July 15th, 2014 is the day when Carmelo Anthony’s career officially came to an end. He re-signed with the New York Knicks for a five year deal worth 124.1 million dollars, and it was at that very moment that I came to the realization that his career was over and done with.
Anthony had a great offer from the Chicago Bulls who had a solid young core at the time that he could have came in with and could have done wonders with. The likes of Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, and company to take less money than he would have gotten with the Knicks would have been better for his career. Carmelo Anthony is a ball dominant forward that can score the basketball at ease when he gets going. Yes, he was an all-star the three years he played with the Knicks after he signed his max contract, but that is because the Eastern Conference is inferior compared to the Western Conference.
He had good numbers, but that Knicks team was not going anywhere with him on that team. New York drafted Kristaps Porzingis fourth overall in the 2015 NBA Draft, and that is when they realized that Carmelo Anthony was not in their plans long term. Now I’m not saying that the Bulls team that he joined would have won an NBA Finals, but they would have been a whole lot more competitive than the Knicks were.
Now you can say that the Oklahoma City trio of Westbrook, George, and Melo was a prime example of how Carmelo Anthony can’t co-exist with two stars in their prime with him being the third option on their team. Carmelo is a good shooter, but the reason his career has been done for a while is because of the fact that he never has attempted to try and re-craft his game in the slightest bit. Look at guys like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and why they have been successful in their careers, for example they are very good at not only creating shots for themselves but they can create for others as well.
If you looked at Carmelo’s career from his Denver days to his days as a New York Knick, you could tell that Carmelo Anthony wasn’t going to have the same kind of success as other good players from that talented 2003 NBA Draft Class. Carmelo was also labeled as a locker room cancer due to complaining about lack of touches, when guys like LeBron and Wade don’t care about their touches and they care more about their team and winning more than they do about their stats. Carmelo Anthony will go down as one of the better scorers to ever play this game, but his work ethic and his inability to expand his game is why he will not have any championship rings to go along with his resume.
Carmelo Anthony has suited up and played games with four teams in his career, but getting traded to Atlanta from Oklahoma City, then getting bought out by Atlanta to then go sign with Houston, only to get traded to Chicago to only get released by them as well. That spur of a year for Carmelo Anthony will be a black cloud over his career, and this could have all been avoided if he decided to sign with somebody else besides the New York Knicks in 2014.
Chris Jones (@cjoneswho1212 on twitter)
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