The 2004 U.S. Olympic basketball team, just hearing that name should give anyone chills. Go ahead, search it up. The roster’ll make you stop and go, “Wait… how the hell did this squad lose?” Allen Iverson. Dwyane Wade. Carmelo freakin’ Anthony. LeBron James before he was even King James. Bro, this team was loaded. It was supposed to be the Dream Team for the generation. But guess what? They did not get the job done at the Athens Olympic Games. And if you’ve ever wondered what went sideways, Carmelo has an answer. 

We can’t mention the ’04 squad without naming another beast on that roster. Amar’e Stoudemire. Yep, he was right there too, and ended up leaving Athens with a bronze medal. Fast forward to now, on a recent episode of 7PM in Brooklyn, Carmelo and Amar’e sat down,  and the two former teammates got candid about that edition of the Summer Olympics. 

Carmelo got the issue real quick. Right off the bat, he started reminiscing like a dude who just got tossed into the deep end. “It was a hell of an experience,”. Why? Well, he broke it down, “It was a start of a hell of a journey especially for myself like we were if he (Amar’e) was 21 we were 20 right 19, 20 like we was around the same and it’s the minute I knew what type of environment that was going to be was when they got suspended in Florida”.  For some context, Team USA faced an upset in Florida before the Olympics had even kicked off. Three players were suspended, and that’s when Carmelo realized this whole thing wasn’t about to be the smooth ride folks expected.

In case you are wondering who got the likes of Allen Iverson, LeBron James, and Amar’e Stoudemire, benched, Carmelo laid it out plain and simple. “That for being a minute early. There’s a meeting at 2:00 p.m., okay? You get there at 1:57, right? The meeting starts at 1:55. Now you get suspended.”. The former basketball star explained how coach Larry Brown had called a team meeting for 2 p.m., but it kicked off five minutes earlier than it was supposed to. And by the time that, Iverson, Bron, and Amar’e, showed up, it was too late.

Even though they walked into that room before the clock hit 2, the fact that they missed those extra early minutes had them facing the wrath of a no-nonsense Hall of Famer. And that was the first red flag of what was about to be a wild, messy Olympic run. But amid this less-than-desirable run at Athens in 2004, let us take a moment to appreciate Carmelo’s Anthony’s illustrious Olympic career. 

Carmelo Anthony and his love with the Olympics

NCAA champion, 10× NBA All-Star, 2013 scoring champ, Carmelo Anthony’s trophy case is stacked. He is one of the smoothest scorers the league’s ever seen. But what separates a great player from a certified legend? Showing up when the pressure’s sky-high. And what could be a bigger stage than the Olympics?

For 14 years, Carmelo repped USA Basketball like no other. Four Olympic runs, one bronze in 2004, and then three straight golds after that. That’s a record no other male hooper could manage to touch to date. And just to flex a little harder, Carmelo still sits at the top of the U.S. Olympic men’s leaderboard for games played (31), total points (336), rebounds (125), field goals made (113), threes attempted (139), field goals attempted (262), free throws made (53), and free throws taken (71). 

And the New York native knows exactly what those gold medals mean. After clinching his third in Rio 2016, he said, “Most athletes don’t have an opportunity to say that they won a gold medal, better yet three gold medals.” Now, looking back at that 2004 run, you can’t help but wonder if Coach Larry Brown hadn’t been so old-school strict, maybe, just maybe, Melo would’ve been rockin’ four golds right now.