Carmelo Anthony

Born to a Puerto Rican father and an African mother, Anthony did not have the easiest of childhoods. He lost his father when he was just two years old and he grew up in a rough neighborhood known for drugs and violence. Anthony grew up as a strong young man, determined to stay on the right track with sports being his key focus.

High School and College Career

Anthony excelled in basketball at high school and led Towson Catholic High School to a number of triumphs before going on to attend Syracuse University in 2003.

In school, Anthony was too short for basketball until he shot up 5 inches in the summer of 2000 and became the Baltimore Sun’s Metro Player of the Year for 2001. He was even named the Baltimore Catholic League Player of the Year before transferring to the Oak Hill Academy for his senior year.

In his senior year, Anthony was named to the McDonald’s All-American lineup and also won the Sprite Slam Jam dunk contest. USA Today and Parade Magazine also named him to their All-American first teams in that year.

In 2003, he committed to play college basketball for Syracuse. That year, he led the team to their first-ever NCAA title and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four stage as well as the MVP of the East Regional Finals in the NCAA tournament.

Anthony was also named as the National Freshman of the Year and was also unanimously picked as the Big East Conference Freshman of the Year.

At the end of the season, Anthony said that he had planned to be a part of college ball for at least a couple more seasons but having already won everything there was to win, he decided to declare for the 2003 NBA Draft.

Professional Career

Picked third place overall, during the 2003 Draft, Anthony began his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets. Although touted to be a probable first pick in the Draft, Anthony went third behind second pick Darko Milicic as well as the first pick, LeBron James.

His debut came in an 8-point win over the San Antonio Spurs where Anthony came off the bench to score 12 points and grab 7 rebounds.

He became the second youngest player, after Kobe Bryant, to score 30 points in a game when he scored 30 against the Los Angeles Clippers, 9 days after his debut. He took the fewest games of all time, to score 30 points.

In 2004, Anthony crossed another milestone when he became the third-youngest player ever to reach 1,000 career points.

Anthony, quite expectedly so, got named to the NBA Rookie Challenge at the All-Star Weekend in 2004. Despite losing to the sophomores, Anthony did make a mark with 17 points and 3 rebounds while making 5 assists.

In April, Anthony went on to win the Rookie of the Month award and also won the Rookie of the Week award in the second week of April. This was his second Rookie of the Week title after winning it in the second week of March 2004 as well. He led all rookies with his 21.0 points per game and was 12th overall in the league.

Anthony led the team to become a playoff contender and a team that had finished the last season with a 17-65 win-loss record, this time ending with a 43-39 record, qualifying as the 8th seed for the postseason. Anthony, since David Robinson’s run with the Spurs, became the first rookie to lead his team into the playoffs.

Playing all 82 games in his second season, Anthony was scoring 20.8 points per game, putting him at 19th overall in the NBA. He reached a career total of 2,000 points in the third fastest time ever, behind James and Bryant.

Picked for the sophomore team for the NBA Rookie Challenge, Anthony scored a game-high 31 points and took 5 rebounds to be named the MVP for the game.

He led the Nuggets to a 49-33 record and a second-year playoff run in succession. In 2005-06, Anthony averaged 26.5 points per game with 4.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. He was 8th in the NBA in terms of scoring and this was the highest that a player from the Nuggets had finished since Michael Adam’s 6th place in 1990-91.

Anthony was named the NBA Player of the Month for March 2006 and also got to 5,000 career points faster than everyone but James. Named to the All-NBA third team for the season, Anthony led the Nuggets to third place in the standings, to win the Northwest Division for the first time in his career.

In 2006-07, Anthony was involved in the Knicks – Nuggets brawl on the court where he was seen landing a punch on the face of Mardy Collins, of the Knicks, and then backing away. His actions got him a 15-match suspension during which time, the Nuggets also got Allen Iverson into the roster to team up with the prolific Anthony.

Anthony was picked for the 2007 All-Star game to become the first player since Antonio McDyess in 2001, from the Nuggets, to play in the All-Star game. His opportunity came as a result of injuries to other players though.

Anthony got three Player of the Week awards as well as a Player of the Month award during the season and finished the season with 28.9 points per game, only behind Kobe Bryant. For the fourth year in a row, the Nuggets were eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Anthony made it to the second NBA All-Star Game but this was the first time he would start it after receiving the maximum votes amongst the Western Conference forwards, second overall to Bryant. He led the team to their best result ever, with a 50-32 record after beating the Memphis Grizzlies in the final game of the season.

In January 2009, Anthony broke his hand against the Indiana Pacers and decided to go in for a splint, rather than surgery. He would, later in the season, earn a suspension for staying on the court after refusing to leave the game when the coach, George Karl, benched him in a different game against the Pacers.

Anthony was averaging 22.8 points per game in the season and finally led the Nuggets to a playoff series win after 5 consecutive losses when they beat the New Orleans Hornets. He led them to the Finals of the Western Conference where the team was ousted by the Los Angeles Lakers on his birthday.

He was traded to the New York Knicks in February 2011. Anthony had a playoff career-high of 42 points, 17 rebounds, and 6 assists during the NBA playoffs, however, they lost to the Boston Celtics. Anthony displayed better on-court performance when Mike Woodson became the Knick’s coach. He was able to score 43 points and two clutch 3-pointers with a win over the Chicago Bulls.

From November 26 to December 2, 2012, Anthony was hailed as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week – a feat that he would do again and again throughout the season. His excellent shooting performance led to more game-high points during the 2012-2013 Season. In 2013, he became the first Knicks player with the highest-selling jersey in the NBA.

Anthony became the 50th NBA player to score 19,000 career points on January 30, 2014.

In the 2014-2015 Season, he became the 40th player to reach 20,000 career points and the 6th youngest player in NBA history to reach this milestone during a win over the Charlotte Hornets.

Anthony hit another milestone in December 2016 as he became the 5th active player to hit 23,000 points and the 29th player in NBA history to be in this scoring club. Also in the same year, he became the third player to score 10,000 points for two franchises and went over the 24,000 career point mark.

In September 2017, Anthony was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He moved to the 24th spot on the NBA all-time scoring list then to the 23rd and finally to the 22nd place within the same year. In July 2018, he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks but was eventually placed on the waivers.

From 2018 to 2019, he was signed with the Houston Rockets, and from 2019 to 2021, he played for the Portland Trail Blazers.

His last season in the NBA was the 2021-2022 season, he played this with the Los Angeles Lakers before eventually retiring in 2022.

Career Highlights

• 2007, 2008, 2010–2017 - NBA All-Star
• 2010, 2013 - All-NBA Second Team
• 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 - All-NBA Third Team
• 2013 - NBA scoring champion
• 2004 - NBA All-Rookie First Team

• 2021 - NBA Social Justice Champion Award

• NBA 75th Anniversary Team

• 2003 - NCAA champion
• 2003 - NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player
• 2003 - Consensus second-team All-American

• 2003 - USBWA National Freshman of the Year

• No. 15 retired by Syracuse Orange

• 2006, 2016 - USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year
• 2002 - First-team Parade All-American
• 2002 - McDonald’s All-American

NBA Career Statistics

• Points - 28,289 (22.5 ppg)
• Rebounds - 7,808 (6.2 rpg)
• Assists - 3,422 (2.7 apg)

Medal Record, Men’s basketball, representing the United States

• Gold - 2008 Olympic Games Beijing
• Gold - 2012 Olympic Games London
• Gold - 2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro
• Bronze - 2004 Olympic Games Athens
• Bronze - 2006 World Championship Japan
• Gold - 2007 Americas Championship Las Vegas