Tim Duncan was on that disaster of a roster that won the bronze medal in 2004.
Sports Illustrated’s Deantae Prince once was told by Duncan’s former Spurs teammate Bruce Bowen that Tim ACTUALLY turned down a personal invitation from President Barack Obama to attend the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
"It’s not often you find individuals like that. And it’s funny that he was offered an opportunity to fly here with the president of the United States, and he discussed it with me and I’m like, “You’re going, right?” He was like, “You know I’m not about that stuff.” Even that moment where you’d say, “I sure would like to be a part of that,” it doesn’t happen with Tim because he’s not concerned with that stuff."
Rio? To hang out with President Obama? Really? These days, most people would take an invitation from Barack Obama to go get some ice cream. Maybe it was the experience in 2004 that did it.
Tim Duncan was a part of that 2004 United States men’s Olympic basketball disaster at the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Was it his fault?
No. That honor goes to head coach Larry Brown. The team was noted for being the most disappointing USA men’s Olympic team in history, which is saying something after this past summer. The team got blown out by Puerto Rico, a team led by Carlos Arroyo.
By the way, that 2004 U.S. had Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, who spent most of the tournament modeling their warm up outfits and the comfort of the bench padding. Yes, Lake Show Life is not making this up. This is what happened based of Larry Brown’s horrific performance as the coach.
- Tim Duncan was so turned off by the experience he never tried out again.
- Jerry Colangelo was hired to change the system of Olympic Basketball.
- Colangelo had to personally meet with LeBron, D-Wade and Melo to convince them that things would be different.
- Then he added some dude named Kobe Bryant to the team in 2008.
Let’s see how that worked out.