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Dave McMenamin
HAKIM WARRICK STILL remembers his preliminary glimpse of Carmelo Anthony earlier than a pickup recreation at Syracuse College greater than 20 years in the past.
Because the workforce took the courtroom on the Orange’s outdated Manley Discipline Home follow facility on that summer season day again in 2002, Warrick was skeptical, to place it mildly.
“I am him and I am like, ‘This little chubby dude is who everyone’s so hyped about?'” Warrick advised ESPN.
The sophomore quickly understood why. The gifted ahead out of Baltimore with the spherical options had an all-around recreation and shortly established himself with 27 factors in his collegiate debut towards Memphis at Madison Sq. Backyard.
Anthony’s solo season at Syracuse was an unprecedented success, with the workforce beginning unranked and ending 30-5. He scored extra factors than any freshman in program historical past and have become the primary freshman in NCAA historical past to be named Most Excellent Participant of the Last 4. He led Syracuse to its first and solely males’s basketball title in 2003 with 33 factors and 14 rebounds within the semifinals over Texas, and 20 factors, 10 rebounds and seven assists within the championship over Kansas.
“He stands out,” Syracuse’s longtime coach, Jim Boeheim, advised ESPN. “We have had nice gamers. Going again to [Dave] Bing, who was an unbelievable participant, however Pearl [Washington] and Sherman [Douglas] and Derrick [Coleman] and [Rony] Seikaly, Billy Owens, John Wallace. There’s been rather a lot. However Carmelo received it. It is fairly easy. He was an ideal participant and he received it.”
There could be no championships to observe in Anthony’s 19 seasons within the NBA, nevertheless. But as Anthony is inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame this weekend, he has managed to keep away from the ring-obsessed discourse that often units the usual for a way gamers are judged within the sport.
Anthony’s total accomplishments — and the trail he cast to realize them — makes him a no brainer in Springfield. He is No. 10 on the NBA’s all-time scoring checklist with 28,289 factors. He’s third on USA Basketball’s all-time scoring checklist, successful 4 Olympic medals — together with three gold. He is a 10-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA choice and a member of the seventy fifth NBA Anniversary Workforce.
Somewhat than be outlined by what he did not win, Anthony earned his popularity by what he did not do so as to attempt to win within the NBA.
1:01
Stephen A.: Melo would have 3 rings if he had teamed up with LeBron, Wade
Stephen A. Smith believes Carmelo Anthony would probably have received three NBA titles if he had linked up with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade on the Warmth.
THERE ARE A collection of what-ifs that accompany Anthony’s NBA profession.
Beginning with draft night time.
After LeBron James went No. 1 to Cleveland, the Detroit Pistons chosen Serbian huge man Darko Milicic No. 2, leaving Anthony on the board for the Denver Nuggets at No. 3.
Whereas Anthony had a powerful begin in Denver, lifting the Nuggets from 17 wins to 43 and a playoff berth and ending second in Rookie of the 12 months voting to James, Milicic barely acquired off the bench for a Pistons workforce that upset the Los Angeles Lakers to win all of it.
It was Detroit’s lone title throughout a dominant stretch through which it reached six straight convention finals and back-to-back NBA Finals in 2004 and 2005.
What if it was Anthony in Detroit as an alternative of Milicic?
“After all I’ve thought of it,” former Pistons level guard and present Portland Path Blazers coach Chauncey Billups advised ESPN. “I imply, I’ve completed that for thus lengthy. For therefore lengthy.
“And I actually do consider that had we drafted Melo that yr, we might’ve went on to win no less than three championships.”
A number of years later, as his scoring common climbed into the mid-20s and Anthony was recruited as a key cog in USA Basketball’s revamped nationwide program, one other main what-if state of affairs performed out. This time, he had management over it.
What if he had by no means signed a five-year extension with the Nuggets in the summertime of 2006 and lined up his free company with fellow ’03 draftees and USAB phenoms James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh for 2010?
“It was speculated to be Bosh and Wade after which me and Bron going someplace. We simply could not discover out the place,” Anthony mentioned on “Podcast P” with Paul George in July 2024.
However in a choice he now explains was rooted in a mixture of reluctance to threat any assured cash and a possible position that by no means appeared proper, he stayed on his personal island quite than hop on the Banana Boat.
“Think about me at 23 years outdated, 24 years outdated, being the fourth choice on the workforce once I’m main my workforce each single yr,” he advised George. “Like, I am discovering my manner on this league. And also you need me to go away that and go be a fourth choice? I do not understand how mentally I used to be going to try this.
“So I used to be like, ‘Hell, no. I can not be that fourth.'”
In 2008, he joined James, Wade, Bosh — and Kobe Bryant — in Beijing for the Olympics.
He additionally reunited with Boeheim, who was an assistant on coach Mike Krzyzewski’s workers. And Olympic Melo was born.
“Carmelo, from Day 1, was going to attain and the Olympic 3-point line is even shorter, so it was even simpler,” Boeheim mentioned.
“He might simply are available in, and I do not even know what number of occasions, however it appeared each time he got here in, he made a shot. His first shot. He’d get a 3, he’d make it. Like, each time. He simply was a pure Olympic scorer.”
