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Welcome to this special edition of extratime from Las Vegas and the | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
training camp of the American Olympic basketball team. If you are | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
a gambler, you would be better off not betting against this team to | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
win gold at the London Games. They are the defending champions and | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
their ranks include some of the biggest names in the NBA. One of | :00:41. | :00:51. | |
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them hoon is our guest today. -- Carmelo Anthony is an Olympic | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
veteran, whose rise to the top came by way of the gritty streets of New | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
York and Baltimore. Now, he and his team-mates assume the mantle of the | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
famous American Dream Team of the 1990s, whose path to gold did so | :01:11. | :01:16. | |
much to boost support for basketballers round the world. 20 | :01:16. | :01:26. | |
:01:26. | :01:48. | ||
years on from that, is there any Carmela Anthony, welcome to this | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
special edition of extratime. Thank you for joining us. How confident | :01:53. | :02:01. | |
are you of lifting gold at these Olympics? We have to remain | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
confident, especially coming off what we have accomplished at | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
Beijing, we won the gold medal. But we understand it will be different | :02:09. | :02:15. | |
going into these London Games. A lot tougher. And you are without | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
some key members of the squad. People like Dwayne Wade. How much | :02:20. | :02:26. | |
of an impact could that have? miss them, we definitely miss them. | :02:26. | :02:33. | |
But we also have guys that can fill the void of those guys. And as of | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
right now, guys that are doing a great job doing that. As far as | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
opponents are concerned, Spain off course will be looking to avenge | :02:41. | :02:47. | |
their defeat in the final last time. They have five NBA players | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
themselves in their squad. Are the biggest threat? Right now, Spain | :02:53. | :03:01. | |
would be one of the biggest threat. Argentina is always good. France. | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
But everybody is bringing the best of the best from their country. To | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
try to win the gold medal. You have some very big NBA players in the | :03:12. | :03:19. | |
American team. Yourself, Kobe Bryant. How important is it for you | :03:19. | :03:25. | |
guys to entertain as well as simply win? We are not worrying about | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
entertaining. We just want to win basketball games, win the gold | :03:29. | :03:34. | |
medal. Throughout the course of the game, if we play the way we know | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
how to play and win the game, that is entertaining to us. Off course | :03:38. | :03:44. | |
all of this brings to mind the Dream Team of 1992. People like | :03:44. | :03:52. | |
Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and so on. Now, there is a move to | :03:52. | :03:59. | |
basically limit to the age of 23 those who can play from America in | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
the Olympics in basketball. What do you make of that, the | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
recommendation from the NBA commissioner? My opinion is I don't | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
think there should be an age limit. It should be up to the players to | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
decide whether or not they want to take on the opportunity to | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
represent their country, whether they are 23 off 33. It shouldn't | :04:23. | :04:28. | |
matter. And such a ruling, had it been in place a few years ago, | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
would have had indications for you because you would not have got a | :04:32. | :04:37. | |
gold medal. Absolutely. I would have been one of them guys who | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
would not have had the opportunity to win a gold medal. The Dream | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
Team' success was of course instrumental in boosting the | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
popularity of pass the ball virtually all around the world. One | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
place it has become enormously popular it is China. We have seen | :04:54. | :05:00. | |
some NBA players go and play there. Is that something that you could | :05:00. | :05:06. | |
conceive for yourself later perhaps in your career? Hopefully. We look | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
at what the Dream Team did, the way it was able to transcend | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
basketballers globally. The way it changed the views of NBA players or | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
American players. They definitely laid the platform for us to be able | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
to go over there and do what we are able to do now. What about | :05:24. | :05:30. | |
yourself? Hopefully. Her flee when my time comes after 2008, after | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
this one, we made a big enough stance to change the game even more. | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
-- hopefully. Could you see yourself going to China? I don't | :05:39. | :05:47. | |
think so. Right now, who knows how many more years I have in the NBA? | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
It is ironic in a way that it could be the Chinese who are competing | :05:52. | :05:57. | |
for American talent ahead of Europe. China is big. So many fans and | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
people over there. The game is only growing globally and in China. For | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
guys over here that have the opportunity to play in China, I | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
think a lot of guys are taking that opportunity. I want to talk a | :06:10. | :06:15. | |
little bit about your own background. You grew up off course | :06:15. | :06:23. | |
in the projects. You were born in Brooklyn and manufactured in | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
Baltimore. Your father died when you were two years old, leaving | :06:27. | :06:34. | |
your mother to raise you and your siblings. The EU have also been | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
quoted as saying you honed not only your athletic skills but also vital | :06:39. | :06:46. | |
skills. -- you have also been. Tell me about that. You become a cup of | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
