--- title: Olympics: Carmelo Anthony Won't Sing Vanessa Carlton on Plane description: Carmelo Anthony doesn't like to sing Vanessa Carlton, but the singer understands. canonical: https://time.com/4433959/olympics-carmelo-anthony-vanessa-carlton/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-01T20:29:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:58.175Z og:title: Vanessa Carlton Gets Why Carmelo Anthony Wouldn't Sing Her Song og:description: Everyone on the U.S. Olympic basketball team was down except Carmelo og:url: https://time.com/4433959/olympics-carmelo-anthony-vanessa-carlton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Vanessa Carlton Gets Why Carmelo Anthony Wouldn't Sing Her Song twitter:description: Everyone on the U.S. Olympic basketball team was down except Carmelo twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Vanessa Carlton Understands Why Carmelo Anthony Refused to Join This 'A Thousand Miles' Sing-Along by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 1, 2016 8:29 PM UTC by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 1, 2016 8:29 PM UTC The U.S. Olympic men’s [basketball team](http://time.com/4406289/lebron-james-carmelo-anthony-espy-awards-transcript/) appears to have hit its first [team-spirit](http://time.com/4433738/ryan-lochte-unveils-dramatic-new-hair-for-rio-olympics-2016/) speed bump. Put aside ideas that the basketball team pops champagne like they won a championship game on their plane rides. No, instead they prefer pop hits from 2001\. Over the weekend, a video of players Kyrie Irving and Jimmy Butler singing along to Vanessa Carlton’s song “A Thousand Miles” made the rounds. The players killed it, and Butler enthusiastically proved he’s great at air piano by tickling the ivories really well. But unfortunately Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks wordlessly expressed his disapproval with a grimace. Evidently, he draws the line at Vanessa Carlton sing-alongs, and he has consequently ruined a key squad goals Instagram moment, but it is entertaining. Watch below. He will not walk a thousand miles for you, and he will not sing a thousand miles for you either. Carlton understands, but was pleased with the vocals. > [](https://twitter.com/VanessaCarlton/status/759949407727026176) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4433959/olympics-carmelo-anthony-vanessa-carlton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4433959/olympics-carmelo-anthony-vanessa-carlton/"},"headline":"Vanessa Carlton Understands Why Carmelo Anthony Refused to Join This 'A Thousand Miles' Sing-Along","datePublished":"2016-08-01T20:29:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:58.175Z","description":"A squad goal missed","url":"https://time.com/4433959/olympics-carmelo-anthony-vanessa-carlton/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","celebrities","viral","Videos","Summer Olympics","2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4433959/olympics-carmelo-anthony-vanessa-carlton/","name":"Vanessa Carlton Understands Why Carmelo Anthony Refused to Join This 'A Thousand Miles' Sing-Along"}}]}] ```