Once a year, I look forward to visiting with Carmelo Anthony, when the Denver Nuggets make their annual trip to Toronto. I know him well enough to say “hello “ and “How are you?”, “How’s your family?”, and of course I had to add in “Did you watch the (Syracuse) game last night?” Of course, I was referring to the NCAA tournament game, in which the Orange were eliminated by the Butler Bulldogs, during a sweet sixteen game on Thursday evening.
The abbreviated form of his given name, is a perfect description of his personality. He is very low key, and has the same demeanor as he did when he was playing college basketball at Syracuse. I first met the Nuggets star in December of 2002, at a time when he was just starting to make a name for himself as a freshman, in what what would turn out to be the first national championship title for Jim Boeheim’s Orange, in April of 2003. Anthony expressed himself the exact same way then, very polite and of few words, as he does now. He has evolved into an NBA superstar, as one of the most dominating players, and feared scorers in the game. The Toronto Raptors know all about that, and they got a not so pleasant reminder, when the Baltimore native finished off the Raptors dreams, of stealing a game from the Kenyon Martin-less Denver team. After missing a jumper with the clock winding down, Anthony connected on another attempt he released, just before the game clock had expired, and his buzzer beater sucked the energy right out of the building, and emotionally shattered the Raptors and their fans, with his clutch shot, to give the Nuggets a 97-96 come from behind win. Anthony led all scorers with 25 points.
Carmelo Anthony has changed quite a bit in terms of his maturity,and a lot of it, seemed to take place after his time with the U.S.Olympic men’s basketball program, leading up to the Summer Games of 2008 in Beijing. Considering that he entered the NBA after only one year of college, that shouldn’t really surprise anyone. He made some poor decisions as a young professional,and he has acknowledged them. Considering his age, and having grown up in a neighborhood in Baltimore that was, according to an ESPN magazine story,allegedly nicknamed “The Pharmacy”, due to the illegal drug infiltration there, it’s probably not all that surprising that he would go through some growing pains. Whether it was the on the court brawl in New York, or some of the off court situations that hurt his image, he has grown into being a family man as a Father, and is aware that he is constantly in the spotlight everywhere he goes, all the time, and must conduct himself accordingly. The same ESPN magazine story, alleged that the drug dealers were so powerful in his area when Anthony was a child, that they paid for some of the school children’s basketball uniforms. One can only imagine, how difficult it would be to grow up in that environment, without leaving any emotional or physical scars.
‘Melo’s’ maturation has shown in a number of other ways. He played exactly as he was directed to, with the “Redeem Team”, as it came to be known, where he was a key member, of the gold medal winning American team at the Beijing Games in 2008. It seems that playing with some of the very best players in the game, like Kobe Bryant and others, may have had a big impact on him, helping to evolve ‘Melo’ into a more complete player. He donated several million dollars to construct a practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball at Syracuse University, and it’s appropriately named the “ Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center”. I visited the S. U. campus in January, and it is a remarkable 54,000 square foot building. The one thing that hasn’t changed, is his quiet and very polite mannerisms. To me, he seems to be the same shy star that he was, as a substantially smaller sized Syracuse Orange forward, with the same easy going conversation, constant smile, and regular kind of guy approachability. He is still the same “’Melo”, but now, everything about him and his life is nation wide, as opposed to Syracuse size.