Durant: 'I've looked up to Carmelo since I was 15 years old'

Team USA's run to a third-straight gold medal in Rio de Janeiro was led by the combined offensive firepower of Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony, who finished fifth and 17th in tournament scoring, respectively.

In the weeks leading up to the final game against Serbia, Durant and Anthony strengthened a bond that had been established well before the squad touched down in Brazil. The four-time NBA scoring champion has been open in the past over how he keeps a tight inner circle, with the New York Knicks star not only being one of his closest friends, but also a man he's admired for quite some time.

"He's a real bro," Durant told NBA.com's David Aldridge. "That's my guy. I've looked up to Carmelo since I was 15 years old. I wanted to be Carmelo. And once I got the opportunity to hang around him and get to know him a little deeper, coming into the Draft, I asked him for advice here and there, and it just made things, it made the relationship even smoother.

"Coming from the same area -- not close -- he could tell that I wanted to reach out to him, and he wanted to reach out to me. Once we did it, it was just organic and smooth, and he's been a real friend ever since."

Anthony is humbled by the admiration Durant - one of the elite basketball talents on the planet - has for him, and is happy to be able to call such an exceptional athlete and person a dear friend.

"We had this conversation years ago," Anthony said. "I've always heard that, from people back home, I've always heard that KD looked up to me. Now, I look at him as my peer. I don't look at him as a guy who looked up to me. I respect that. It's just hard, man, to see, to know, for me to fathom the fact that one of the greatest players in the world looks up to me, even now. It's crazy -- he looks up to me and I respect him and honor him, his game and his work ethic. That's something that I appreciate about him."