The 2004 Athens Olympics were a turning point for USA Basketball, but not in the way fans hoped. For the first time since the Dream Team days, the Americans didn’t even make the championship game. And it wasn’t because of a lack of talent because this squad had LeBron, Wade, Melo, and Amar’e Stoudemire alongside established stars like Iverson and Duncan. Yet somehow they lost to Puerto Rico, fell to Lithuania, and got knocked out by Argentina in the semis. Everyone back home was at an utter loss for words. How did this happen? Well, after all these years, one of the four has decided to put our questions to rest, and about time!

On 7 PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire revealed his and Allen Iverson’s side of the story. “So cuz we getting taped, we actually in the training room getting taped and getting ready for practice and so we get out, we get our bags and we rush, we rush over to, you know, to the meeting.” According to Amar’e, they were wrapping up their pre-practice routine and believed they were on time, or even early, but the meeting kicked off earlier than it should have.

“Mhm. And we are early. We there like a few minutes early.” So naturally, Allen Iverson and Amar’e Stoudemire didn’t suspect anything to go wrong. “So we thinking we’re good, right?” However, they were caught off guard. “He’s like, “You ain’t playing. You ain’t playing.” Like, “What? What do you mean we’re not playing?”” That must have been utterly shocking. Especially considering how important LeBron, Iverson, and Amar’e were to the team’s potential success.

You can almost hear the disbelief in their voices even now. For a team already struggling to gel, pulling their firepower over something so small feels wrong. These were competitors who lived for big moments. Imagine prime Iverson, who bled for every minute of court time, or a 19-year-old LeBron hungry to prove himself. Sitting because a team meeting allegedly started early.

Brown’s old-school approach might have made sense in a different era. But not for an Olympic squad that needed all of it’s best people out there. Twenty years later, you still wonder how different those games could have looked with their full roster actually playing. But you know what’s funny? History has a way of repeating itself.

Especially on NBA benches. In 2004, stubborn coaching decisions left stars watching when they were needed most. Then in 2012, Melo and Amar’e were not playing and benched due to an injury and a personal tragedy respectively. The Knicks’ season could’ve flatlined here. But this time, the basketball gods had other plans. Enter, Jeremy Lin.

Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony on “Linsanity”

For two weeks in February 2012, Jeremy Lin turned Madison Square Garden into a basketball madness hub. “Linsanity” wasn’t just a catchy nickname. As the undrafted Harvard grad dropped 20+ points in 9 of 10 games, including a 38-point masterpiece against Kobe’s Lakers. And a cold-blooded buzzer-beater to make the Knicks win against the Raptors. The Knicks went 8-2 during that stretch. And Lin, who had been sleeping on his brother’s couch days earlier became a global sensation overnight. And Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire just revisited it.

But as Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire recently recalled on Melo’s 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, none of it happens without their untimely injuries. “The whole city is in an uproar,” Stoudemire recalled, laughing about returning to New York mid-Linsanity and seeing Lin jerseys everywhere. STAT also played that iconic Raptors game. He still cracks up about Lin’s audacity in the final seconds. “I was like, ‘What you mean clear out, man? Melo ain’t here, that ball better come to me, man,’” Stoudemire joked.

“What you mean clear out? So we tryin’ to clear out and I’m like, ‘let me see what he got.’ He took a lil hesi, pull-up…and he hit it.” Even as established All-Stars, they couldn’t help but appreciate Lin’s confidence. Carmelo Anthony admitted the energy was unlike anything he’d seen. Linsanity’s flame burned bright but fast. Once Melo and STAT returned, Lin’s role shrank, and a torn meniscus in March abruptly ended his season.

For us, what makes their podcast’s revisit so compelling is the lack of bitterness. There’s just genuine amusement at how a teammate they barely knew became the NBA’s biggest story. “We were shocked like everyone else,” Carmelo Anthony acknowledged, how Lin’s rise was so astonishing for everyone. Those 35 games left an indelible mark. Lin’s name still draws cheers at MSG, and a decade later, even the stars he temporarily replaced can’t help getting nostalgic about it.