What Carmelo Anthony meant to New York City

There were many moments that elicited roars at Madison Square Garden as the Knicks faced the Miami Heat this month in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals: When Jalen Brunson hit a 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter, leading to a Heat time out or whatever. out of five times, RJ Barrett dropped a 3, infuriating the Garden’s knuckled Knicks fans.

But the loudest roar that night came during a stoppage in play when a large video screen showed Carmelo Anthony at court. Anthony stood with one hand up as most of the fans gave him a standing ovation, showering him with applause and cheers as if he had just landed a winning shot.

Anthony never won a title for the Knicks or even made it to a conference final in his six and a half seasons with the team, but the moment was a reminder of how much he still means to New York. Craving a star after years of mediocrity, the city got one in Anthony, a Brooklyn native ready to make Knicks games exciting again.

When Anthony announced his retirement on Monday, many fans began to wonder when the Knicks would retire the number 7 he wore while playing for the team.

“New York is the kind of place where you melt when you’re not ready,” said rapper Chuck D, who grew up on Long Island and co-founded the rap group Public Enemy. “But Melo came in and danced with the pressure of New York.”

He added, “Most baseball players in New York are not from New York. So he brought a New York state of mind to a place that didn’t really have the ballplayers who knew how to adapt to it. So that’s why we will always love Melo.

The Denver Nuggets put Anthony third overall out of Syracuse in 2003 after leading the school to an NCAA Division I national championship. In Denver, Anthony quickly established himself as one of the best players in the league.

At 6-foot-7 and about 240 pounds, Anthony was known for his 3-point prowess and nimble footwork. On offense, he made moves on the high and low posts, outsmarting smaller guards and attackers while having the speed to blast through defenders.

But all of Anthony’s offensive success didn’t translate into much in the postseason for the Nuggets. In seven-and-a-half seasons, Anthony’s teams made the conference finals only once, and he pressured the Nuggets to trade him to New York in 2011 in a deal that destroyed the Knicks’ roster. Nuggets fans never forgot Anthony’s departure, and they booed him every time he visited Denver.

“I gave everything here,” said Anthony at a press conference after he visited booed in 2021. “I never said anything bad about Denver – about the fans, the organization, players – never complained.” He added, “So it’s always going to be a special place for me, regardless of the boos.”

It also seemed that the front office hadn’t forgotten about Anthony’s departure. Anthony was one of the best players in Nuggets history and the number 15 he wore seemed destined for retirement. But in 2014, the Nuggets gave Anthony’s number to a little-known second-round pick whose roster was revealed while a Taco Bell commercial played during ESPN’s broadcast of the draft.

That player, Nikola Jokic, has become one of the best players in the NBA and has already done more in a Nuggets uniform than Anthony, winning two Most Valuable Player Awards. Jokic led the Nuggets to their first NBA Finals on Monday.

“I hope they can pull both jerseys back,” Nuggets tells Jeff Green told ESPN. “Nikola and Carmelo, I know it can be done, and it deserves what he has done for the franchise.”

Anthony’s best shot at a jersey retirement is most likely in New York.

To many fans in town, especially those who are black or Latino, Anthony felt like a reflection of them on the field. Fans gravitated to Anthony, who is African American and Puerto Rican, for his style: his signature cornrow braids – though he didn’t have them in New York – the tattoos that covered his arms, his love of hip-hop music.

Anthony was also ubiquitous in the city outside of basketball. He attended everything from high school basketball games to hip-hop events, and still does. A year ago, he was in the audience in the Garden during a music battle between the rap groups The Lox and Dipset, with lyrics being rapped word for word.

In November 2005, Anthony called Angie Martinez’s radio show on Hot 97where The Lox ranted about a contract dispute they had with Diddy, in what appeared to be an attempt to make peace.

“What can he do to help?” Martinez asked about Anthony.

“Do you see his contract?” replied the rapper Jadakiss.

“I’m all the way in Oklahoma City,” Anthony said. “We’re off to the game. They told me you were all on the radio so I had to call.

Anthony’s call was recorded in New York City radio folklore, but it was also a moment that reflected who he had always been.

“Culturally, he means everything,” says Charlamagne Tha God, the host of the radio show “The Breakfast Club,” who remembers Anthony coming to Martinez’s show and being one of the most accessible stars.

“Certain moments like that stand out to me when we talk about culture,” he said, “because those are moments where you saw the intersection between hip-hop and basketball, and I think there aren’t too many people who represented that intersection better. than Carmelo Anthony.”

One of the curious aspects of the romance between New York fans and Anthony was that his approach to basketball was vastly different from what the biggest Knicks teams were known for.

During some of their best years, the Knicks were a physical team with defensemen who would exhaust opponents with aggressive guarding and hard fouls when attacking the basket. Players like Charles Oakley and John Starks became fan favorites for how they embraced the bullying and villainous style of play.

But Anthony was not of that nature. He was notorious for usually seeming uninterested in guarding players. During an attack, he often scored, but he was kind of a black hole: when the ball went to him, he wouldn’t pass it.

Anthony holds the Knicks’ record for most points in one game, with 62 against the Charlotte Bobcats in 2014; it is also the third most player to score without an assist in NBA history.

“Yes, he was selfish at times. And you know, he was a ball stopper,” said Casey Powell, known as CP The Fanchise as the founder of Knicks Fan TV. “But he was a bucket, man.”

He said that Anthony didn’t have many options for players to go to those Knicks teams and that players like Starks and Oakley were loved because they played hard, “but Carmelo, it was his actual talent that drew fans to him.” Knicks fans hadn’t had a player of Anthony’s caliber since Patrick Ewing led the team to the Finals in 1994, he said.

“Even though they didn’t win much when he was here, he inspired a lot of kids, a lot of African-American kids, a lot of Latino kids, and he just gave us hope,” Powell said. “Sometimes the conversation around Melo is about he didn’t win, and he’s a selfish player, but there’s more to him than on the pitch. Off court he delivered.