BARCELONA – The United States Olympic basketball program has always been the perfect refuge for Carmelo Anthony, liberating him of leadership and leaving him to shoot the basketball. These summers in the red, white and blue have cleansed him of missteps and embarrassments in his NBA career, but he's never used proximity to the world's most driven and complete players to finish a transformation into a full-service franchise star.

For everything that Anthony has given USA Basketball as a talent, he hasn't always been able to sustain the world-class conditioning, deference on offense and determination on defense. And all these leaders surrounding him … well, they never made him one, too. His flaws have shown themselves within the Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks, but Team USA is constructed to take all of 'Melo's good, and never been burdened with the bad.

[ Photos: Carmelo Anthony in action ]

For the needs of USA’s Olympic team, Anthony plays the part of the perfect FIBA forward: An impossible matchup on the perimeter for power forwards, the beneficiary of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James to attract defenders and genius point guard talents to deliver passes.

When the amazing Palau Sant Jordi was busting with Spanish passion and pride on Tuesday night, the formidable frontline of Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka delivering damage, there was Anthony playing pop-a-shot on Spain to re-gather the American’s footing with 23 of his 27 points before halftime of a 100-78 exhibition victory over Spain. For all the issues that Spanish frontline gives the Americans --- and they’ll be bigger, with Marc Gasol on the floor in London --- this is still a global basketball community that understands that the biggest matchup nightmares lay with the Americans.

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Team USA goes to the Olympic Games understanding two things: They're the absolute gold-medal favorites, and they're just vulnerable enough to lose in a one-game, winner-take-all scenario to a Spain or an Argentina. If the U.S. plays well, it won't lose in these Olympics, and there's no better barometer to this program's success over the past several summers together than Anthony. When he's rolling, Team USA is unbeatable. Spain had come into this madhouse thinking victory, and Anthony left them dazed and defeated.

Suddenly, this Mike D'Antoni offense was 'Melo's benefactor. No Olympian needs the cleansing agents of wearing red, white and blue on the way to a gold medal the way that Anthony does. He's been in the NBA a decade, and yet he didn't come out of the lockout in great shape. James, Bryant, Kevin Durant – they'd never show for training camp the way Anthony has sometimes. Trouble is, you never know what you'll get with Anthony, and that's a frightening proposition a decade into his career.

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