Jason Kidd, Workforce USA’s start line guard in 2008, mentioned that Anthony was key to the workforce’s chemistry as properly, smoothing the static between Bryant and James, who did not have a preexisting relationship.
“He was a grown-up,” Kidd advised ESPN. “He knew how you can maintain everyone within the fold. … One of many greatest issues about Melo, he’s nice on the courtroom, however he is nice off the courtroom. He is an ideal teammate and I say that as a result of it isn’t nearly basketball.”
Within the gold medal win over Pau Gasol and Spain, he scored 13 factors in 17 minutes off the bench, serving to the Redeem Workforce — which can also be being inducted into the Corridor of Fame this weekend — full its mission.
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Flashback: Melo units MSG document with 62 factors
On Jan. 24, 2014, Carmelo Anthony scored 62 factors to set Knicks and MSG single-game scoring information.
THREE YEARS LATER, Anthony’s well-known tenure in New York started. He performed 7½ seasons there. He misplaced to James, Wade, Bosh and the Warmth within the first spherical in 2012 in 5 video games (he scored 41 within the Knicks’ lone win). The next season he received the scoring title, averaging 28.7 factors per recreation, and led New York to 54 wins and the No. 2 seed within the East earlier than dropping to the Indiana Pacers within the second spherical.
The Knicks did not break their championship drought, however The Backyard — the sector the place he began his Syracuse stint — turned electrical once more. New York was again taking part in on the NBA’s tentpole TV calendar dates like opening night time and Christmas Day, and Anthony’s patented 3-point celebration of poking three fingers to his temple was being mimicked across the league.
He was Melo in full, together with his No. 7 Knicks jersey being the league’s bestseller in 2013 and his popularity as a scorer cemented.
“There’s one thing to be mentioned for, ‘OK, I’ll lead a bunch by myself,'” Gasol advised ESPN. “He did try this. Clearly first in Denver and so they had good groups, there have been simply higher groups on the time. And similar factor with New York — the place it takes a sure stage of ambition and confidence to have the ability to try this. ‘I’ll go to the Knicks and I’ll attempt to revive and put that franchise on the prime once more after years of battle.'”
Added Boeheim: “The NBA is rather a lot about being on the workforce you are at. He elevated Denver tremendously, however they’re taking part in Kobe after which they’re taking part in Tim Duncan. They don’t seem to be successful. They don’t seem to be successful a championship. And New York shouldn’t be successful a championship with who was there. He elevated his groups. That is what you are able to do within the NBA. He is one of many actually greatest three-dimension scorers that is ever performed. Shoot the three, drive, pull-up. He had the entire recreation.”
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Brian Windhorst: Carmelo is a first-ballot Corridor of Famer
With Carmelo Anthony saying his retirement, Vince Carter and Brian Windhorst replicate on his profession.
THERE’S A FINAL hypothetical Gasol thinks about.
What if he had by no means suffered a second stress fracture in his left foot in November of 2019, main the Portland Path Blazers to waive him?
With out that harm, which ended his NBA profession, would Anthony have ever been given an opportunity to increase his?
On the time, Anthony had been out of the league for greater than a yr after being unceremoniously dropped by the Houston Rockets simply 10 video games into the 2017-18 season. The Blazers crammed Gasol’s roster spot with Anthony, who went from unemployed to averaging 15.4 factors for Portland that season.
“So my harm gave him the chance to play once more, show himself,” Gasol mentioned. Anthony added 2,738 factors to his profession complete in his ultimate flourish — two years with Portland and a ultimate season in L.A., teaming up with James in spite of everything these years — a coda that allowed Anthony to crack the highest 10 on the NBA’s all-time scoring checklist.
He retired 4 years in the past and nonetheless has probably the most profession go-ahead discipline targets within the ultimate 5 seconds of the fourth quarter or extra time (18) since play-by-play was first tracked in 1996-97.
His Olympic résumé racked up two extra gold medals in London and Rio and he nonetheless has the USA scoring document for factors in a single recreation in an Olympiad — scoring 37 factors in simply 14 minutes and 29 seconds towards Nigeria in 2012. “Otherworldly,” Boeheim mentioned of Anthony’s 13-for-16 taking pictures efficiency (together with 10-for-12 on 3-pointers). “It was loopy. Nuts.”
“He was not afraid of the second,” Kidd mentioned. “He needed the ball. I believe everybody knew when he had the ball he was taking pictures, not passing.”
His Syracuse championship nonetheless resonates too, with the workforce celebrating the twentieth anniversary in March 2023 as Boeheim coached his ultimate residence recreation on the outdated Service Dome earlier than retiring.
And when Syracuse gamers dimension up the incoming freshmen for the primary pickup runs of the summer season semester, the video games are not performed at Manley Discipline Home.
They play on the Carmelo Okay. Anthony Basketball Heart, the 54,000-square-foot follow facility opened in 2009 due to the “little chubby dude.”
“Every little thing occurred the way it was speculated to, I assume,” Billups mentioned. “His profession’s pretty much as good because it will get.”