Knicks Legend Carmelo Anthony Defends Team USA's 'Young Guys'

Team USA's disappointing finish at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup has fans thinking of a revamped "Dream Team," but former New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony defended the youthful approach.

Fans of rebuilding teams often beg management to "let the kids play," but supporters of Team USA basketball have apparently had enough.

The United States' men's national basketball team took a youthful approach to the FIBA Basketball World Cup: a group that included New York Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart featured no player older than 28 and almost all of them were making their debuts with Team USA's senior group. 

Alas for the Americans, the strategy failed to pay dividends. Team USA placed fourth in the Asia-based tournament, failing to reach the podium in consecutive World Cups for the first time in program history after placing sixth in China in 2019). 

Amateur and professional observers alike have already resorted to fan casting, those efforts headlined by LeBron James, who has reportedly reached out to several fellow superstars about making a run for Team USA's Olympic roster come the 2024 Games in Paris.

Speaking after the game, James' friend and former Team USA star Carmelo Anthony defended Team USA's roster approach. Even if he admitted that he'd "love to send the cream of the crop to compete at the highest level," he hoped that the young group would learn how to win together on the World Cup run. 

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"I understand what it means to put that (USA) uniform on and that jersey on. But, at the end of the day, everyone has their own thing that's going on and their own decisions, and their own people that are talking to them, and their own reasons why they make their decision to come or not to come," Anthony said (h/t New York Basketball on X). "But we have to respect those guys that are out there right now, too."

"Those guys are professional players," Anthony continued. "They're on their respective teams in the NBA, they are the guys on those teams ... you can't send the powerhouses every time. You talk about development, we're developing these young guys and these young talents to be able to compete around the world, this year, next year, the next couple of World Cups, and the next Olympics. We'll see what happens. We take our losses with our wins and we move on."

The most painful part of the Americans' disappointing finish was perhaps coming up short in front of red, white, and blue basketball royalty: former Knicks and Team USA star Carmelo Anthony served as a FIBA ambassador alongside fellow basketball stars Sue Bird, Pau Gasol, and Luis Scola. He and Bird frequently took in Team USA's games in Manila, including the 125-117 loss to Canada that denied them any form of FIBA hardware.

Brunson, Hart, and their compatriots finished 5-3 in the competition, falling to Lithuania, Germany, and Canada.

Anthony certainly knows what it's like to succeed and fail for Team USA on the international level: his first Olympic excursion came during the Athens Games in 2004, when he was part of one of the most infamous American basketball efforts in program history.

That team, whose oldest member was the 29-year-old captain Allen Iverson, became the first American group to lose multiple games at the Olympics, as Team USA went 5-3 en route to a bronze medal (its first lack of gold since the pre-"Dream Team" Games in 1988). Together with close friends James, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade (as well as team captain Kobe Bryant), Anthony helped the Americans find redemption at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It was the first of three gold medals for Anthony, who also guided the Americans to first place in 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio de Janeiro).