The Denver Nuggets’ History at the Olympics

The 2024 Summer Olympics kick off this weekend and the Denver Nuggets will be represented on the court, but not on USA Basketball’s roster. Nikola Jokic will lead Serbia, while Jamal Murray teams up with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Canada to create a two-headed monster. Jamal will be competing in his first Olympics, Jokic competed in 2016. Vlatko Cancar has also competed in the Olympics (2020), but with Slovenia narrowly missing out on qualifying for the 2024 Games, his international run is already over this year. Murray joins Cancar and Jokic as a handful of other Nuggets who have competed on the world stage in the most iconic international basketball tournament we have. Here are some of Denver’s best players to don their country’s uniform.

Nikola Jokic – Serbia

Jokic is making his second Olympic appearance. His first came in 2016 (Serbia failed to qualify for the 2020 games in Tokyo). It was Serbia’s best performance at the Olympics to date. Jokic quickly established himself with the Nuggets after becoming one of the top players for Serbia’s Mega Leks, and his rise to stardom helped earn him a spot on a very talented Serbian national team. While Jokic certainly wasn’t the star of that team, he made a big impact and helped elevate Serbia to the level of one of the world’s basketball powerhouses. In group play, he scored 25 points against the Americans, keeping DeMarcus Cousins ​​and (now teammate) DeAndre Jordan from getting in the way. Joker ultimately led Serbia in steals, blocks and rebounds for the tournament. Jokic was firmly on Team USA’s radar, but struggled greatly once the gold medal game began, with USA relentlessly pursuing him with a rotation of defenders. Ultimately, Nikola and the rest of the Serbian team couldn’t hang with Team USA, losing the gold medal game by double digits. Their run to silver was still a great one, however, and remains the standard for international play for the Balkan nation.

Carmelo Anthony – USA

Carmelo is the most decorated Nugget to ever compete in the Olympics. He is also one of the few players who has the distinction of playing for one of the most infamous and vilified American teams while also playing for one of the most famous and beloved American teams. Melo’s first Olympic action was his first, as part of the 2004 Athens team that is widely considered the biggest failure in U.S. basketball history at the Olympics. That team, the fourth iteration of Team USA since professional athletes were allowed to compete, failed to capture the gold medal, something that hadn’t happened since 1988 and had never happened in the professional era. Melo was coming off his rookie season with the Nuggets and was largely relegated to the bench. He clashed with U.S. coach Larry Brown (as did many of the players) and later claimed that he had thrown his bronze medal in a lake (he actually gave it to a family member who eventually auctioned it off).

Melo returned to the Olympics in 2008 on the aptly named “Redeem Team.” With four more years of experience under his belt, he was a key member of that team, along with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard. Team USA underwent a major overhaul of their approach after their 2004 failure. Players were required to commit for multiple years, and the Redeem Team had to compete in the Americas qualifying tournament just to get into the games (it was such an imbalance of talent that it became comical when Kidd attempted to make an alley-oop pass off the backboard of the three-point line to James). USA sailed to a gold medal, beating every team by double digits, and Melo found his niche as an international player. He would leave the Nuggets for New York by the time the 2012 Games rolled around, but continued to represent Team USA and became one of the most decorated basketball Olympians of all time.

Antonio McDyess – USA

One of the best power forwards to ever wear a Denver uniform, McDyess was a star in the late 1990s and early 2000s until multiple knee injuries robbed him of the athleticism that had made him one of the most compelling athletes of the late 20th century. After a stint in Phoenix, McDyess returned to Denver in 1998, where he was selected to the U.S. men’s roster for the 2000 Olympics. Dice came off the bench for that team, but was an effective backup in the U.S. quest for a gold medal. In the semifinals, perhaps in a harbinger of what was to come four years from now, the United States found itself on the verge of an upset against Lithuania. Alonzo Mourning was subbed out, bringing McDyess into the game to close out the game. He finished with the go-ahead putback bucket after Kevin Garnett missed two free throws and was the hand in the face of Sarunas Jasikevicius on the final shot that fell far short. The U.S. won that game 85-83 and then easily defeated France in the gold medal match.

Sarunas Marciulionis – Lithuania

Sarunas Marciulionis, a highly decorated Olympian and a less-than-decorated Nugget, played for Lithuania in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, about a month after being traded to the Nuggets. It was his third trip to the games and the third time he would win an Olympic medal. Marciulionis won gold in his first Olympics in 1988, including a huge upset of the Americans in the semifinals. He played for the USSR at those games, but by 1992 the Soviet Union had collapsed and so Marciulionis played for his native Lithuania. They won bronze in ’92 before repeating the feat in ’96. On the Nuggets’ side, Marciulionis played in just 17 games after his last Olympic appearance. Knee injuries and age slowed him down and it would ultimately be the last season of his NBA career. While his time in Denver was unforgettable, Saruans’ international career as part of a devastating 1-2 matchup with Arvydas Sabonis was enough alone to earn him induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.