Parlando con MeLO^^

Fresh off a rookie NBA season in which Carmelo Anthony turned around the Denver Nuggets franchise and was runner-up in Rookie of the Year voting, the then-20-year-old grew frustrated by sitting on the bench at the 2004 Athens Olympics. So he made it a point to improve, and has been Team USA's top scorer ever since. One of the leaders on the Redeem Team -- the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team, which is expected to redeem the U.S.'s status atop international basketball -- Anthony looks forward to taking care of business in Beijing.

You had played with Team USA before but you guys dominated the 2007 FIBA Americas tournament. What was different about last summer?
People got tired of losing. As a country, as a team, as an organization, the USA got tired of losing. So we put together a team, a phenomenal team, and went out there and got the job done.

What clicked? Was it just unselfishness?
We play against each other every day, day in day out. We know the scouting reports, we know what people can do, know what they can't do. So when you get everybody on the same court at one time, it all clicked. All Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) gotta go over there and do is coach. Just do what he do and we going to do what we do out there on the court.

What do you think you guys are capable of in Beijing?
The gold medal. Anything less than a gold medal is a failure for us.

It's too early to call you guys another Dream Team, so what you think of Redeem Team?
(laughs) The Redeem Team. Y'all can name us whatever you want after we go there and take care of business. People can name us whatever they want. So I'd rather wait till we go over and take care of our business to be named again.

What do you like most about international play?
I like playing hard and the physical play of it. I play out of position most of the time anyway. I play some power forward over there because we play small. So there's a lot of mismatches over there. I just like playing on the team that we got, all the guys that we have on the team and the way we click, the chemistry that we have.

Four of the top five picks from the 2003 NBA Draft are on this team. Do you feel like you guys are the leaders of this team now?
Yeah, I mean we've been there. We experienced a lot together, especially me, LeBron (James) and D-Wade (Dwyane Wade). From that '04 Olympics to the world games (2006 World Championships) to now, so we got a lot older, more mature. So we know what it takes to go out there and win.

You just came off your rookie season before you got on that '04 team. Does the U.S. team now feel more like it's more your team?
Yeah, it's our team but it's everybody's team in their own different way. We (Anthony, James, Wade) are becoming the face of the NBA, were becoming the face of USA Basketball, but we still have guys on our team such as Kobe (Bryant), who's a leader, Jason Kidd, who's another leader. We still got a lot of people on our team and a lot of different faces who contribute to it in a lot of different ways.

What are your teams to watch in Beijing?
All of them. I think all of them because anybody we play against we got a target on our back, a bull's eye. Everybody wants to beat the USA team. So we gotta go over there and take care of everybody and not take anybody for granted.

Do you still feel like the U.S. is the favorite?
Of course. With the team that we got, how could we not be the favorite?

Growing up did you watch the Olympics?
All the time.

All sports or just basketball?
All sports.

Any favorites?
I'm a big boxing fan. I love to go see the boxing. And the track and field.

So if you could play one other Olympic sport which one would you play?
Probably boxing.

Not track and field?
Nah, not track and field. They run too much for me.