ESPN

Four years ago this summer, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul were two of 12 NBA players determined to restore America's standing as the worldwide kings of basketball. In a classic game against Spain (featuring none other than Pau Gasol), Team USA won the gold and showed fans how a team of elite superstars can push egos to the side for the sake of a larger goal.

With Lakers-Clippers on the docket this evening, various ESPN scribes (including the K Bros) gathered thoughts from Bryant's and Paul's Olympic teammates and coaches about the experience of working with them. Click here to make a patriotic trip down Memory Lane, and below are excerpts with Kobe's and Paul's recollections about one another:

Kobe on Paul: He's tough. He's tough as nails, man; he doesn't back down from anything or anybody. I'd never been as close to him, but when I was [on the Olympic team] I'd try to challenge him, see what he's made of and he's a tough little sucker.

Paul on Kobe: Me and Kob really figured out how much we had in common on that trip. That Olympic experience is when we got a lot closer. Me and my wife send him Christmas cards and his family sends us Christmas cards, and now we talk on a regular basis. We both want to win so badly. It's one of those things where as great a relationship as we have, as long as we're playing on the same court against each other, we're always going to get into it, you know what I mean? That's the respect factor, because you know that he wants it just as bad as I do.

In what's considered one of the greatest basketball games of the history of the sport, the United States beat Spain in the gold medal game at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The storylines attached to the game are endless. From the significance of the "Redeem Team" putting USA Basketball back in the gold medal winners' circle for the first time since 2000; to the sneak preview aspect of USA's roster putting LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh together long before "The Decision"; to a teenage Ricky Rubio showing off his skills on the world's stage.

The biggest story for Lakers fans, however, was the fact that before Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol had won a championship together for the purple and gold, they competed for a championship against one another for their countries.

The 2012 London games are still six months away, but the trash talk has already started between the two.

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