Carmelo Anthony will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year. The Syracuse product averaged 22.5 points in 1,260 NBA games during his 19-year career. He's the 10th leading scorer in NBA history.
Along with being a talented scorer, Anthony was durable during his career. He rarely missed games despite having over 100 recorded injuries or illnesses, according to Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.
Just how durable was Anthony? According to Jonathan Macri of Knicks Film School, Anthony played in more games (470) from 2014-15 to 2021-22 (his final season in the NBA) than Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid (452) has played in his career.
Games played since the start of the 2014-15 season, the year Joel Embiid was drafted and Carmelo Anthony's 12th year in the NBA:
Melo: 470
Embiid: 452
Anthony has been retired for three years. https://t.co/06rwl1sHee
— Jonathan Macri (@JCMacriNBA) April 2, 2025
This stat shows how durable Anthony was and how injury-prone Embiid is.
Embiid, who missed the first two years of his career, has never played in more than 68 games in a season.
After Macri tweeted the wild Anthony-Embiid post, NBA fans couldn't believe that the stat was real.
"Well that's a crazy stat," one fan said.
Another fan said, "This is a wild stat."
Embiid appeared in only 19 games this season. He averaged 23.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists while shooting 44.4% from the field, 29.9% from beyond the arc and 88.2% from the free-throw line.
The Sixers shut Embiid down for the season due to his ongoing left knee issues. The one-time MVP will need another knee surgery.
Anthony underwent multiple surgeries on his body, but he was still able to play more games from 2014-15 to 2021-22 than Embiid has played in his career.
"This is crazy," one fan said.
Jake Alman, who covers the MLB for Athlon Sports, couldn't believe the Anthony-Embiid stat is true.
"That can't be - oh my God it is true," Alman wrote.
No matter how many fans saw the stat, the words "crazy" or "insane" kept coming up.
"This is insane! Lol," one fan said.
Added Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints: "That's crazy."
Related: Carmelo Anthony Receives Historic News From NBA
Copyright 2025 Athlon Sports. All rights reserved.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 4:04 PM.