Arguably the greatest basketball team in the world, Team USA was doomed to a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics. The squad was humiliated once more during the 2006 FIBA World Cup, where they once again finished outside of the top two, two years after their humiliation at the Olympics. The greatest NBA players, including Carmelo Anthony, assembled a formidable USA team two years after that fiasco that they called the “Redeem Team.”
Anthony needed some inspiration to perform well on the international scene given the intense pressure on the squad to get revenge for the humiliations suffered in the 2004 Olympics and the 2006 FIBA World Cup.
Carmelo Anthony talks how Will Smith inspired him
Surprisingly, Will Smith provided him with the inspiration he needed to restore the honor of USA basketball.
In order to promote their new film Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence joined 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Carmelo Anthony during a recent episode of 7 PM in Brooklyn Pod. Melo recounted how the Hollywood celebrity helped him get over his fears prior to the Beijing Olympics halfway through the show.
Before the games, the former top player for the Nuggets paid Smith a visit and spoke with him. Smith provided Melo with a much-needed wake-up call during their conversation. Anthony disclosed,
“We were talking about the ’08 Olympics and you asked me, ‘Do you want it? How bad do you want it?’ And I said, ‘I really don’t know if I wanna do this.’ And you told me, ‘Your career is in your hand. If you don’t take this moment and do what you have to do with this moment, this moment will change your life.’”
Anthony benefited greatly from this talk; he developed into a much more confident player and assisted the United States in winning the gold medal in the 2008 Olympics. He scored 11.2 points per game and consistently hit clutch shots to help the team captained by Kobe Bryant. Anthony even had a major impact on the USAMNT’s subsequent two Olympic medal runs.
