New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets great Carmelo Anthony is a Hall of Famer and one of the best scorers ever. But more evidence has emerged on why he was also one of the ultimate me-first players in NBA history.
Earlier this year, the 10-time All-Star was forever enshrined in basketball history when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. During his extensive 19-year career, Anthony was on the All-Rookie first-team, and was All-NBA six times — third-team four times, and second-team twice.
Carmelo Anthony stats: 22.5 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.0 SPG, 36% 3PT
At his peak, there was no better pure scorer in the game. Nuggets and Knicks fans got to watch all of his best seasons. But they also encountered the worst of Anthony. As his career played out, a narrative began to build about the Hall of Famer being a me-first player. As he preferred isolation ball on offense, didn’t hustle on defense, and was rumored to be unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices to win a championship.
The fact that the teams he led made the conference finals once and were eliminated in the opening round seven times seems to back that up. Well, some more evidence emerged this week from a true legend of the game.
Phil Jackson offers new details on failed relationship with Carmelo Anthony
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Iconic NBA coach and former Knicks executive Phil Jackson has a new book out that looks at the 75 greatest players of all time. In the soon-to-be-released tome, he offers up some new insight on the long-rumored difficulties he had working with Anthony while serving as New York’s team president.
He recalled a point where he wanted the team to trade Anthony after the 2016-17 season because he was unwilling to buy into playing the triangle offense, and demanded that then-head coach Jeff Hornacek make him the focus. Once he knew owner James Dolan would not okay a move, Jackson realized his time in New York was at an end.
“I said, ‘Unfortunately, my relationship with Carmelo is kind of busted, and if he’s going to be here, it’s probably best that I go,'” he remembers.
Anthony was a major reason Nuggets lost 2009 West Finals?
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However, that wasn’t the only bit of info in the book that puts Carmelo Anthony in a bad light. He also revealed a conversation he had with the forward’s one-time Nuggets coach, George Karl, and how he played a major role in why they lost the 2009 Western Conference Finals.
Karl claimed Anthony rejected a defensive plan he came up with for Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers because it would hurt his scoring numbers during the series.
“He said, ‘Kobe’s going to get his 30 points and we’ll deal with that; shut down everybody else.’ Carmelo interjected, ‘No, I disagree with that. We’ve got to defend Kobe first. We’ve got to throw everything at him,’” Jackson wrote. “‘You know why?’ George asked. ‘He said he wanted to be the top scorer.’”
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After earning his journalism degree in 2017, Jason Burgos served as a contributor to several sites, including MMA Sucka ... More about Jason Burgos