Check out the best moments from the career of 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will serve as the final, and most appropriate, stop of Carmelo Anthony’s basketball career. Unlike the other detours, Springfield, Mass., will not sour on him, or wonder when he’ll win a championship, or be temporary. Once he is inducted, the Hall won’t let Anthony leave even if he wanted to, which of course he won’t.
Yes, it’s the resting place where he can and will find peace. That’s all Anthony — or any star, really — ever wanted: a mutually beneficial home that celebrated his supreme scoring skills and his aura, both of which were considerable from high school to college to the NBA.
He thought he had that in Denver, where he turned around the Nuggets’ franchise, until he soured on the experience.
Everything looked swell in New York, where a demanding and desperate basketball town embraced him — until it wasn’t.
Then, the nomadic journey in a frantic search for a ring took him to Oklahoma City, then Portland, and then Los Angeles, as his career began its inevitable slow descent. Those cups of coffee came and went unfulfilled.
Syracuse? Well, absolutely, before the NBA came calling, the national championship was savored, but that was one-and-done for a freshman who quickly and successfully outgrew the college game.
The Hall will string together those pearls and celebrate all of that, and indeed, there is much to applaud about the rare player who only needs a nickname for any introductions — Melo.
He was the owner of a deadly assortment of shots, more than a handful launched on pull-ups from mid-range, although Anthony was effective from various spots. He overpowered other small forwards and was too quick for taller defenders. His ability to create space by throwing defenders off balance, launching turnarounds along the baseline, and attacking the rim made him difficult to guard one-on-one.
He scored 62 points in a game, 33 in a quarter and led the league in scoring in 2012-13. For all except the last five seasons of his NBA career, Anthony was his team’s centerpiece and first option. He finished his career ranked No. 10 in scoring and, at 6-foot-7, is the third-shortest among the 10 (behind Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, both of whom are listed at 6-foot-6).
Carmelo Anthony is 1 of the NBA’s most prolific scorers ever, a 10-time All-Star, a 6-time All-NBA performer and a 4-time Team USA member.
Where do we start? He was born in Red Hook in Brooklyn, but his basketball stripes were first earned in Baltimore, where he moved at age eight. Even as a teenager, he set himself apart from the pack stylistically — Melo was the one with the cornrowed hair and headband — and with his ability to get buckets. In the early 2000s, Anthony and LeBron James were among the best prep players in the country.
Around this time, he separated himself from the pack again: While James and other top players went straight from high school to the NBA just before that direct route was halted by the league, Anthony went to Syracuse. That in itself wasn’t unusual for Syracuse; the basketball blue blood routinely grabbed high school All-Americans nearly every year.
But the difference: Anthony brought the school a championship, its first and only so far.
That championship ultimately would weigh heavily in Anthony’s case for the Hall (remember, it’s the Basketball Hall of Fame, not the NBA Hall of Fame). It’s not a stretch to suggest Anthony was one of the greatest freshmen of the 2000s. He has the record for most points in a game by a freshman in the NCAA tourney (33) and helped Syracuse win 30 games.
He also played himself right out of college basketball — because, what else was there to accomplish?
The 2003 draft, already rich, just became deeper with talent. James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Anthony — all would be eventual members of the 2008 Team USA “Redeem Team” which, coincidentally, enters the Hall this week as well.
Anthony went No. 3 to the Nuggets, forever making the Detroit Pistons regret passing on him at No. 2 for Darko Milicic. As for the Nuggets, the franchise was instantly transformed. And that became another, and perhaps unappreciated, accomplishment by Anthony. How often are rebuilding teams — in this case, the Nuggets won just 17 games the season before he arrived — rejuvenated so quickly by a rookie?
Denver won 43 games. Anthony became the first rookie to lead a playoff team in scoring since David Robinson in 1989-90. The connection was instant and pure — and lasting. In each of his seven full seasons in Denver, the Nuggets made the playoffs, won a pair of division titles and reached the 2009 Western Conference Finals. Before Anthony, the Nuggets missed the playoffs eight straight seasons.
He was a hit in Denver, a city where the NFL’s Broncos ruled, yet it embraced him. Anthony and the Nuggets captured a younger generation just as the city transformed, with Lower Downtown — known as “LoDo” and less than a mile from the arena — reflecting the demographic.
