Carmelo Anthony's Place on Team USA Reminds Us of His Real NBA Stature
Carmelo Anthony has been a part of USA Basketball for his entire adult life. Over the years, it's become a sort of sanctuary for the All-Star forward, a safe place where his game can flourish, away from the searing spotlight of New York City and the pressure that comes with playing in the NBA.
"I’ve been part of USA since 18 years old," Anthony said at Team USA's August minicamp, per the New York Post's Marc Berman. "There’s history to be made. You got to start holding on to those moments and enjoy them."
That's doubly true for Anthony. With Team USA, he's a decorated star, winner of two Olympic gold medals and gunning for a third in Rio de Janeiro next year. In the NBA, he's a scapegoat, an overpaid malcontent, at once propping up and dragging down the New York Knicks.
At least, that's how it seems sometimes.
In reality, Anthony isn't solely responsible for America's return to dominance on the hardwood over the past decade nor for the Knicks' latest quagmire. But his historic success with the former points to the impact he can have on the latter.
Within the NBA's jurisdiction, Anthony has become an easy target—perhaps too easy—albeit by his own hand.
Last summer, he re-upped with the New York Knicks for five years and $124 million but told ESPN's Jeff Goodman, "I want to win. I don't care about the money."
He made that statement even though he turned down shorter, less lucrative offers from potential title contenders (i.e., the Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets) to return to a Knicks squad that, at 37-45, had just tumbled into the lottery.
Come fall, he spoke at length with ESPN's Eli Saslow about his business interests. He insisted, "What I really want is a bulletproof legacy. How can I be known for being a visionary, for being truly great?"
The answer? Start winning on the court, and the rest will follow, as it has for his longtime buddy LeBron James.
The 2014-15 NBA season didn't do Anthony's image any favors. He hobbled through 40 games on a bad knee—and hung around just long enough to start for the Eastern Conference in the 2015 All-Star Game at Madison Square Garden. Soon after the final buzzer sounded on that Sunday of Valentine's Day weekend, Anthony's knee was under the knife, and he was done for the rest of the season.
It's tough to fault Anthony for his injury or for wanting to play through it as long as he did. He was born and raised partly in Brooklyn. He grew up rooting for the Knicks and wanted to repay the favor to those fans who voted him into the All-Star Game as a starter.
The same goes for pinning New York's franchise-worst 17-65 campaign in 2014-15 on Anthony alone. The team to which he returned was already on the decline, and it was bound to plumb the depths of the NBA once Phil Jackson started selling off the team's spare parts (first Tyson Chandler, then J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert) for scrap.
Still, Anthony's alleged disappointment in the Knicks' decision to draft Kristaps Porzingis with the No. 4 pick this past June (per the New York Daily News' Frank Isola) wasn't a good look for him. Neither was Smith's assertion that Anthony doesn't lead in the same way James does (via Bleacher Report's Ethan Skolnick):
Anthony can't control the near-constant comparisons to James. The two stars have been inextricably linked since 2001, when they were both budding prep phenoms.
"Me and LeBron been together since high school, my senior year, his junior year," Anthony told Berman. "We met in Jersey [at an All-Star event], both walking to the hotel together, and he came up to me and said, ‘I hear you’re Carmelo Anthony.’ From that point on, we sat on the steps to 2, 3 in the morning. We always talked about going to college together. That’s how we met."
For a time thereafter, Anthony sported a more impressive resume than did James.
LeBron was the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA draft, but Melo, at No. 3, was more established, fresh off carrying Syracuse to a national title and taking home Final Four Most Outstanding Player honors for himself. While the NBA named James Rookie of the Year shortly thereafter for helping the Cleveland Cavaliers more than double their win total (from 17 to 35), Anthony played a pivotal part in the Denver Nuggets' 26-win improvement—and the trip to the Western Conference playoffs that followed.
And as it happens, Anthony actually edged out James as a scorer and rebounder during their debut campaigns, however slightly:
| Anthony | 36.5 | 21 | 42.6% | 6.1 |
| James | 39.5 | 20.9 | 41.7% | 5.5 |
Neither player was particularly prolific on the USA Basketball squad that stumbled to a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, though James got in a bit more run.
Once James' Cavs finally cracked the postseason code in 2005, the gap between him and Anthony widened in a hurry, and not at all in Melo's favor. Since then, James has been to six NBA Finals, won two titles, taken home four regular-season MVP trophies and solidified his standing as the face of his basketball generation.
