Carmelo Anthony shared a story about how he and LeBron James made a pact during the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Coming after their rookie seasons in the NBA, Anthony and James were called for team USA. They had to take less important roles on the national team with then more experienced Richard Jefferson and Shawn Marion taking the starting spots.
Melo and LeBron were not too happy with having to come off the bench. While they didn’t get much playing time during games, averaging 6.4 and 12.1 minutes per game respectively, they decided to make up for it during practices. The Portland Trail Blazers forward remembered how he and LeBron made a pact to prove they are better than Jefferson and Marion on Uninterrupted:
“When we made that pact it was just like ‘What?! They are playing in front of us? Really?’ That me and Bron’s mentality. But then we used to go to practice and in practice that was our games. We used to huddle up before practice and be like ‘Yo, listen let’s go to war, we want to smoke today’.”
Carmelo Anthony
Team USA had a disappointing 2004 Olympics, winning bronze and losing three games out of eight (to Puerto Rico, Lithuania, and Argentina). Anthony averaged 2.4 points, while James had 5.4 points per game.
