In just over a month, Team USA basketball will reconvene to start preparing for the upcoming 2024 Olympics, which will take place from Paris, France. Team USA didn't perform so well in last summer's FIBA World Cup from the Phillipines, but the squad that will take part in the Olympics will look a whole lot different, with stars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and more set to participate.
Arguably the most famous Team USA squad of all time, with the possible exception of the 1992 “Dream Team,” was the 2008 “Redeem Team,” which featured future Hall of Famers like James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, and Carmelo Anthony, and helped avenge the country's loss in the 2004 Olympics.
Now, it's been revealed that Anthony, who was a major part of that team, actually needed some convincing to join the team from legendary actor Will Smith, who recently stopped by the star's 7PM In Brooklyn podcast.
“In 2008 when I came to your house and we sat down and we talked and you asked me about the 08 Olympics and you said do you want do you want it? How bad you want it? And I said I really don't know if I want to do this, and you told me your career is in your hand,” Anthony told Smith, via 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony on YouTube.
“Yes, sir,” replied Smith.
“If you don't take this moment and do what you have to do in this moment, this moment will change your life. So I wanted to bring that up because you’re always giving that type of advice, I don't know if you remember that but that advice for me changed the trajectory in my life because I sat in this man’s house in 2008 where I wasn't going to make the USA team, people don't know that. I was the last option on the USA team. You got to understand the times at that time it was ‘08, a lot of s–t was going down, I had to go see Uncle Will,” said Anthony.
Indeed, Anthony became known over the years for, among other things, his epic performances at the Olympic games, oftentimes outshining several Team USA NBA stars who may have generally been considered better than him back in the United States.
Will Team USA win gold?
Of course, several of the big names competing on this year's Team USA–namely LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard–are well past their primes and not exactly at the level they would have been at had these Olympics taken place in, say, 2016.
Still, there is also a healthy mix of young talent on the team, including Anthony Edwards (who was far and away the best player on the FIBA Team USA team), Jayson Tatum, and Tyrese Haliburton, who is expected to be fully recovered from his hamstring injury before the Olympics get underway.
In any case, the 2024 Team USA will have a lot to live up to if they hope to reach the legendary heights of what the 2008 team, led by Anthony, accomplished.
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