Carmelo Anthony, the only ever three-time Olympic gold medalist in men’s basketball, expressed interest in playing for the under-strength United States team at next month’s Fiba World Cup, but was turned away by USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo.
Even with the NBA’s biggest American stars having passed on national team duty with the 2020 Olympics on the horizon, Colangelo said Anthony was never considered despite overtures made through his representation.
“I love Carmelo,” Colangelo told SI.com. “He made a great contribution. He was a very good international player. But for where we are and what we’re doing, that conceivably could have been a distraction. I understand why the request was made. He’s trying to reestablish himself. I think that has to be done in the [NBA].”
The 35-year-old Anthony is a free agent after a tumultuous 16th NBA season where he was effectively dismissed by the Houston Rockets after 10 games before he was traded to the Chicago Bulls, who released him in February.
But for all the complicated readings of his NBA career, Anthony has been a staple for the national team for the last decade and a half.
One of only three men’s basketball players to win four Olympic medals along with Gennady Volnov and Sergey Belov of the Soviet Union, Anthony earned his first back in 2004, when the USA lost three times and stumbled to a bronze that prompted a wholesale overhaul of the program under Colangelo.
He has made 85 international appearances on 14 different USA Basketball teams in his career, averaging 14.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 assists while setting the US Olympic men’s records for games played (31), total points (336), field goals made (113), field goals attempted (262), rebounds (125) and three-point field goals attempted (139), free throws made (53) and free throws attempted (71).
Anthony had seemingly retired from international play after the Rio Games, when he shared an emotional embrace with teammate Kevin Durant and then-coach Mike Krzyzewski upon exiting the gold medal game against Serbia with two minutes remaining and victory secure.
“It was a special moment for me,” Anthony said afterward. “I know this is the end. This is it for me.”
The process of building the United States team for this month’s World Cup started last year with 35 players being added to the selection pool for the competition and next year’s Tokyo Olympics. Of those 35, 30 have already withdrawn from World Cup consideration for a variety of reasons including pending fatherhood, injury rehabilitation, filming a movie and preparing for the potential of a long NBA season. The World Cup will end on 15 September, meaning the US players, if they made the medal round, would get home about two weeks before NBA camps open.
More than a dozen other names were officially added to the national team list along the way, with two of those players dropping out already as well. Others like New Orleans’ JJ Redick were invited but declined even before being formally added to the list.
Add it all up, and there have been at least 52 players under real consideration in the last year and a half. That doesn’t include the select-teamers, others who were considered for that squad like New Orleans rookie and No 1 overall draft pick Zion Williamson (who declined) – or the 52 G-League players who went through the 12 qualifying games needed to get the US into the World Cup.
“The focus has to be on who’s here – not who’s not here,” Colangelo said. “A number of the young players in this group have a chance, a real chance, some of them to make this team, some of them to make an impact in the World Cup.”
