Carmelo Anthony becomes the United States' all-time leading scorer in the Olympics
Carmelo Anthony has scored a game-high 31 points in 35 minutes to lead the US Men’s Basketball team to a hard-fought win over Australia 98-88. He scored 14 points in the first quarter of their game against Australia on Wednesday and became the all-time leading scorer for the USA with a total of 293 points.
The New York Knicks forward started the game as third on all-time scoring list behind David Robinson with 270 points and Lebron James with 273 points. With 1:11 left in the first quarter, Anthony scored his record-setting 276th points after sinking his three-point shot on top of the arc. He also passed Michael Jordan’s record of 256 points during their last game against Venezuela
Playing in his 26th Olympic game, Melo also broke Robinson and James’ all-time record for games played in the previous game and will continue to set a record in the next game he plays.
Anthony, a three-time Olympic medallist is considered as one of the most prolific international players in the Olympics. A gold medal finish for this Rio 2016 Olympics will make him the United States’ most decorated basketball player in the Olympics.
The 32-year-old NBA veteran has been a member of the USA basketball team for a record of four times. He played in the 2004 Athens Olympics where they settled for a bronze medal. He then captured back-to-back gold medals during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 Olympics in London.
Anthony also holds the US records for most points in a single Olympic game after scoring 37 points against Nigeria. He also made a record for having the most three-points field goals made in a single game in Olympic history after scoring 10 three-points in that game.
The US men continue preliminary round play against Serbia at 6 p.m. EDT on Aug. 12 (8 a.m. AEST Aug. 13) and a final preliminary round game against France at 1:15 p.m. EDT)on Aug. 14 (3:15 a.m. AEST Aug. 15).
