to make the cut. They were joined by future Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd (still a player at the time), Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. 

Carlos Boozer, who spent his last season alongside Bryant in Los Angeles, is the other ex-Laker on the roster, though the two-time All-Star's odds of making the Hall of Fame appear slim.

But what about the Dream Team, that illustrious line-up of immortals from the 1992 Olympics that demolished every other international club in its path en route to gold medal glory?

11 of that team's 12 players have made the Hall of Fame. The lone exception is power forward Christian Laettner, at the time a formidable college player at Duke, who did go on to qualify for a single All-Star game but did not quite have a Springfield-caliber pro career. Longtime Duke men's basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who served as the head coach for the 2008 Olympic team, was an assistant in 1992.

The 1992 roster is absolutely stacked: two once-or-future Lakers made the cut, in Magic Johnson and Karl Malone. Beyond them, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, John Stockton, and Chris Mullin filled out the Hall of Fame lineup.

None of the 2008 players were really past their primes, with the possible exception of Kidd, who was an All-Star the previous season, but did not make an All-NBA Team (i.e. he was one of the best 25 or so players in the league, but no longer one of the best 15). On the 1992 team, two of the best three players historically, Johnson and Bird, were in their 30s. Johnson, who turned 33 that summer, had actually retired in 1991, though he had remained in game shape and sure looked great during his Olympic run. Bird was dealing with back issues and could barely play. Stockton got injured and was essentially relegated to cheerleader status.

If all players on both rosters were at the peaks of their powers at the time of their Olympic appearances, the Dream Team would probably have the edge. But taken as they were in their respective summers, it could have been one heck of a battle.

Here's a trailer for "The Redeem Team" documentary, directed by Jon Weinbach: