Below is a photo of the NBA's Banana Boat brotherhood. A popular and funny caption for this picture is “smile if you have a ring,” and well, look who's smiling. Let's let Chris Paul slide because of his achieved status as one of the greatest point guards of all time. Carmelo Anthony, on the other hand, doesn't have a ring for one main reason, he is overrated. Don't worry, I do care to elaborate on this bold statement.

The Brotherhood
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Why are we specifically looking at the past 10 years? 

Let me answer that question with another question, what has Carmelo Anthony done in the past 10 years? He has scored the ball a lot, but this is because he has been the primary scoring option for his team every year aside from a couple of seasons with NBA Hall of Famer Allen Iverson.

Most of his playoff visits were during his time with the Denver Nuggets, and he does deserve credit for making it to the Western Conference Finals in 2009, but these postseason appearances are definitely not enough to stamp him on the NBA timeline as “one of the greatest of all time.”

carmelo anthony
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He doesn't make his teammates better

Carmelo Anthony is 24th on the NBA's All-Time scoring list, and 195th on the All-Time assists list. So what? So, basically, the only thing he has ever done for his teammates on the court is score when given the basketball. Even with that, his teammates usually don't get credited with assists because of his isolation style of play. I wouldn't insult Anthony and label him as a ball-hog, but his style of play simply does not benefit anyone in the same uniform, and he is now in his third NBA uniform in Oklahoma City.

Carmelo Anthony
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The OKC situation

I mentioned how Carmelo Anthony has been the primary scorer for most of his career, but on his latest team, he isn't even that. He is the third option behind Russell Westbrook and Paul George. That's right, a player believed by some as the third option for his team. This can only mean that he isn't as great of a scorer as people give him credit for. He's 33 years old, and this does play into his numbers and physical abilities on the court, but his points per game have bounced everywhere from 20 to 29 on relatively mediocre percentages since he was 19.

Carmelo Anthony in a Thunder uniform is something his fans don't want to see, a guy who's best, and possibly only, skill as an NBA player is scoring. One could even make the argument that adding Carmelo Anthony as a scoring option in the starting lineup hinders the dynamic duo that could be Westbrook and George. If we are being honest, the best move for the Thunder is to bench him to let the younger, better scorers do their thing. An isolation scorer like Anthony has a very limited place in the modern NBA on any team other than a struggling mess in Madison Square Garden.

He isn't a leader

Carmelo Anthony's former teammate Chauncey Billups once said: “He's not that guy” when Melo was compared to vocal team leaders Chris Paul and LeBron James on The Knicks Blog with Anthony Donahue back in April, via ESPN.com's Ian Begley.

Billups continued:

“Melo's a good friend of mine, one of the best players I ever played with, but he's not the guy who's going to stand up in the locker room and give this rah-rah speech and get the team to rally. That's not who he is.”

The best NBA players of all time lead their teammates and Carmelo Anthony really hasn't cared for that in his career. Is it wrong for him to not be a leader? Does it take away from his career? No, but if he did have better leadership qualities many would be more comfortable labelling him as a top NBA player.

Has Carmelo Anthony had an impressive career? Yes, but it is a career that has been overstated. He was a great scorer at best, but he is not one anymore, he is not needed to be one on his current team, and he is not one of the greats of the past 10 years.