Standing on the top step of the podium, Carmelo Anthony took a bite out of his gold medal.

It tasted pretty good.

"That's the best feeling I've ever had other than the birth of my son," the Nuggets forward said of the Olympic men's basketball medal ceremony in Beijing.

Four years after Anthony's disastrous Olympic trip to Athens, where he played little, got on the bad side of coach Larry Brown and was on a team that settled for bronze, the Nuggets forward got redemption. He stood on the victory platform with fellow members of the U.S. men's basketball team after they toppled Spain 118-107 in the gold-medal game.

Since then, it's been a whirlwind for the Baltimore native. He showed off his gold medal in Denver, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and was primed to throw out the first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game and be an honorary captain at the Baltimore Ravens' NFL opener.

"Now that I look back at '04, that experience has been a blessing to myself, to LeBron (James), Dwyane Wade and also Carlos Boozer," said Anthony, referring to the other three holdovers from the Athens Olympic disaster of 2004. "We were at America's lowest point in '04. I think we did a hell of a job of putting American basketball back where it's supposed to be, which is at the top of the world."

The whole Beijing experience was a memory of a lifetime for Anthony, who averaged 11.5 points in the Olympics.

"Just being around the people over there, seeing the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square, you're almost forced to feel like you're bringing something back from Beijing," Anthony said.

Anthony will take some time off before training camp begins Sept. 30. Despite the Nuggets losing Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera, he's optimistic about the upcoming season.

"We want to prove to everybody that we can do it, that we do have Allen Iverson, that we do have Kenyon Martin, that we do have a good team," Anthony said.

Copyright (C) 2008 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.