Considered an up and comer, he was selected to be a part of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic men's basketball team at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2000–01, McDyess was named an All–Star and became just the third Nugget to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds for a season, after Dan Issel in 1977–78 and George McGinnis in 1978–79. Early in the 2001–02 season McDyess suffered a serious knee injury, a Patellar tendon rupture, that required season-ending surgery. McDyess struggled to play through the injury, re-aggravating it several times and going through additional surgeries over the next few seasons. He was sidelined due to injury for the remainder of the 2001–02 season as well as the entire 2002–03 NBA season.