Road ahead for Redeem Teamers

The Lakers could use every bit of the defensive intensity Kobe Bryant has displayed at the Olympics. Icon SMI

Michael Phelps, who lists five minutes in his own bed back in Baltimore near the top of his post-Olympics priorities, can spend the next four years there, just as long as he is ready for London in 2012. Usain Bolt has until then to choreograph a touchdown dance that IOC president Jacques Rogge finds acceptable, as far as many American (and plenty global) sports fans are concerned.

Out of sight, out of mind, that's how it is for most of the events and participants in the Olympics. Oh, the sports go on and the athletes continue to train, compete and earn their livings nationally and internationally. But for most people, the shelf life of this stuff pretty much mirrors our presidential campaigns: two weeks of intense interest, a couple of months of creeping awareness and three-and-a-half years where it generally stays off everyone's radar.

It doesn't work that way in basketball. Once Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the rest of the Redeem Teamers finish the task at hand -- restoring USA Basketball to what it feels is its rightful spot atop the hoops world's Mount Olympus -- they'll all have about six weeks before they get busy again in their respective teams' NBA training camps. This Road to Redemption they've been traveling, off and on, for the past three years will take a serious detour back to their day jobs, where each of them faces a challenge equal to or greater than this alchemy trick of turning Athens bronze into Beijing gold. In order of, well, pecking order:

Kobe Bryant: The Lakers' star showed up last summer for the FIBA Americas qualifying tournament asking USA coach Mike Krzyzewski if he could concentrate on defense. Defense has been the Americans' calling card through the tournament so far. "I wanted to come in and say, 'You know what, I don't have to score 30-some points and do dunks, all that stuff. I want to come in and lock some people up,' '' Bryant told reporters.

So the best Beijing souvenir Bryant could bring home to the Lakers would be a similarly contagious commitment and intensity on that end of the floor. Los Angeles ranked sixth in opponents' field-goal shooting (44.5 percent), sixth in steals and third in scoring differential (+7.25), but at 101.3 was one of just four NBA teams to give up more than 100 points nightly. That lets teams get comfortable in their offenses, and that is what leads to 34 points allowed in the second quarter of Games 2 and 6 in the Finals. Locking up people through 82 games and four playoff rounds is tougher than doing it for two weeks, but that needs to be Bryant's and his teammates' gold-medal goal.

LeBron James: Focus, focus and more focus. Never mind the revenue streams and tax loopholes available from some Euroleague team. The Nets, Brooklyn and Jay-Z have to wait until 2010 regardless. That means James and the Cavaliers have a two-year window to get back to the Finals and claim their rings. If James wants to surpass Bryant as the best player in the world, he's not going to do it in the Olympics or even playing for Olympiacos; he needs to win an NBA championship and earn the league's MVP award.

Dwyane Wade: Damaged goods. A leapin' liability. Old before his time. The Heat star heard all those slights and more last season and this summer, at least until he exploded off the USA bench as the Olympics' most fearsome sixth man. "I try to look at it as, I'm angry. That's not going to change,'' Wade said in a conference call this week arranged for south Florida reporters. "I'm glad people are seeing that me being healthy, I'm still one of the top players in the game.''

Last season, Wade wasn't healthy even in many of his 51 appearances, and it showed in his 46.9 percent shooting (lowest since his rookie year), a career-worst 4.4 turnovers, drop-offs in rebounds and steals and a slip from 27.4 ppg to 24.6.

Dwight Howard: When we last saw Dwight Howard -- pre-Olympics, that is -- he was shooting 3-of-12 from the floor in a Game 4 loss to Detroit in the playoffs, then heaving 6-of-15 from the line in the Game 5 eliminator of Round 2. Howard and his Orlando club both grew up in big ways last season -- he became a beast, the Magic became a 52-victory contender -- but it was clear against the Pistons that more maturity and seasoning were needed. The challenge to both -- and really, that means Howard, as the franchise guy -- is to avoid a backslide. Individually, he can move forward by remembering the defensive lessons he learned this summer, not just as a helper or shot-blocker but in manning-up.