Carmelo Anthony’s Knicks Return in 2014 Was Inspired by This LA Strategist

Carmelo Anthony plays against the Atlanta Hawks.

Getty Carmelo Anthony plays against the Atlanta Hawks.

Former Houston Rocket, Denver Nugget and New York Knick, Carmelo Anthony has not played NBA basketball since November.

In years past, Melo had gotten in some crazy and productive workouts with legendary trainer Chris Brickley that ended up being getting mega traffic on social media. That started the whole Hoodie Melo Craze!

Apparently, that wasn’t the only video craze that Melo created.

Born in Brooklyn, Anthony re-sign with the New York Knicks in 2014.

That summer, Anthony immerse himself into New York culture and through various video campaigns let folks know where he was from.

One strategist shared that he gave Anthony the tip in doing so.

Meet Ben Ricciardi.

“I went to him and said: ‘man, like, the world doesn’t know this and the world needs to know why you’re staying in New York,'” Ricciardi told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

“You were born in Red Hook and you grew up in Red Hook until you were 13 years old. Everyone thinks of you as a Baltimore kid, but really you’re a New York kid and this is your hometown, and you were raised in Red Hook.”

The experiment worked!

In addition to the video campaign, also that summer, Anthony shed about 30 to 40 pounds by cutting carbs and meat from his diet and dedicating to his workout routine.

“It wasn’t more about my diet,” Anthony told me.

“It was more about the training that I was doing and really pushing myself to that limit.”

nba championship, odds, 2018, thunder, carmelo anthony

Getty

A 10-time NBA All-Star, Anthony signed with the Houston Rockets this summer after clearing waivers in a trade that shipped him from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks.

The Rockets traded him to the Chicago Bulls before the NBA’s trade deadline and was later waived.

The third overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers had been leaning toward signing Anthony for the rest of the season — until a mound of LA losses occured.

Anthony has averaged 24 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3 assists in his career with the Thunder, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets.

A long forward, Anthony is the epitome of today’s game, honestly.

He can score!

But he’s also contemplated retirement.

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.”

“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,” Quentin Richardson, Anthony’s former Knicks teammate told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

“He is one of the best 300 players in the world that’s not playing,” TNT’s Kenny Smith told me.

“You can’t say he’s not one of the best 300 players.”

A long forward, Anthony is the epitome of today’s game, honestly.

“I don’t know if they remember how good of a player he was and still is,” Blake Griffin told Basketball Society Online during the regular season.

“Sometimes it’s the situation. It sucks to see as a basketball player to see people act [as if] he is something [that] he is not.”

“He’s a great player,” New York 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.”