NBA – Carmelo Anthony: «LeBron and Allen Iverson got suspended by Team USA because of that»

Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif

While he’s a Team USA legend, LeBron James hasn’t had all the good times with the U.S. national team. According to Carmelo Anthony, he was even suspended along with other stars for a strange reason before the 2004 Olympics.

LeBron James’s successes are often remembered when discussing his career with the US national team, but it didn’t necessarily get off to the best possible start. As a reminder, the Chosen One played in the 2004 Athens Olympics, just one year after joining the NBA. The tournament turned into a fiasco for Team USA, who lost their crown to Argentina…

At the time, the roster was made up of some big names, including Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson, to name a few, not to mention LBJ and Carmelo Anthony. The latter shared an interesting anecdote about the team during Amar’e Stoudemire’s appearance on his podcast, which also featured him. The story notably involved coach Larry Brown, who was as legendary as he was stern:

When LeBron & Co. arrived early… and still got punished

The minute I knew what type of environment that was going to be was when they got suspended in Florida for being a minute early to a meeting. Say there’s a meeting at 2 PM, you get there at 1:57. The meeting starts at 1:55, now you get suspended. We about to go play Puerto Rico in Jacksonville. We coming to the meeting, he like, “You ain’t playing, you ain’t playing, and you ain’t playing.”

It was you (Stoudemire), AI, and Bron. You talk about the three biggest names at this point in time. You talking AI, who was damn near the face of the world. He’s the face of the world in basketball. You got this young rookie of the year, you know, Stat, and then you got Bron, who was the next star.

As I got time to reflect on that time, you realize, it wasn’t a casualty of war. It was setting the tone. “AI, you the guy, you leading Amare, who’s the young guy, Rookie of the Year. You also leading LeBron James. So I have to set the tone and let LeBron know that’s not allowed.” It wasn’t about him, he probably had a little s*** in there, but I got to set the tone on AI that I’m not going to allow you to influence LeBron that way.

Ultimately, the absence of the three stars clearly didn’t hurt Team USA, as Melo and co. easily defeated Puerto Rico (96-71). For the forward, it was mainly about getting veteran Iverson back on track, who had played under Larry Brown with the Sixers and whose relationship with the coach had deteriorated before their separation. The latter simply wanted to ensure discipline was maintained within the team.