A legend returns
Carmelo Anthony wasn’t the star that April night five-and-a-half years ago, when Syracuse became national champions.
That was then-freshman Gerry McNamara, who stole the show in the first half with his six 3-pointers. And Hakim Warrick provided the lasting image from the national championship game, blocking Kansas guard Michael Lee’s 3-pointer with 1.5 seconds left to cement the Orange’ first national title.
But in his one year at Syracuse, Anthony rose above a single play. Above a single half. He was the one who hoisted the championship trophy over his head after the win. He was the Final Four’s most outstanding player.
Carmelo Anthony didn’t steal the show in the first or second half, or even the game. He became the show. He became Syracuse basketball. Head coach Jim Boeheim declared in April 2003, ‘(Anthony’s) done more for Syracuse basketball than any player we’ve ever recruited or has ever played here.’
Anthony is just as revered five years after leaving Syracuse, still a lasting icon for the Orange program. Friday, the 6-foot-8 forward will return to the Carrier Dome floor for the second time since entering the NBA, when his Denver Nuggets will play an exhibition affair against the Phoenix Suns at 7:30 p.m.
‘Carmelo will always be associated with something that no other player aside from his teammates on the 2003 will be and that is helping to bring an NCAA championship (to Syracuse),’ said Chris Cordes, the New York Director of One-on-One Basketball Inc., which is promoting Friday’s game. Cordes, a Syracuse alumnus, was primarily responsible for negotiating the matchup.
‘You can never replace that,’ Cordes continued. ‘Carmelo is always going to have a sacred place in the hearts of Syracuse fans, as is G-Mac and some other members of that team. But certainly Carmelo has gone on and been the most successful of those players beyond college basketball.’
Friday’s matchup will be the eighth NBA preseason game held at the Dome and the first since Anthony’s Nuggets faced the Detroit Pistons in 2003.
In the time since that visit, Anthony has amassed credentials with which few of his contemporaries can compete. Anthony has finished in the Top 8 in scoring the past three years and finished fourth last year.
He is a two-time NBA All-Star and linked up with his former coach Jim Boeheim to win a gold medal this past summer in Beijing. (Boeheim was an assistant coach for the United States.)
But even with those accolades, many still associate Anthony with Syracuse.
‘Oh he was definitely a big part of it,’ said James Southerland, a small forward from Queens, N.Y., who has committed to play for the Orange next year. ‘He and Gerry McNamara carried the team on their backs, and they won a championship in 2003. That only got more notoriety for players like me.’
Anthony’s appeal extends beyond the basketball court. Anthony has a signature shoe and clothing line with Brand Jordan. He is Jordan’s highest-paid athlete, signing a seven-year contract extension in March worth more than $60 million. With royalties, Anthony will be the second-highest paid athlete at Nike, surpassed only by Lebron James.
But James never won a national championship. And the Orange is reaping the rewards of the title Anthony helped capture. The forward is frequently reminded about the influence he still has on the program.
‘I hear that kind of thing a lot,’ Anthony said in a statement through his agent. ‘It’s cool that I am considered a great example for the younger guys that want to come play at Syracuse.’
Anthony still serves as a valuable recruiting tool, especially when he’s the one making the pitch. Southerland met Anthony in Las Vegas this past summer, an encounter with the player who turned him onto Syracuse in the first place.
‘I’m meeting a guy with an NCAA ring who went to Syracuse,’ Southerland said. ‘Most people go to UNC or Kansas, but he went to Syracuse because it was his first school. … He was a big leader’
Even if Anthony is not the direct reason recruits choose Syracuse, he might be indirectly. His backing of the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, a new state-of-the-art basketball facility, is sure to make recruits salivate at the opportunity to train in one of the nation’s only two-court collegiate facility. The $3 million Anthony donated to the athletic department jumpstarted the facility, which should be ready when Southerland arrives on campus next fall.
Anthony also plans to host a high-end adult basketball camp in Syracuse next summer. It will include a free mini-camp for 200 youth in the area.
‘He’s giving back with the Carmelo Anthony facility, which is huge,’ Southerland said. ‘He’s giving back to Syracuse, especially us because we’re going to have our own facility.’
Those actions have only further cemented Anthony’s star status.How much is Anthony revered in these parts? Enough that Cordes started negotiating with the Nuggets and Suns nearly a year ago to set up the contest. Cordes promoted Denver’s visit to SU, as well as NBA preseason games that brought former SU stars Pearl Washington and Derrick Coleman back to the Dome.
‘This is as good a game as we have ever bought to Syracuse,’ Cordes told The Daily Orange in June, when the event was first announced.
Indeed, three former MVPs will be in uniform (Steve Nash, Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson) along with a total of 14 first round picks – Amare Stoudemire, Grant Hill and Kenyon Martin among them. Both teams made the playoffs last year, going a combined 105-59.
And, of course, the current edition of the Syracuse men’s and women’s basketball teams will take time to revel in Anthony’s aura. Both will be on hand prior to the game, playing table tennis with fans to promote Coaches vs. Cancer. At halftime Jim Boeheim will take on a fan at a game of table tennis.
Pearl Washington, Leo Rautins and Greg Monroe will attend. Even SU’s first 1,000-point scorer and first NBA draftee Bill Gabor will toss up the ceremonial jump ball.
But most of the expected 20,000 people on hand will be there to see one player – Carmelo Anthony.
‘I think he’s hugely important to the community,’ Cordes said. ‘Because to reiterate people associate him, he’s the guy, he’s the guy responsible for bringing that national championship which we all feel good about, which every, every single person in the community feels good about. So (he’s) greatly important and I think he always will be.’
Published on October 15, 2008 at 12:00 pm