your environment. Growing up in the ghettos and slums, or whatever, you | :06:51. | :06:59. | |
have to deal with life, which is drugs, prostitution, guns, poverty | :06:59. | :07:05. | |
as a whole. You have to find ways to survive there as a young -- at a | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
young age. And I found a way. Whether it was through sports, | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
education or just through the streets period. You have to find a | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
way. An escaped from gangs and drugs? Sports definitely helped me | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
out, from basketball, football, baseball, whatever sport it was at | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
the time. I read somewhere there was a basketball court totally on | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
your doorstep in New York, growing up there? Absolutely. It was right | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
outside my window. I was able to go outside and play pass the ball and | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
watch all of the guys play. I was at the age where I did not care | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
about but the ball too much. I just wanted to be a kid. I read | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
somewhere that there was one summer where you grew five inches in | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
height? Yes. Was that the seminal moment, the moment at which is | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
thought, this is the career for me? I grew five inches in the summer | :08:02. | :08:08. | |
going to my junior high school. At that point in time, I did not know | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
what was going on. I just knew I grew five inches. That next year, | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
that is when I started taking basketballers seriously. And you | :08:17. | :08:22. | |
actually never forgot those roots, have you? Never. Philanthropy has | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
been a big part of giving back. Tell me about some of the things | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
you have been doing. I started a foundation, the Carmelo Anthony | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
Foundation, and under that umbrella I do something where I build | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
basketball courts in under privileged neighbourhoods and give | :08:38. | :08:45. | |
back to the community. I have a couple of -- a couple in Cordery Co, | :08:45. | :08:51. | |
a couple in Baltimore. It is just little things that make it in packs | :08:51. | :08:57. | |
in the community. Given you are very much a role model yourself, | :08:57. | :09:07. | |
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the fact is, there are some statistics, that of 166,000 people | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
to play pass the ball in high- school here, just 44 have a chance | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
of actually doing it professionally. It is really a very small number, | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
isn't it? Not a lot of people have the realistic hope of emulating | :09:25. | :09:31. | |
somebody like you? Absolutely. The window of opportunity is shorter | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
and shorter. We have so many guys in the US that play pass the ball | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
at high-school level or college level that never get a chance to | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
play on a professional level. What we are able to do now by | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
transcending the game globally gives places like China or Europe | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
the opportunity to give more players over from the US. Now you | :09:53. | :10:00. | |
have had a homecoming at the New York Knicks and, for a start, how | :10:00. | :10:06. | |
much of a homecoming has that been? How welcoming? For it is welcoming. | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
I am back home where everything started but it is a lot different | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
now. Than when I was covering -- growing up. Going back and seeing | :10:14. | :10:21. | |
the place that I came from. And it is 40 years since the New York | :10:21. | :10:27. | |
Knicks won an NBA title. How much pressure to do that? There is a | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
possibility but not pressure. I try not to compete and play under | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
pressure. Once you start doing that, you start becoming timid and | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
thinking about things that you should not do, rather than just | :10:39. | :10:45. | |
going out there and doing it. you are up against an attempt to | :10:45. | :10:51. | |
win a title, up against the trinity of Lebron James and so on with the | :10:51. | :10:58. | |
Miami Heat. A lot of competition. Definitely competition. It is | :10:58. | :11:05. | |
friendly competition. We are all close friends and we want to | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
represent our home team's. Four you, what about after the game? You are | :11:10. | :11:18. | |
at your peak now. Not yet! At the age of 28. What does the future | :11:18. | :11:23. | |
hold for you after the Games? Hopefully I will be sitting around | :11:23. | :11:29. | |
in one of my pieces as at that point in time, whatever that may be. | :11:29. | :11:33. | |
-- one of my businesses. I am starting the groundwork now so that | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
when I am downplaying, I can just roll over to that. As far as this | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
Olympics is concerned, do you think this will be the last one? Right | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
now, who knows? I am just focusing on this one. The next one is in | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
four years and I will be 31. Who knows? I will see when the time | :11:54. | :11:59. | |
comes. Right now, this is my main focal point. A quick word about the | :11:59. | :12:04. | |
British team, being the London Olympics. Britain has a team in the | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
Olympics this year for the first time since about 1948, something | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
like that. Be honest, how much chance do you give them? I don't | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
know who is on the team. Honestly I don't. We will not know until | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
probably a couple of days before we play the Britain team when we get a | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
report and the film that we have to watch. But you would not presumably | :12:26. | :12:32. | |
be worrying too much? At this point, everybody is coming after us so we | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
have to be prepared. That we just go back briefly to your upbringing. | :12:37. | :12:45. | |
