Carmelo Anthony's revival and why he deserved to win the Player of the Week award
Carmelo Anthony made his NBA return in style winning the Conference Player of the Week in no time. This is the first time the 10-time All-Star has won this award since March 10, 2014, when he was still playing for New York Knicks.
This past week Carmelo averaged 22.3 points per game (ppg), 7.7 rebounds per game (rpg), 2.7 assists per game (apg) while shooting at 57.4% from the field and 45.5% beyond the arc, helping the Portland Trail Blazers to a perfect record of (3-0) that week.
For those who have just started following the game, Melo is the best story in basketball right now, and one that extends beyond the sport. He is the legend who was cast aside by basketball’s long-range revolution. He never gave up hope that he’d be back. He stayed in such good shape and committed himself so much to the goal of making a return that he got signed and immediately performed well enough to earn a Player of the Week honour. Stars like Melo don’t actually care much about such individual honors but it would still mean a lot to him at this stage of his career.
All said and done, giving the guy some recognition in his return back is nothing to scoff about. A year of exile from the NBA, and Anthony is still somehow able to play as if he never left. And while he is way past his prime, he proved to the world that he has more than enough left in the tank.
Other candidates for the award: James Harden and Luka Doncic
Harden was in sublime form this past week wherein he averaged 42 ppg, 8 apg, and 6 rpg, all this while shooting just over 51% from the field and around 37% from beyond the arc. In the meantime he also made 37 of his 43 free throws shots at 86% accuracy from the line. The beard was in red hot form against Atlanta Hawks where he scored 60 points in just three quarter, making eight threes in the process. He also shot 20 of 23 from the free throw line that night.
Luka doesn’t look like someone playing in his sophomore year. This past week he averaged 35 ppg, 7.7 rpg, and 9 apg all this while shooting at 42.9% from the field. Luka being the primary scorer also gives the newcomer Kristaps Porzingis some more time to settle in. Also the Mavs couldn’t stand against the star studded Clippers ending the week with a record of (2-1). Statistically Luka is making a strong contention for an All-Star team this year after missing it by a narrow margin in his rookie year.
Reasons for giving the award to Carmelo
It can be argued that Luka Doncic and James Harden were playing great basketball and either of them deserved this honor but Melo played a crucial role in giving the much-needed winning momentum to the Blazers while averaging over 16 ppg in just 30 minutes.
Also, the league seldom awards a player who has played in less than 3 games for the week which is from Monday to Sunday. Harden only featured in two games last week. The league office did complete justice to Doncic by awarding him with the Western Conference Player of the Month award for the month of November.