LeBron James hasn’t officially closed the door on suiting up for the Red, White and Blue in international competition even though he, like basically every other American NBA star, is not playing in the FIBA World Cup in China which started on Saturday. And one reason why LeBron may want to leave the door open to play at the Tokyo Olympics next summer is his experiencing being a part of one of the lowest moments in USA Basketball’s international history.
LeBron was part of the 2004 Olympic team that took home the Bronze medal at the Athens games after losing to Argentina in the semifinals. That the United States didn’t even play in the gold medal game was the final straw that led to a restructuring of the program, leading to the 2008 Redeem Team that LeBron was also a part of. But we have some more knowledge of how James, only 19 at the time, feels about the 2004 disappointment thanks to an oral history on the team published by ESPN.
LeBron James, 2004 Team USA forward: We didn’t have the discipline, we didn’t have the structure to be able to play on a world stage. We had great basketball players but we didn’t have the structure, and I think that’s part of why we finished third.
James, even though he was very young and not one of the leaders of the team in 2004, may feel compelled to bring things back full circle next summer in Tokyo with one last Olympic triumph. However, James hasn’t played in the Olympics since 2012. He elected not to play in the 2016 Rio Olympics after leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA title.
