Before getting picked up by the Portland Trail Blazers in November, Carmelo Anthony had to wait over a year to make his return to an NBA court after underwhelming stints with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets — the latter of which ended with Anthony getting cut 10 games into the season.
Anthony has been somewhat productive through 11 games with the Trail Blazers, averaging 15.9 points per game on 40.6% shooting from the field, but he’s nowhere near the player he was just two years ago when he was the lone All-Star on the New York Knicks. In Anthony’s final season with the Knicks, he averaged 22.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. Sure, the Knicks weren’t successful as a team, but Anthony was — at least relatively — and that season marked the end of his “glory days.”
The Trail Blazers hosted the Knicks at the Moda Center on Tuesday and after Portland handily beat New York 115-87, Anthony told reporters that he hopes his jersey will hang in the rafters at Madison Square Garden once his career is over (via Marc Berman of the New York Post):
Anthony was asked after his Blazers romped over the Knicks Tuesday night whether he has ever thought about his jersey being retired at the Garden.
“Do I think about it? Anybody would want to get that opportunity if it’s there. We’ll see when that time comes. Hopefully, they’ll hang ‘7’ somewhere up there,” Anthony said.
The Knicks didn’t accomplish a ton with Anthony on the roster, making the playoffs just three times in the seven seasons he was there, but in fairness to Anthony it was more postseason appearances than they made in the previous decade and New York hasn’t sniffed the postseason since then.
Plus, at the end of the day, Anthony is one of the greatest players to ever wear a Knicks uniform. For a team that hasn’t enjoyed much success or had much star power in over two decades, that may be enough for Anthony to be the 10th player to have his jersey retired by the Knicks.
