Basketball Hall of Fame: Carmelo Anthony belongs to the game more than any franchise

It is a good thing that the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is not like baseball, in which players who are sanctioned must select a baseball cap with which to enter, designating which team wants to be more associated with. Because there is no way to really classify Carmelo Anthony as he enters the room this weekend, at least in a team concept.

Being one of the best markers of all time feels almost limiting to him, especially in the way he produced: a narrow handle for some of his size, a smooth sweater silky from all parts of the floor and the ability to browse the even bigger defenders when the moment of the box has arrived.

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But when I imagine Anthony who operates in a telephone booth-Jab-Jab, pivot, bump-quale jersey is you seen? It is probably not definitively any shirt, unless he considered his domination of a year in Syracuse, where all he needed was a serial campaign to deliver a national title and be listed as one of the best prospects of the historic draft of the NBA of 2003.

It is probably not a single shirt, which is the way it should be, considering that Anthony belongs to the game more than any franchise. It was that game at that time Anthony got perfectly perfect, before the movement of the ball and the spread of the offenses took control while Anthony was starting his exit.

The New York Knicks could be, the place where Anthony forced himself to do in 2011, after his relationship with the Denver Nuggets franchise, after seven seasons. At a time when the Knicks were usually rejected by the stars of the marquee of the League in the free agency, Anthony wanted the spotlight and the stage – being born in Brooklyn before moving to Baltimore for most of his youth.

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But this was a moment for Superteams and Superfriends, stimulated by Lebron James who collaborated with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, turning the League upside down for the next seasons. Anthony, Wade and James posted the idea of ​​those three who played together in the original plan that put in the field years before, but Anthony diminished, wishing the security of a guaranteed contract for giving up when that draft extended their offers in the summer of 2006.

The Knicks have never produced much success with Anthony, advancing only in the second round in 2013 before being ousted by the Indian Pacers in six games. That was the year in which Anthony led the championship to score and obtained the MVP vote in the first lonely place that James did not get, preventing his friend from a unanimous victory.

He always seemed that Anthony was fighting uphill with that franchise, admirable as he could appear in hindsight. He has never had the full merit of having taken on all the weight of being an eyebrow and, given the apparently high standards of the franchise for the retreat of the shirt, there was no haste to put it in the beams of the Madison Square Garden.

Eight players and a coach are up there now, given the fact that the Knicks have not won a title from the NBA/ABA merger, with only two final appearances to be shown in the last 50 years. The last retired number for the Knicks was Patrick Ewing, who played the last time in uniform Knicks in 2000.

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But Anthony does not feel like a legend of the Knicks more than he feels like a legend of the Nuggets. It is there that he started his career, helping to shoot a Moribund franchising. But he has never been able to shake the label to be a chucker, of someone who was unable to raise his teammates and bring them beyond their skills. He was held against Anthony who needed the right guard and teammates around him to bring him the best.

It was held against him who was not James, or Wade – players who starred in June.

To a certain extent, it was considered against him that he could not replicate the success of 2009, when the Allen IVerson trade for ChaUNCEY BILLUPS transformed a fun but in the end not threatening in one that could at least smell the finals.

Not being written by Detroit in 2003 may have been the greatest element in his destiny, something totally out of his control. The Pistons had Billups and Richard Hamilton and a flourishing Swingman named Tayshaun Prince to flank Ben Wallace. And the franchise eventually decided to crowd the position, broadcasting Anthony for Darko Military in one of the greatest disgusts of all time.

For his money and many other people, Billups believes that Anthony could have adapted immediately, even under Larry Brown’s notoriously hard coach. He could have gone in line like a debutant who would have seen James, Wade and Bosh have the complete kingdom on their franchises, or has he been allowed to make mistakes without serious repercussions? It is difficult to say, and almost unfair to keep Anthony, who was 19 years old as Rookie, according to standards so demanding. And who knows if the pistons go and acquire Rasheed Wallace on the commercial expiration to complete the puzzle of the championship if Anthony had shown many promises in the meantime.

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The only version of Anthony who was fully made was Olympic apple, while he held the record of Olympic scores of all time before Kevin Durant took it. But when it was in that setting, its efficiency was out of the ranking, a critical element of the “redemption team” with the theme also in 2008 and the winning teams of Gold-Medal in 2012 and 2016-this last of which included none of his draft companions.

He did not seem to be weighed by the expectations of being the porter of franchise torches, but the Olympics still had a lot of pressure. Anthony was only able to lift him in ways that made you squeeze your eyes and ask if it was the same as Wade and James and Kobe Bryant.

Anthony has been defined by missed and glimpses, however, the point of everything he did to get to this point is almost missing. In today’s game, heavy insulation markers are almost disapproved.

The term “Real Hooper” is accepted with a nod on one side and a snobbish contempt on the other. But there is a purity in his game, or at least a simplicity. The most difficult thing to find is someone who can get a bucket. The essence of the game is also that.

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This is the first thing someone learns, as well as dribbling. Well before the defensive slides, moving from the ball, bouncing, passing or any other critical element necessary to create a complete player, you will learn first how to get a bucket.

And it is more than simple selfish thought. Anthony’s peers respect him in a difficult way to measure if you’ve never had to compete with him.

This is the way players talk about Bernard King, Mark Aguirre, Adrian Dantley, Paul Pierce and others in that genre. It is a difficult day against those great bodies and that relentless attitude. Anthony played in the difficult iso-più era in which to score, with the physical rules that train only towards the beginning of his first.

No, he was not a sample and his shirt is not retired anywhere. But perhaps it is appropriate because it belongs to history, as a direct product of the time, in ways that very few players of its time will never do.

Because he could get you a bucket.