How good was Carmelo Anthony in NCAA basketball? We take a look at his college stats, career, and highlights
Carmelo Anthony joined the NBA in 2003 after he was selected with the third overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft behind LeBron James and Darko Milicic. The Denver Nuggets had the opportunity to pick a superstar, and they did not pass up on it.
It has been an eventful 19-year career for Carmelo Anthony, at 37 he is the joint second-oldest player in the league behind Miami Heat legend Udonis Haslem. Nonetheless, he continues to perform at the highest level, shooting a career-high 42.7% from beyond the arc on 6.5 attempts per game this season.
Where would the Lakers be without Carmelo Anthony this season?
Melo is shooting 46.1% from three on 6.4 attempts per game this season.
He’s the only Laker with 40+ 3P% (min 10 attempts). https://t.co/EycA9JRUzX
On the all-time scoring leaderboard, Carmelo Anthony is ranked 9th with 27,686 points. The only other active player on the top ten list is fellow Lakers teammate LeBron James who sits third with 35,651 points.
Carmelo Anthony has a stacked resume with appearances in the NBA and for Team USA. Sadly, he has never won an MVP award and is also in search of his first championship. He opted to play with long-time friend and arguably the best player in the world, LeBron, with the hope of making a run for the championship.
While we can go on and on about Carmelo Anthony's relatively successful NBA career, it is worth revisiting where it all started. He had a great run in high school, but the Brooklyn native showed exactly what he's made of in his college campaign.
Carmelo Anthony's college career, stats, and highlights
Carmelo Anthony almost missed out on going to college due to a low ACT score, but he got the score required at the last minute and committed to Syracuse University. Although he played only one season with their basketball program, he set an NCAA record as a freshman.
When Carmelo Anthony arrived on lcampus, the Syracuse University basketball program had not won an NCAA championship, and it was unlikely Carmelo was single-handedly going to change that despite how brilliant he was. As the season progressed, the team started to accumulate wins, especially at Carrier Dome.
“I ain’t never think I would do that to be honest,” Melo said. “We was a good team but I didn’t think we were going to be that good. To go 17-0 at home, I never lost in the Carrier Dome. People don’t talk about that enough. That’s hard to do. This is when the Big East was poppin’ at that point in time.”
Outside of turning their home court into a fortress, Carmelo Anthony led the Orangemen to their first-ever championship, averaging 22.2 points and 10.0 rebounds. He exploded for 33 points in the Final Four against the University of Texas to set a record for the most points scored by a freshman in the tournament. After his 20-point performance to win the championship, he earned the Most Outstanding Player award.
Carmelo was interested in staying for longer in Syracuse but was persuaded by his head coach to pursue his NBA dreams. To date, Carmelo Anthony's college run remains one of the greatest in NCAA history.