He was All-NBA four times with the Nuggets and finished in the top five among scorers twice while in Denver. He signed a five-year extension in 2006 and seemed destined to become a Nuggets fixture — until he wasn’t.
Just months before that deal expired in 2011, Anthony sought a trade, preferably to New York. He clashed at times with then-coach George Karl, but more than anything, he wanted a change of scenery and a more robust basketball market. New York had all of that and more, and he was shipped at the February trade deadline.
Not only were the Knicks longing for a franchise player they lacked since Patrick Ewing, Melo was young — only 27 at the time — and unlike some sports stars, he wanted New York and all the pressure that comes with playing in the largest and arguably most demanding market.
What New York discovered was that Anthony had the personality, charm and charisma to handle the bright lights. The media gravitated to him, fans connected with him and the team needed him. He was New York-made: he was from Red Hook, went to Syracuse and became a renaissance man-about-town not seen since Clyde Frazier. All that was a bonus.
The big sell was obvious: Melo could score and therefore energize Madison Square Garden. On any night, he could drop 30 points or more. But shots weren’t all that fell as the Knicks often did … to the opposition.
Relive some great clutch moments from Carmelo Anthony’s NBA career.
It took a few seasons for better on-court results. The 2012-13 season became the high point for the Anthony-led Knicks. He won his first lone NBA scoring title (28.7), made the All-NBA Second Team and had the highest-selling jersey in the league. And the Knicks won a first-round playoff series for the first time since 2000 as he averaged 29.2 points per game vs. the Celtics.
But that was it. The Knicks never escaped the first round again during his tenure. Fans grew restless and lost patience, as did Melo, too, with club president Phil Jackson. It was time for a change, again.
In retrospect, Anthony’s time with the Nuggets and Knicks easily defined his career. He was an All-Star with those teams, a feared scorer, a player who took over games, an unquestioned first option. For a small forward, he also was a superb rebounder, averaging 6.2 rebounds per game in his career (and nearly seven rebounds in his time with the Nuggets and Knicks).
Those robust years put him on four Olympic teams, made him wealthy and put him on pace to become an all-time scorer.
Everything after that was ring chasing. The hopscotching journey took him to Oklahoma City to pair up with Russell Westbrook and Paul George, then to Houston to join James Harden and Chris Paul, and to Portland with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. Anthony never escaped the first round at those stops, either.
Meanwhile, he was relegated to a secondary scorer. By the time he reached his final stop with the Lakers in 2021-22, he was a role player. He was asked to space the floor, shoot 3-pointers and complement James as their basketball relationship, with roots in high school, came full circle.
A 10-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection needs no grand introduction to the Hall, although he’ll get it in Springfield. Anyone who tried to guard him one-on-one usually came away empty. Everyone who witnessed him score almost at will came away in awe whenever he was on a hot streak.
Melo was virtually without peer among his generation when buckets were needed. His trademark celebration — poking his fingers into his temple — would be the appropriate way to finish his acceptance speech at the Hall.
Because, one last time, with a trip to Springfield, Carmelo Anthony scored big.
Here’s what they’ve said about Melo:
• Dwyane Wade, Hall of Famer and 2008 Olympic teammate: “Carmelo was the first pro that I saw in person when I went to his first college game. We both played in the Coaches vs. Cancer [tournament in 2002] … I got a chance to see Melo play before my game, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the No. 1 pick in the draft.’ I’ve never seen somebody that cold in my life. He’s been that cold ever since, and so when I think about Melo, I just don’t know how you can even open your mouth to crap on a player like that. He had everything when it comes to that scoring side of that basketball.”
• Paul Pierce, Hall of Famer: “I didn’t mind guarding (Kobe) and ‘Bron. You know, they’ll get their numbers and stuff, but I relish guarding them. I actually hated guarding Melo. Melo is trying to give you 40 and kind of hurt you doing it. Shouldering your chest, elbows, grabbing, all of that.”
• Kevin Garnett, Hall of Famer: “He was just too physical for the twos, and he was just too physical for the threes. He was the way more physical specimen in every matchup he played.”
• Kenyon Martin, former teammate in Denver (2004-11) and New York (2012-14): “I think I have spent the most time of anybody on one team (with Anthony). He wants to win. One of the most competitive people I have been around. I (had) a conversation with a few people about how going to the NBA is all about having dog in you and who has got that dog in him. And our list is very, very short. But he’s on it. It’s in him.”
* * *
Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.