That was fascinating. How much of your upbringing has shaped who do | :12:45. | :12:52. | |
are, both as an athlete and as an individual? As an athlete it made | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
me to I -- it made me who I am totally. Just from being able to | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
hold your own, being tough, knowing how to handle different situations. | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
The survival tactics from off the street transcends on to the | :13:05. | :13:11. | |
basketball court and it kind of works hand-in-hand. Was there a | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
point at which you thought yourself, this is the only way out, sport is | :13:15. | :13:22. | |
the only escape? When I started realising that I was like in the | :13:22. | :13:26. | |
game of basketball, I fell in love with it, that is when I said, this | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
is the only way. If I don't take this seriously, I am just going to | :13:32. | :13:40. | |
be a product of my environment. how much of it has been down to a | :13:40. | :13:46. | |
lark and how much down to application and hard work? 95% hard | :13:46. | :13:52. | |
work. 5% might be I caught a break at the time. But I definitely put a | :13:52. | :14:00. | |
lot of hard work into it. And you are not just a sportsman, you are | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
more than that. You are a product. But you are a reality TV star, a | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
celebrity in so many different ways. How much influence is there for you | :14:12. | :14:22. | |
:14:22. | :14:24. | ||
to be a role model? -- how much It is important for me to be a war | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
model for kids and show them that it is good to be who you are. -- a | :14:28. | :14:35. | |
role model. If you are a doctor, a teacher, an athlete. Regardless of | :14:35. | :14:41. | |
what you are, you have to be, more than that. You have to be accepted | :14:41. | :14:49. | |
for who you are. How much pressure is there going into these Olympics, | :14:49. | :14:56. | |
given the success of the Dream Team all those years ago? What the dream | :14:56. | :15:00. | |
team did, we will never be able to duplicate. The timing was different. | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
The game was different. The rest of the world has gotten better -- | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
gotten better. We are just ready for the challenge, for the | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
experience. How much of an inspiration to you were they? | :15:16. | :15:22. | |
Michael Jordan, etc. They change of the game. They changed us as young | :15:22. | :15:27. | |
players, the way we looked at the game. We wanted to represent our | :15:27. | :15:34. | |
country. They definitely had a huge impact on my life. Do you think | :15:34. | :15:41. | |
that was the seminal moment, as far as basketball's identity was | :15:41. | :15:49. | |
concerned? It became an international sport. The dream team | :15:49. | :15:58. | |
were able to -- what they were able to do will never be duplicated | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
again. Or we just want to carry the torch and passed the torch back | :16:02. | :16:08. | |
down to the next team were now time is up. What was it about that team? | :16:08. | :16:13. | |
They were so many good individuals? All the great players on that team | :16:13. | :16:18. | |
came together as one. They put their egos aside and focused on | :16:18. | :16:27. | |
winning the gold medal. How would you compare the current | :16:27. | :16:33. | |
American team to that? Everybody asks that question. It is a lot | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
different. We have younger guys who are great players. The dream team | :16:39. | :16:45. | |
were all in their prime, or after their prime. They were all | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
superstars and fall of Fame's. the legacy endures to this day. | :16:51. | :16:58. | |
will go on and on. When I am gone, the legacy will still be there. | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
Briefly, going back to your closest rivals. Spain, we have talked about. | :17:03. | :17:10. | |
What about France and Argentina? Friends only has five or six | :17:10. | :17:18. | |
players on their team from NBA. Argentina might have three or four. | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
The competition will be spread out. It is a matter of who wants it the | :17:22. | :17:30. | |
most. Do you think America has the hunger? Yes, for sure. It is there. | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
A lot of people have been doubting us. We have dealt with this before. | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
We are ready to go out there and win the gold medal. Injuries | :17:39. | :17:45. | |
notwithstanding, they don't concern you. No, they don't concern us. | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
What is the most important thing going into this Olympics? Having | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
everybody on the same page, focused, fitness levels have to be higher. | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
We have to understand and realise what is at stake. That is a cold | :18:00. | :18:07. | |
metal. Anything else is not satisfying. -- gold medal. You have | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
played at the very height of this game. Is the Olympics still | :18:11. | :18:18. | |
something special? Or is it just... Almost an inconvenience? It is | :18:18. | :18:24. | |
still exciting. When I play for the USA team, it is exciting, it is | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
like day one, I just started playing for the USA. It doesn't | :18:29. | :18:35. | |
feel like I have been with them for ten years. Does the legacy of 2004 | :18:35. | :18:42. | |
still haunt you? I think 2080 we were able to get that monkey off | :18:42. | :18:49. | |
our back. Two dozen 12, we can put 2004 to bed if we take it out. | :18:49. | :18:59. | |
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the biggest team from the Soviet Union has gone away. It will be an | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
ambitious gambling man who doesn't put money on the United States this | :19:03. | :19:11. | |
time around. Well, things happen. I would be surprised if somebody did | :19:11. | :19:18. | |
and put their money on us. But life is a gamble. You will have people | :19:18. | :19:26. | |
who go against us. What went wrong in 2004? We went together as the | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
team. -- we were not together. There were no excuses. We came back | :19:33. | :19:40. | |
and you saw the difference in at 2008. We really focused, and we | :19:40. | :19:47. | |
selected the right players. You saw the difference. If there is a | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
message to your supporters, you fence around the world, what would | :19:51. | :20:01. | |
:20:01. | :20:01. | ||
it be? We are run away. There may the good times start. -- we are on | :20:01. | :20:08. | |
our way. The team is coming together, you | :20:08. | :20:13. |