NBA 2016-17 Season News and Player Updates: Carmelo Anthony Unlikely to Win an NBA Championship, Says College Coach [VIDEO]
Will New York Knicks Forward Become One of The Greatest Basketball Players Even Without a Title?
Carmelo Anthony made history at the Rio 2016 Olympics as a three-time gold medalist and all-time leading scorer of the U.S. Men's National Basketball Team. Amidst Olympic success, his former college coach made a sobering forecast that the star forward of the New York Knicks is unlikely to win an NBA championship.
No NBA Title For Melo
Jim Boeheim, who coached Anthony at Syracuse University in 2003, made the bold statement at a post-Olympics news conference, per the Syracuse Post-Standard. He explained that the 32-year-old small forward of the Knicks has never been on a team that had any chance of winning an NBA title.
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Boeheim said that as a player, Anthony managed to improve every NBA team that he has been on and that is all that he could do. He cited the Denver Nuggets where Anthony played from 2003 to 2011.
According to Boeheim, Anthony took the Nuggets into the playoffs but they failed to progress to compete for an NBA title. He also commented that the Nuggets never achieved anything remarkable after Anthony left the team for the Knicks in 2011.
Great Job
Despite the fact that Anthony did not win an NBA title, Boeheim, who served as the assistant coach of the U.S. Men's National Basketball Team in the past three Summer Olympics, asserted that the basketball superstar has a pretty good resume.
The veteran coach also expressed that he is proud that Anthony did a great job as the leader of the U.S. Men's National Basketball Team at the recently concluded Rio Games. He also disclosed that the Olympics gave Anthony a good basketball experience after a couple of bad years with the Knicks.
Will Melo Become One of The Greatest Basketball Players?
LZ Granderson, sports commentator of ESPN's "SportsNation," believed that Anthony is one of the greatest basketball players in the history despite the lack of NBA title and winning only three playoff series in his 13-year NBA career with the Nuggets and the Knicks. He reasoned out that being the greatest player of Team USA is enough to include Anthony in the list of basketball's greatest.
But most online basketball fans are seemingly not convinced that Anthony is one of the greatest.
In an online poll conducted by ESPN since Monday, almost 27,000 or 59 percent of the total number of votes disagreed that the Knicks star forward is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. As of press time, there were only around 19,000 internet users who think Anthony is among the greatest players in the sport.
