Golden Anthony
8/22/2016 8:48:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Following the win, the former Syracuse All-American spoke of the experience.
"For me, it was more about kind of just the journey that it took to get to this point for me as an individual. But as a team, coming together a couple of weeks ago last month in (Las) Vegas and really decide to commit our time, sacrifice ourselves, our families, our games for one another, knowing who we were playing alongside, realizing what was at stake, what we wanted to accomplish. But, most importantly for me to be here since, I mean, '04, and then '06 when they really started to have a culture, USA Basketball started to have a culture. And, to be alongside Coach K – he's sacrificed so much of his time, his family, coming from a collegiate level, instilling his trust into NBA players and being the face of USA Basketball. I just want to say thanks to that. I appreciate that."
Anthony departed Rio with a number of U.S. men's basketball career Olympic records:
- games played: 31
- points: 336
- field goals made: 113
- field goals attempted: 248
- rebounds:125
- 3-point field goals attempted: 139
- free throws made: 53
- free throws attempted: 71
- First American to play in four Olympics
- First American to win three Olympic gold medals
Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball managing director
"The fact that he came back this time, he was a question mark earlier. I think he's happy he came back for a lot of reasons. It gave us an opportunity to say 'thank you' to Melo for the job he's done and the commitment to USA Basketball and I couldn't be happier for him also."
Mike Krzyzewski, USA Basketball coach
We kept getting better even though it didn't necessarily reflect in the differential in the score but we were getting better and more knowledgeable. That's where I commend the leadership of our veterans for keeping us on course for that.  As far as (his tenure), Carmelo's been here as long as I've been here. We shared a press conference in Japan in 2006 where after our only loss, he set the tone in that press conference for what was to be one of the standards of our program and that's collective responsibility. He didn't make any excuses. We took responsibility for the loss and gave credit to the Greek team. We built on that. I call it character. At that moment, sometimes in a loss, you find out a deep character in someone and that's what happened with Carmelo in then the commitment from LeBron and Kobe and all these guys, Chris, Kevin, all these guys have great character. It's just built to where now we have a great, great culture."
Paul George, USA Basketball teammate
"Melo's for sure the leader.He's the voice of this team."
DeMarcus Cousins, USA Basketball teammate
"As much negativity as that guy gest, he doesn't deserve it. He's an incredible person, he's an incredible leader. He speaks for himself. It shows his commitment, it shows his dedication to his craft, to his organization, to this organization, he's a great guy. Great guy."
Â
