Getty Carmelo Anthony, Blazers
Carmelo Anthony has been playing good basketball as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Winners of two straight, the Blazers are currently sitting at 28-35 and in ninth place in the NBA’s Western Conference standings.
Melo has been a huge reason for their Playoff push. Through 47 games, the former NCAA National Champion by way of Syracuse is averaging 15.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists per contest.
Former Portland Trail Blazer, Tracy Murray checked in on a recent episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast and explained why Melo’s a major key for Portland.
Check out our Q&A below:
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: For sure! Scoop B Radio talking on the line with Tracy Murray, UCLA legend, 1995 NBA Champion — when I think of that Blazers team, many people know – you know obviously Carmelo Anthony is now a member of the Portland Trailblazers…
Tracy Murray: HAPPY FOR HIM TO BE BACK IN THE LEAGUE!!!
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: [laughs] Stevie Wonder could see that! People are happy man, it was one of things where I’ve always heard that Phoenix being a place where can revitalize their career. It seems like Portland is possibly the fountain of youth for ‘Melo. How important is an environment for someone like ‘Melo to kind of to pick out from a year later?
GettyCarmelo Anthony
Tracy Murray: It’s a smaller market, so ‘Melo can go up in there with two really good guards and feed off of them. We know they both shoot a lot, but they also make plays. And when you have a respected scorer on your team like Carmelo, of course you’re going to try to get him the ball in places where he can be effective, and he can go do his thing without being too much on the radar. He can kind of fly below the radar and still play pretty well for them.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: I’ve never been to Portland before although it’s on my list of things to do. What is it there to do out there?
Tracy Murray: Well make sure you bring an umbrella [laughs]… but back when Rod Strickland and Clifford Robinson and all of us were on the same team, it was a DIFFERENT Portland, Oregon than it is now. I go up there every year because of UCLA basketball broadcasting so I have to pass through Portland and I see the city and how much it’s grown. It’s actually a city that I can live in now. Back then, there wasn’t very much to do and it rained all the time and when you’re 20 years old and you’re active and you want to get out and do things and it’s nothing to do, it can be depressing. Being in your house all the time – a club was like a steakhouse… you know, that WAS the club. It was like an old school Black Angus restaurant and it’s like, THIS is the spot? Or Champions up in the Marriott. That was the spot in Portland. And you’re sitting there like, THIS is the spot? But at my age now, and all you want to do is play golf, and you just hope that the sun comes out so I can get outside and go play. But you know the summertime up there is beautiful. It’s green – it’s an outdoorish place. You can go fish, you can do all kinds of stuff but they do have a lot more things, they’re more up to date with stores, they’ve always had good restaurants but you can actually like, enjoy the city of Portland now to where I kind of took it for granted and I really didn’t enjoy it back then because it really wasn’t that much to do.