Carmelo Anthony reaches Hall of Fame after singular career path
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Springfield, Mass., Sept. 4, 2025 — Carmelo Anthony enters the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend, capping a 19-season career built on scoring milestones, Olympic gold and a lone collegiate championship rather than NBA titles.
A freshman champion who became an elite scorer
The Baltimore forward exploded onto the national scene at Syracuse University in 2002-03, posting 27 points in his debut against Memphis and guiding an unranked team to a 30-5 record. In the 2003 Final Four he poured in 33 points and 14 rebounds versus Texas, then delivered 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists against Kansas to give the Orange their only men’s basketball crown. Anthony became the first freshman named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
Draft-night detour and early Denver success
Selected third overall in 2003 after Detroit chose Darko Milicic at No. 2, Anthony lifted the Denver Nuggets from 17 victories to 43 and a playoff berth, finishing second to LeBron James in Rookie of the Year voting. Former Pistons guard Chauncey Billups still wonders what might have happened had Detroit taken Anthony, telling ESPN the franchise could have “won at least three championships.”
Choosing autonomy over super-teams
Anthony passed on aligning his free agency with James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in 2010 by signing a five-year extension with Denver in 2006. “Hell no. I can’t be that fourth,” he said on the “Podcast P with Paul George,” recalling his reluctance to become a secondary option at age 23.
Olympic Melo
The forward won four Olympic medals — gold in 2008, 2012 and 2016 and bronze in 2004 — and ranks third on USA Basketball’s all-time scoring list. His 37-point outburst against Nigeria at the 2012 Games, achieved in 14 minutes and 29 seconds on 13-for-16 shooting, remains the U.S. single-game record. Teammates credit him for easing tensions between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James on the 2008 Redeem Team, also honored in Springfield this weekend.
New York spotlight
Traded to the Knicks in 2011, Anthony produced 28.7 points per game to win the 2013 scoring title, led New York to 54 wins and electrified Madison Square Garden. His No. 7 jersey topped league sales that season, and his three-finger temple salute became a league-wide celebration.
Late-career revival in Portland and Los Angeles
A stress fracture that ended Pau Gasol’s 2019 season opened a roster spot with the Trail Blazers, allowing Anthony to return after a year out of the league. He averaged 15.4 points that season, added 2,738 total points over two years in Portland and one with the Lakers, and climbed to 28,289 points — 10th on the NBA’s all-time list — before retiring in 2021. He still holds the league record for go-ahead field goals in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime (18) since tracking began in 1996-97.
Hall résumé without a ring
The 10-time All-Star, six-time All-NBA selection and member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team avoided the “ring or bust” debate by excelling wherever he played. “He elevated his teams,” longtime Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “That’s what you can do in the NBA.”
Anthony’s name now graces Syracuse’s practice facility, the 54,000-square-foot Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, a reminder of the summer pickup games where teammate Hakim Warrick first doubted — then quickly believed in — the “little chubby dude” from Baltimore.
Enshrinement in Springfield completes a journey that, as Billups put it, is “as good as it gets.”
Source: ESPN
