2012 Olympics - Team USA's International Education, Before the Games LAS VEGAS - Weeks before a group of N.B.A. players finished in sixth place at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, setting off a chain of events that led to the restructuring of USA Basketball, an American under-18 team was dining on Margarita Island, Venezuela, confounded by crustaceans. "We were used to shrimp without the heads," Andre Iguodala said. That was the first time guys saw shrimp with the heads on them, so guys were freaking out. Carmelo Anthony added: "Of course, I never saw no shrimp like that. I'm from Baltimore. So we don't see any shrimp like that. The Nets" Deron Williams is the third member of that Junior World Championship qualifying team that is headed to London for this summer's Olympics in London. Chris Bosh would have probably been a fourth had he not decided to rest after sustaining an abdominal injury in the playoffs. Bosh, Williams and Anthony represented the United States at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Kris Humphries and Aaron Brooks are the other N.B.A. mainstays from the team that traveled to Venezuela. Ernie Kent, who coached Brooks at Oregon, was the coach. Trevor Ariza, Shannon Brown and Sebastian Telfair are current N.B.A. players that tried out for the team but failed to make the final cut. The United States lost to host Venezuela by 2 points in the semifinals but rebounded to win the bronze medal and finish the tournament with a 4-1 record, good enough to qualify for the 2003 under-19 World Championships. Puerto Rico won the gold in Venezuela. The United States has fielded amateur teams with multiple future superstars - Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Michael Jordan competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles - but in the history of the under-18 FIBA Americas Junior World Championship qualifying tournament, no other team can match the overloaded talent of the 2002 team; Anthony's offense fused with a futuristic look at Iguodala's lockdown defense, Brooks's sneaky speed, Bosh's big-man fundamentals, Humphries's any-sport athleticism and Williams's savvy. Bosh and Humphries, second and third in the team in scoring, came off the bench. "I'll take that team any day," Anthony said, mulling the idea of the team's best players as the nucleus for an N.B.A. team. "We sold them on team success will lead to individual success, and we did a good job that way," Kent said in a phone interview. Anthony, who led Syracuse to a national title the next year, took almost twice as many shots as any of his teammates in Venezuela, his preternatural scoring ability on display outside the United States for the first time. "Even at that age, he was almost unstoppable one on one," Kent said. Iguodala and Williams started, Iguodala in a familiar role as a defensive stopper - he had 10 steals against Argentina - and Williams a point guard still finding his way. "I remember sitting him down and us telling him if you ever got in shape, you could be one heck of a player," Kent said of Williams. Kent said Dee Brown, who became Williams's teammate at Illinois, was the best American player in Venezuela. "Dee Brown would coach your team on the floor," Kent said. He would coach the officials. And he could coach the other team, too, because he was a tremendous leader, vocal leader, charismatic leader. Anthony and Bosh were drafted third and fourth in the 2003 N.B.A. draft the next June. Brown and Williams returned to play for Kent a month later in Thessaloniki, Greece, at the under-19 world championships. C. J. Watson, who recently signed with the Nets to be Williams's backup, played behind him in Greece as well. The team was again ousted in the knockout rounds despite tying Argentina for the tournament's best record at 7-1. "Greece was a great destination for us to go to," Williams said. Again we had a pretty good team. Just came up a little bit short.