Speaking of Carmelo Anthony, many longtime fans may feel a sense of regret, feeling that a super scorer like this should not have been like this in his career. Even now, Carmelo Anthony's career is still uneasy in the hearts of many people. After all, you must know that he was not much different from the little emperor LeBron James in terms of name and strength.
It's a pity that an era is destined to not be able to give birth to two superstars at the same time, and LeBron James's brilliance is too shining, causing this star to fall quietly. Today, let's review how strong Carmelo Anthony was back then, and why his later development was so different from LeBron James.
A superstar in the NCAA, and James was on the lookout for a while
Carmelo Anthony was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Baltimore. Due to the abundance of gangs here, Anthony is also rumored to have a gangster background. We'll leave that aside for now, it's not about his basketball ability. Anthony's basketball talent was evident as a teenager, not only on the regional court, but also quickly spread across the United States. Especially in high school and college, his fame can be said to be growing year by year.
In his senior year, Anthony attended Oak Hill High School, a school known for producing elite basketball. So here, Anthony's basketball skills have been systematically and rapidly improved. And the school basketball team led by him has won many important games, which is no worse than LeBron James, the little emperor who led the team to dominate the court in the United States when he first entered high school.
Once in college, Anthony was even more unstoppable, leading the Syracuse team to the first NCAA Tournament title in the school's history in just his first year. At this time, the little emperor LeBron James also led his high school team to complete the establishment of a high school dynasty. At that time, the two were almost instantaneous, and no one could tell which player was stronger.
Even said that if it wasn't LeBron James' hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, I am afraid that the first pick that year would be Carmelo Anthony. But even if the little emperor LeBron James got the first pick, no one would have thought at the time that the small forward who led them to the championship in his first year after joining the little-known Syracuse University in his first year would be worse than LeBron. As a result, Carmelo Anthony was drafted by the Denver Nuggets with the third pick and started his NBA journey.
Choices and decisions, the intersection of life
Entering the NBA's rookie season, the little emperor LeBron James was able to cut an average of 20+5+5 per game, although he did not lead the team to the playoffs, but such data shocked the league at the time, thinking that he was indeed a superstar embryo. On the other side of the Denver Plateau, Anthony also cut good statistics, averaging almost 20+6+3 per game, and led the team to the playoffs. If nothing happens, he will also be one of the helmsmen of the future alliance, and almost no one will doubt it.
In the following seasons, the data battle between the two continued. Although James has been pressing Anthony's average of 20+5+2 and 26+5+2 and 26+5+2 per game with 27+7+7 and 31+7+6 per game, the Nuggets have not missed the playoffs since Anthony joined, so compared to James, who has struggled for three years to lead the team to the playoffs, the two seem to be evenly matched.
Unfortunately, Anthony did not break through the first round every time due to his inappropriate teammates at the wrong time, even though he entered the playoffs year after year. James is different, after four seasons of savings, he finally led the team all the way to the Finals in the 06-07 season. Although he didn't win the championship, the conclusion of who is better between James and Anthony seems to have come to an end.
There was a turning point in things, that is, in the 08-09 season, because the Nuggets traded the starting point guard from Allen Iverson to Chauncey Billups, the Nuggets surprisingly broke the first-round curse, and went all the way to the Western Conference finals and met the Lakers, the champion of the season, before losing 2-4. Such a record has brought up the topic of who is stronger in LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, the two peerless duo of 03 years.
But thanks to James' decision one, everything started to look different. At the end of the 09-10 season, because he had not tasted a championship in seven years in the league, the little emperor LeBron James contacted Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in the previous class, and decided to bring his talent to the Miami Heat to form the Big Three.
According to insiders, James was not the first to contact Wade at that time, because he had already won the championship in the 04 season. The person James contacted at the beginning was actually Anthony, but Anthony didn't seem to want to be together, and he signed a five-year max salary contract in three years, and Denver could not continue to sign two max salary players, so Carmelo Anthony did not choose to be with him, and the fate of the two completely parted ways.
The overall winner of the huddle was also the champion, but unfortunately it was too late
In the 10-11 season, Carmelo Anthony, who remained with the Denver Nuggets, did not get anything substantial in return, but the team lost patience with him and traded him to the New York Knicks.
New York is a big city, and the team's exposure has always been the highest in the league, so Carmelo Anthony started a different career with the Knicks, and his flashy scoring performances have gradually increased his popularity. Even if James won two championships because of the huddle, it could not shake Anthony's status as a super scorer in the league, and even Anthony's reputation was higher than James in those years.
Unfortunately, even the championship of the huddle is still the champion, after Anthony's scoring ability gradually declined with age and injury, his reputation began to plummet, on the contrary, James who returned to the Cavaliers won the third championship because of another huddle, completing the redemption of his hometown team and reversing the reputation. So, in 2017, Carmelo Anthony was traded to the Thunder to play alongside Russell Westbrook. However, the two were as incompatible as Allen Iverson was at the beginning, so Anthony's season with the Thunder can be described as a very unsuccessful one.
Fast forward to 2018, when Carmelo Anthony, who was already entering the twilight of his career, became a free agent, and he seemed to be particularly hungry for championships. So he began to join teams that looked like they could compete for a championship, the Rockets, the Trail Blazers, and even James' Lakers with a veteran base salary.
It's a pity that fate always plays tricks on him, and the frequent team changes did not allow him to win the championship, but gradually became without a ball to play. Eventually, it disappeared from the league completely after the 21-22 season. Cameron Anthony is really sorry that what should have been a brilliant career has led him to another path because of some decisions.