Carmelo Anthony is set for immortality in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, as he will receive enshrinement on his first year on the ballot. No one can dispute his worthiness to enter the Hall in his first year of eligibility; he may not have won an NBA championship during his heyday with the Denver Nuggets or New York Knicks, but he is one of the best scorers in the history of basketball and he won three gold medals for Team USA, starring in the Olympics in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
As accomplished as Anthony is, his legacy remains polarizing to some. The Hall of Fame inductee still has his fair share of detractors, with some believing that he is not a winning player and that he left something on the table during his career considering his purported lack of commitment on the defensive end.
However, Jim Boeheim, the Syracuse icon who was Anthony's former head coach at the esteemed university during their run to the national title in 2003, defended the Nuggets/Knicks legend and declared that he made all of his teams better across multiple stops for most of his career and that there were simply other things beyond his control.
“Well, the thing I think about the NBA is that he made every team that he was on better than they were. Whether it was Denver or the Knicks, he made them better,” Boeheim said in an interview with Mark Medina of Sportskeeda. “They had to go up against the Lakers and the Spurs in Denver. They couldn’t do it, but he made the team better. That’s all you can do sometimes as players. You can’t make a team a championship team by yourself.”
Carmelo Anthony never got over the hump
Anthony was an excellent player during his prime, but that prime of his coincided with LeBron James' dominance, the latter peak years of Kobe Bryant, and the rise of Stephen Curry. The San Antonio Spurs machine was also alive during that time. Hence, it was always going to be difficult for Anthony to be the number one option on a championship contender.
Of course, some of Anthony's decisions warrant criticism. He did jump the gun with his move to the Knicks, costing New York some valuable depth in the process. Moreover, his huge contract took up a lot of the salary cap, preventing New York from building around him. Nonetheless, it's not all Anthony's fault that he was unable to break through considering the stiff competition he faced during his time.
