Carmelo Anthony has proven himself to not only be the leader of Team USA, but also the star of the team. Anthony is the only men’s basketball player to participate in four Olympic games and now he’s the all-time leading scorer, passing LeBron James.
Anthony passed James’ mark by opening the game with four 3-pointers in just the first quarter of the United States 98-88 win over Australia.
Anthony finished with a game-high 31 points. He now has 293 points in his Olympic career. James has 273 points for second place, David Robinson (270) and Michael Jordan (256) are third and fourth on the all-time U.S. list, respectively.
Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt holds the all-time record of 1,093, but unlike Anthony, he didn’t have his minutes restricted while playing on powerhouse teams.
“Of course I was conscious of it,” Anthony said of the scoring mark. “My teammates was making sure I was aware of the situation, but tonight was one of those nights where I wanted to let the game come to me and take the shots that was given to me, take the open shots and kind of play basketball.
“And at the end of the day I was in my zone. I was playing basketball.”
