American professional basketball player Carmelo Kyam Anthony, born on May 29, 1984, last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, NBA. He has received 10 NBA All-Star selections and six selections to the All-NBA Team. He was a basketball player for the Syracuse Orange who, as a freshman in 2003, won a national championship and was selected as the competition’s most valuable player. He is recognized as one of the greatest scorers and players in basketball history and was named one of the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History during the league’s 75th anniversary.

Anthony entered the 2003 NBA draft after only one season at Syracuse, and the Denver Nuggets selected him with the third overall choice. From 2004 until 2010, he was a player for Denver, where he guided the Nuggets to the playoffs each year and helped the team win two division titles. Anthony guided the Nuggets to their first participation in the Conference Finals since 1985 in 2009. 

Days before the NBA trade deadline, he was transferred from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks in 2011. Anthony scored 62 points, a career-high, on January 24, 2014, against the Charlotte Bobcats, breaking both the Madison Square Garden and Knicks single-game scoring records. Anthony had one season with the Oklahoma City Thunder after being moved there, followed by a brief stay with the Houston Rockets. Before joining the Los Angeles Lakers, he played for the Portland Trail Blazers for two seasons.

Anthony has participated in the Olympics four times in total for the US national team, capturing gold in 2008, 2012, and 2016 in addition to a bronze medal with the 2004 team. As of April 2016, Anthony was the US Olympic team’s all-time leader in points, rebounds, and games played. His current NBA scoring ranking is eighth all-time.

History

Early Years – Carmelo Kyam Anthony, the youngest of four children, was born on May 29, 1984, in Brooklyn, New York. Anthony, who was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, had a challenging early life. His father, Carmelo Iriarte, passed away from liver disease at the age of 2. That left his mother Mary, who worked as a cleaner to keep food on the table, to take care of the young boy and his three older brothers.

While the harsh, drug-filled neighborhood of Baltimore’s Pharmacy surrounded the Anthony family, Mary kept her kids on a tight leash inside the house. Carmelo received her encouragement to keep up with his education. Anthony started playing basketball at an early age, but he didn’t begin to take his game seriously until he was kicked off his high school team as a freshman. Anthony had gained five inches during his second season and was a local hero thanks to his talent on the court.

Naturally, college coaches throughout the nation took note, and by Anthony’s junior year, he had decided to play for Syracuse University. But Anthony transferred to Oak Hill Academy, a private boarding school in Virginia with a stringent disciplinary culture that has historically catered to future National Basketball Association players, to meet the school’s academic criteria.

Anthony found the shift to be challenging, but he persisted and finally improved his grades and his performance, becoming the top high school basketball player in the nation. In contrast to LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, Anthony believed he wasn’t prepared to forgo college and enter the NBA right away. Instead, he struck at Syracuse and enrolled as a student there in the fall of 2002.

College – Anthony at Syracuse rapidly adjusted to the collegiate game. With an unexpected 81-78 victory over the University of Kansas in the spring of 2003, he served as the Orangemen’s star player and helped the team capture its first national championship. Anthony finished the contest with 20 points, and 10 rebounds, and was the top scorer overall.

Anthony’s selection as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Star capped an incredible season for the rookie player. Later that spring, the star player declared himself eligible for the upcoming 2003 NBA draft and said he was prepared to turn pro.

NBA Career

Carmelo Anthony, sometimes known as “Melo,” was taken third overall by the Denver Nuggets in a talent-heavy draft that also included LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. For the young player, the adjustment time was not long. Anthony, then 19 years old, was named to the All-Rookie team in 2003–04 while averaging 21 points and six rebounds per game.

The 6’8″ forward has established himself as one of the best scorers in the league throughout his pro career, and on December 10, 2008, while playing Minnesota, Melo scored 33 points in one quarter, tying an NBA record. In 2007, Anthony was selected to play in his first All-Star game.

With Anthony as the franchise’s star player, the Nuggets did well, but they never developed into the perennial powerhouse that team management had hoped for. Denver sent Anthony to the New York Knicks in a three-team mega trade in the middle of the 2011 season. Anthony, who had long desired to go back to his beloved New York, was overjoyed by the relocation. In 2012–13, he guided the Knicks to an outstanding 54–28 record, and the next season, with a career-high 62 points, he broke the team scoring record. But by that point, relations between Anthony and the Knicks were already deteriorating, with prominent team president Phil Jackson publicly expressing his displeasure with the star player.

In September 2017, Anthony was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, allowing him to escape the Knicks’ purgatory. He was moved once more the following summer, this time to the Atlanta Hawks, but the Houston Rockets quickly released him and signed him as a free agent. Before the Rockets’ announcement that they will try to trade the veteran forward, Anthony played in just 10 games for them. In January 2019, the Chicago Bulls agreed to assume his contract before waiving him a week later.