Video: Former Boston Celtic revisits his national side’s historic upset of Team USA in the 2004 Olympics 

Former Boston Celtics player Carlos Arroyo recently revisited his national side's historic upset of Team USA at the 2004 Olympic Games, which were held in Athens, Greece.

Carlos Arroyo was an integral part of the Puerto Rico team that shocked the United States at the 2004 Olympic Games. The US Men's Basketball team had not lost a match in the Olympics ever since they started sending their NBA superstars to the games.

However, this streak came to a screeching halt against Puerto Rico in the opening round robin clash at the Athens Games.

Carlos Arroyo claimed the following about their win in a recent interview:

"We scrimmaged USA at that summer before the Olympics about three to four times. And the one thing that Larry Brown, that was the coach for that team. So they ask to play, you know, man-to-man throughout the whole scrimmages that we had. So our coaching staff was like, We're going to play zone the whole game. You Know? So we had an advantage as far as preparation when it came down to playing USA. "

Arroyo also stated the significance of Puerto Rico's win against the United States and how it's celebrated till date.

"It was an amazing moment for Puerto Rico basketball, for the history of basketball in our island. To this day, they celebrate that day like it's a birthday. Peurto Ricon's come out of everywhere- We got cousins and grandparents and, you know brothers everywhere. So it's truly an honour to represent the island the way we did."

Arroyo also touched upon the fact that their side played team basketball and played with cohesion, something that was lacking in the US squad. These issues were later highlighted when the US team lost to the Argentines in the semi-finals.

"It was a team effort. Everybody obviously did their part for us to be able to accomplish what we did and we in the history books, man. I'm truly honored and blessed to be part of that moment. We played with a lot of respect, a lot of dignity because, the fanbase we have in Puerto Rico is not only in the island- it's all around the world. "

Team USA's dismal run in the 2004 Olympics

With the 'Redeem Team' documentary recently released on Netflix, the 2004 US Men's Olympic basketball team has been in the news. After three straight gold medals since the USA agreed to send NBA superstars to the Olympic games, their golden run came to a shocking end at Athens.

The 2004 US Men's Olympic team was weirdly constructed. Several superstars refused to go to the Games citing security reasons, while the other superstars who had already played in the game weren't interested in doing it again.

In a last ditched attempt to fill out the squad, the US Basketball Federation reached out to rookies LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade.

Hence, the team had a weird mix of established superstars like Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan and Stephon Marbury and rookies like James, Anthony and Wade. Legendary coach Larry Brown could not find an appropriate balance in the team and ended up first losing to Puerto Rico and then to Argentina in the semi-finals. The Argentinian team looked way more in sync and had much better chemistry amongst themselves as compared to the hastily put together US Men's basketball team.

The loss acted as a wake-up call to the US Men's Basketball team and signaled the start of the 'Redeem Team' era, which went on to help the nation reclaim their status as the best basketball team in the world.