By Mechelle Voepel | Kansas City Star

BEIJING - The so-called "Redeem Team" got its gold medal in basketball and a "gold star" for deportment. The volleyball team finished an Olympics that started with an unthinkable tragedy by winning gold. And the water polo squad almost made it a perfect final day of the Summer Games for American men's team sports.

The highest-profile group here, of course, was the Kobe Bryant/LeBron James-led U.S. men's basketball players, instantly recognized and applauded wildly no matter what venue they showed up at.

And Bryant, in particular, seemed to enjoy his spectator role at Olympics, cheering on Michael Phelps at the Water Cube, the U.S. women's soccer team at Worker's Stadium and the America women's hoops team at the Beijing Basketball Gymnasium.

Bryant had 20 points - 13 in the final quarter - in a closer-than-expected 118-107 victory over Spain in the final. Spain got as close as two points with 8 minutes left, but that's when Bryant took over.

"What you saw today was 'team,' " Bryant said. "People say NBA players are selfish, but we were facing adversity and came out with a win."

That was the primary objective, after the U.S. got disappointing bronze medals in the last Olympics and World Championships. But give Bryant, James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade (who had a game-high 27 Sunday) and the rest of the team credit: They represented the United States very well off the court, too.

They waved at fans, posed for pictures, fulfilled their media obligations and supported other U.S. athletes. They conducted themselves so well that when coach Mike Krzyzewski said, "We haven't had one second of problems," it wasn't hard to believe him.

Meanwhile, the U.S. men's volleyball team was one of the most amazing stories at these Olympics, going undefeated despite the personal grief that head coach Hugh McCutcheon had to endure.

His father-in-law, Todd Bachman, was murdered and his mother-in-law seriously injured by a deranged man at a tourist spot in Beijing on Aug. 9. His wife, former U.S. women's volleyball player Elisabeth Bachman, was with her parents at the time of the attack.

McCutcheon missed his team's early matches, but returned and guided the Americans to their third gold medal in men's volleyball, and first since 1988. McCutcheon has kept his composure and tried to keep the focus on his team during an unimaginably difficult time.

But after the Americans' 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 victory for gold, McCutcheon said, "It's been a very emotionally demanding couple of weeks. After we won, I had to step outside and collect myself. But regardless of my reaction, I hope people were watching the champion USA volleyball team. This team - probably a year ago, no one would consider being Olympic champions."

Indeed, the Americans had not even reached the Olympic final since their 1988 gold. Clayton Stanley led the Americans with 15 kills, and was the top U.S. player throughout the tournament, scoring 146 points.

The team's gold completed the best showing ever for USA Volleyball in the Olympics: with championships in both men's and women's beach volleyball and a silver in women's indoor.

Speaking of silver, the U.S. men's water polo players were the last group of American athletes still competing at the Beijing Games as they finished their final against powerhouse Hungary early Sunday evening.

In this match, it was the red, white and green of Hungary that prevailed, not the red, white and blue. Hungary won its third consecutive men's water polo gold - and ninth overall - with a 14-10 victory.

"It's just how good that team is," U.S. coach Terry Schroeder said. "They're well-coached, they've got the athletes and they beat us good today. (But) we've got a lot to be proud of - we beat some great teams along the way here."