Back in 2004, Team USA wasn’t the dominant powerhouse we know today. Even though the U.S. squad now enters the Olympic Games with gold practically guaranteed, things were far shakier two decades ago. The national team had just fumbled at the 2002 World Championships and was still licking its wounds. And yet, the 2004 Athens Olympics brought a glimmer of hope—two rising NBA rookies, 19-year-old LeBron James and 20-year-old Carmelo Anthony, were added to the roster. But hope quickly unraveled.

Still, it wasn’t entirely shocking why the team came together the way it did. After the September 11 attacks, several big names hesitated to travel to Athens, creating major gaps in the lineup. Consequently, head coach Larry Brown and his assistant Gregg Popovich scrambled to assemble a squad. Led by seasoned names like Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, and Tim Duncan, the team leaned heavily on youth with LeBron, Melo, and Dwyane Wade thrown into the mix at the last minute.

As expected, that mix didn’t work out. The team failed to reach the finals and had to settle for a bronze after beating Lithuania. And 21 years later, Kenyon Martin still isn’t over it. “We don’t bring home bronze for sure. We win gold. A hundred percent,” Martin vented on Gil’s Arena podcast. That statement didn’t come from thin air—Martin strongly believes the U.S. team would’ve taken home gold if he had been on the roster.

To back it up, Martin pointed to his 2003 run with Team USA when he won gold at the FIBA Americas Championship. So when Gilbert Arenas reminded him that LeBron, Wade, and Melo were on the Athens roster, Martin didn’t hold back. “But they weren’t ready to play. All three of them. They wasn’t ready to play,” he fired back, suggesting the trio’s inexperience hurt the team’s chances.

Interestingly, this wasn’t the ex-Nuggets star’s first public airing of grievances. In 2023, he voiced the same frustration. “They didn’t even invite me. I just came off an All-Star, signed my max deal, and I don’t even come back.” And ironically, later in his career, Martin got a chance to potentially team up with LeBron and Wade—until Pat Riley got in the way.

Why did Kenyon Martin and LeBron James’ collab never happen?

The early 2010s saw Miami transform into a championship magnet with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh forming the legendary Big Three. Naturally, role players lined up for a shot at a ring. But while Miami stacked talent everywhere else, they kept striking out when it came to finding a reliable big man off the bench. One major roadblock? Pat Riley’s famously brutal conditioning standards.

Still, the front office never stopped looking. Even though they worked around it with scrappy contributors like Chris Andersen and Joel Anthony, Miami knew they needed something more solid at center. After the 2011 lockout, former No. 1 overall pick Kenyon Martin was back on the market. He had options—but as it turns out, South Beach was his top choice.

In fact, Martin flew down to Miami to meet Pat Riley. But things hit a wall real fast. “I came down there and my body had been through so much,” Martin revealed on The OGs podcast. “[Pat Riley] was talking about all that motherfu—– conditioning and I was like, ‘I ain’t going to make that.’” It was blunt, but honest. And if you know Riley, he won’t compromise his methods, even with superstars.

However, coming back to Martin, that time he had already dealt with a laundry list of injuries—from breaking his fibula in college to nagging ankle issues in the pros. There was just no way he’d survive Miami’s grind. So instead, he took a $2.5 million deal with the Clippers—and the Heat’s frontcourt void remained a “what if” that never got answered.