Anthony, on the other hand, has been a part of as many lottery teams (two) as playoff runs past the first round of the playoffs.
On Team USA, though, none of that matters. Within the confines of representing his country, he and James practically see eye to eye. They've both been critically important to two gold-medal runs, with 'Bron averaging 14.4 points since Beijing to Melo's 13.9.
But only one of these two owns the all-time record for points scored and three-pointers made in a single Olympic game. Those distinctions belong to Anthony, who erupted for 37 points (in 14 minutes!) while knocking down 10 of 12 from beyond the arc against Nigeria.
In truth, Anthony's ability to put the ball in the basket has never been much of a question. He's not the most efficient scorer the NBA has ever seen (45.5 percent from the field, 34.5 percent from three for his career). But his proficiency in the game's most central skill is evident in the sheer variety of his arsenal, the simultaneous strength and grace with which he moves and, above all, the tremendous attention paid to his whereabouts whenever he steps on the court.
If you need a double-team to get your offense moving, Melo's your guy. If you need someone to get you a bucket in a pinch, there won't be many (if any) names you'd look up ahead of Anthony's.
Even if his defense isn't always on point, even if his shot selection isn't always ideal, Anthony belongs among the best of the best. That's what he's proved over the course of his career, averaging 25.2 points per game (12th-highest all time), claiming a scoring title and earning six All-NBA selections.
And that's what he's proved during his decade-plus with Team USA. He wouldn't be a three-time medalist, with a great shot at snagging a fourth next year, if he didn't fit in with the cream of the American basketball crop. Every four years, Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski turn away plenty of great players who want to represent their country, and Anthony has yet to be one of them.
The thing is, the Melo that so often shines on the international stage resembles the Melo of NBA stardom more in form than in function.
Team USA's Anthony doesn't spend nearly as much time milking the clock with the ball in his hands and fishing for shots as does his NBA counterpart. As Bill Simmons described for Grantland, "Melo is the same person as Olympic Melo—the devastating shooter who shows up every two years for international competition and makes open three after open three like he’s playing a pop-a-shot game. I love Olympic Melo. So do you."
So would Knicks fans—if they could ever catch a glimpse of the Olympic version at Madison Square Garden.
In time, folks in New York may see that Melo more frequently. First thing's first, Anthony will have to bounce back strong from knee surgery. At his age (31) and with his typical load (36.5 minutes per game for his career), he'll have his work cut out for him if he's to recapture his pre-injury self—and prove to the powers that be at USA Basketball that he's fit for the trip to Rio.
Meanwhile, New York has plenty on its own agenda to address. Despite swinging and missing on the biggest free agents this summer, the Knicks roster is on the mend, with the addition of savvy veterans and consummate pros such as Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo this summer.
"They all know their roles. They know what they have to do," Anthony said at Team USA's camp in Las Vegas, per Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding. "It's just a matter of us coming together."
The talent is slowly but steadily improving around Anthony in New York. It'll never be on par with the modern-day Dream Team that USA Basketball can run out on the court. But if Jackson's culture overhaul with the Knicks is anywhere near as successful as the one Colangelo and Coach K have implemented with Team USA, New York's talent level won't need to be otherworldly for the real Melo to shine through on a winning team.
As Ding wrote: "The sparkle in Jackson's eye is his dream of the Knicks becoming a team's team. The NBA is often dictated by the guys who can be a man's man, taking over individually the way Anthony is well-equipped to do. But the winning teams have a way of working together."
Team USA has done just that pretty much every time it's taken the floor in the Colangelo-Krzyzewski era, and it's benefited Anthony tremendously.
There's no telling whether the Knicks will make significant progress toward that end this season and accentuate Anthony's talents as a result. The team still has so much to sort out if it's to even sniff the postseason, let alone dream of hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Anthony will have his own physical battles to fight. Those obstacles, along with the ever-rising tide of young talent in the league, could keep Anthony a step or two behind the NBA's elite upon his return.
Even if Anthony doesn't (or can't) get back to dominating the NBA right away, there will probably be a golden opportunity for him to shine in Brazil next summer. A third Olympic title—as part of a team that Colangelo thinks could be the most talented ever—would shed plenty of light on Anthony's place among his most esteemed peers, regardless of the venue.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
