Over the weekend, Carmelo Anthony became the first men’s basketball player ever to win three Olympic gold medals when the United States beat Serbia in the final in Rio. He’s very proud of that accomplishment, as he should be, and has stated several times that he’ll be happy with his career even if he never wins an NBA championship.
Most people think that’s not happening, including Team USA assistant and Melo’s college coach, Jim Boeheim, who told Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters that his long-time pupil is “unlikely” to ever win a ring.
“He’s unlikely to win an NBA title,” Boeheim said. “He’s never been on a team that even had a remote chance of winning an NBA title. As a player, all you can do is try to make your team better and every team he’s been on he’s made them a lot better. Denver hadn’t done anything prior to him getting there and he took them into the playoffs. They weren’t going to beat the Lakers or the Spurs. In those years, they won the championship most of the time.
“But he’s always made his team better,” added Boeheim. “It’s obvious. You look back on your total basketball experience and he had a great high school team, he won the NCAA championship and he’s won three gold medals in the Olympics. That’s a pretty good resume.”
Boeheim is right, and it’s not a shot at Anthony — it’s just the truth. At least, as long as he stays in New York, and thus far, Melo has shown no interest in waiving his no-trade clause to go to a better team. If you put him on some truth serum, he would probably admit that the Knicks, even with Kristaps Porzingis blossoming and the additions of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, are nowhere near the point of competing with the Cavaliers for a shot at the Finals.
When Anthony was a free agent in 2014, he had the opportunity to sign with a Bulls team that was much closer to competing for a championship than the Knicks have ever been since he arrived in 2011. He chose to stay in New York because he could make more money and his family was happy there, which is a perfectly reasonable rationale to make a decision like that. But he essentially gave up the opportunity to ever win a title, because the Knicks are simply not going to have that level of roster for the foreseeable future. It was a conscious decision Anthony made, and if he can live with it, everyone else should be able to as well.
(Via Syracuse.com)
