The 2004 Team USA basketball team was filled with stories. Not all of them were good. Carmelo Anthony recalled some memories from that Olympic squad on the latest edition of his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, and how coach Larry Brown tried to set the tone by suspending three of the team’s best players.
Which players were they? Amar’e Stoudemire, LeBron James, and the face of the NBA at the time, Allen Iverson. Why? For being late to a team meeting. “The minute I knew what type of environment that was gonna be was when they got suspended in Florida. For being a minute early” said Melo.
Anthony would explain that Amar’e, LBJ, and AI all showed up to a 2pm meeting at 1:57 PM. But according to Brown, if you’re on time you are late, and the coaches decided to kick off that particular meeting at 1:55 PM.
“We about to go play Puerto Rico in Jacksonville. We come to the meeting, ‘You ain’t playing, you ain’t playing, and you ain’t playing,'” Melo recalled Brown telling the basketball legends. It did seem like there was a deeper agenda from Brown. One that Melo has since been able to determine since he has gotten older.
“Now mind you that the relationship between Allen and Larry at this point in time is already shaky,” said Melo. He wasn’t wrong. AI and the famed coach butted heads for many years in Denver. “And Larry don’t want to deal with that sh** with Allen no more. He just dealt with it for six years, and I’m sure AI don’t want to deal with Larry.”
So why did Brown decide to punish LBJ and Amar’e, two players were weren’t involved in that personal beef? “It was a statement,” Melo suggested. “‘I have to set the tone and let LeBron know that’s not allowed. It wasn’t about him. I got to set the tone on AI that I’m not gonna allow you to influence LeBron that way.'”
Anthony didn’t hold the memory as a grudge against Brown, nor did he think Brown was entirely out of line due to his troubled history with Iverson. In fact, he told his panel that he “respected” that it was a statement being made of the “right why to play,” and what better way to send that statement than by pulling the NBA’s biggest superstar at that time.
James would go on to become as iconic as basketball fanatics expected he would — and at 40 years old, still competes at a very high level. What’s crazier is that despite his massive influence on the game, AI never did walk away with an NBA Championship. LeBron has four.
Were Brown’s methods unorthodox? Certainly, especially if they were based on a hatred against one of his players. But LeBron is most certainly one of the most disciplined NBA players of all time. If he learned any of that from Brown’s lesson, then maybe it was all for the best.
