Getty Images Hassan Whiteside pumps up the crowd
Carmelo Anthony has a lot of well-wishers within the NBA fraternity.
The third overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, Anthony’s last appearance was as a member of the Houston Rockets in a November 8th matchup against his old team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Melo scored two points and hauled in five rebounds in the Rockets’ loss.
He’s not had luck finding an NBA team.
What’s next for Melo?
“When the time is right he will speak out,” a source close to Carmelo Anthony shared with me via e-mail recently.
In an interview with Taryn Finley of the Huffington Post recently, Melo suggested he is at peace with the fact he may not play much longer:
“I’m sure [retirement is] coming soon. I’d be sitting lying to you if I said it’s not coming soon. I think I want it to come soon. I don’t think I want to do this forever, but because you love it so much, it’s hard to give it up. At the end of the day, at anything you do, when it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go. But as long as you feel good with that.”
“Wow a Carmelo question, Miami Heat big man Hassan Whiteside said to Dallas-based NBA writer and The Hype Magazine editor, Landon Buford.
“Carmelo is a scoring machine.“
Sure is! He’s a 10-time NBA All-Star with career averages of 24 points and 6.5 rebounds.
What’s the problem?
“Analytics is what did that to him,” Memphis Grizzlies swingman, CJ Miles told Buford.
“He is a bucket that is what he is. I understand the situation went a certain way, but he still is Melo. He still has a lot in his tank and he can still play this game. I think situations have gone his way, but the slander talk is crazy a lot of the time.”
GettyLos Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and Houston Rockets forward Carmelo Anthony
Retired NBA player, Quentin Richardson, currently one-half of the Knuckleheads Podcast with Darius Miles believes that Melo should be on a team. “Man, I hope above all else that whatever it is, however he wants it to end, he gets to walk away and go down on his own terms,” Richardson told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“I think he deserves that, I think he’s earned that, I definitely think he’s getting an unfair shake, especially at the last three stops, the way things ended in New York, and then OKC and Houston, I didn’t feel like any of things shook out fairly for him. I think anybody who’s watching can see that he’s handled himself in the most professional way that anybody could under the circumstances where you’ve got people, your own organization, people in there, talking about his name, and doing, you know, just doing things that shouldn’t be happening, you know what i’m saying? Period, at any level. And Melo took the high road every single time, no matter what, has always, you know, taken the high road and did the professional, the good thing, and stayed above horrible things, no matter how bad people were trying to paint him and things like that.”
“He’s a great player,” Knicks captain, Lance Thomas told me in December.
“He’s a great teammate, most importantly he’s a great human being and he’s always been a great advocate for the NBA as a brand. So I just want him to get back on a team and play the sport he loves that’s paved a way for him and his family, and he just loves to play basketball, so I really want him back on a team.”