Carmelo Anthony recently announced his retirement after 19 seasons, and he doesn’t regret the decision at all, Chris Herring of Sports Illustrated writes in an in-depth feature.
“It’s weird to use the word happy, but I’m happy,” Anthony said. “It took a lot for me to get to that point, and to be able to see it all clearly. But I do.”
As Herring notes, despite plenty of individual and team accolades (with Team USA), Anthony was labeled as one of the top players to have never won an NBA championship. He says he’s “at peace” with that label, according to Herring.
“That doesn’t bother me no more; that idea that you’re a loser if you don’t win a championship,” Anthony said. “For me, I’ve won. I won back in 2003, the night I shook David Stern’s hand on that [draft] stage. I made it out of Red Hook. I’ve won at life. The ring is the only thing I didn’t get. It would’ve been a great accomplishment, but I don’t regret it, because I feel like I did everything I could to get it.”
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Dwight Howard, Anthony’s teammate with the Lakers in 2021/22, says he “would love to come back” to the NBA if he finds an opportunity next season, he tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter video link via FanDuel TV). “I would love to finish off my career with an NBA team, hopefully win an NBA championship,” Howard said. The eight-time All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year spent this season in Taiwan with the Taoyuan Leopards.
- Former NBA player Tony Allen has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud, per Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Allen was one of 18 players charged with allegedly defrauding the NBA’s health and welfare benefit plan by submitting false claims for dental and medical expenses that were never incurred. Allen has repaid the money that he gained and faces up to two years in prison, according to Cole, who notes that two other former players have pleaded guilty in the case and avoided jail time.
- The NBA’s competition committee is considering adding an in-game penalty for flopping, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The penalty would be a technical free throw, with a possible trial run set for Summer League in a couple months.
“The ring is the only thing I didn’t get. It would’ve been a great accomplishment, but I don’t regret it, because I feel like I did everything I could to get it.”
Wow. What a lie. The delusion is real with Melo. He’s still lying to his fanboys. You wanted the money and you got it. Great, but you’re not a winner and you didn’t make any sacrifices to try to WIN in your career.
What in the world are you even talking about? Are you ok? Did Carmelo hurt you?
Melo has 3 Olympic gold medals and a National Championship, he did plenty of winning during his career.
I love when people deflect from melo never winning a title by talking about the Olympic golds he got while playing on stacked teams against inferior competition lmao
Syracuse wasn’t stacked. What’s your explanation there? He wasn’t the GM of the teams he played for, nor did he hire the coaches. What was expected of him, he did. And did well. He didn’t advertise to be anything else other than the product he offered. One can make the argument he didn’t have the right team around him, or coach (D’Antoni for example). He could’ve ran off to other teams to join their stars, but rather he chose the Knicks and played with what they put on the floor, because he wanted to win there. Can’t take that away from him.
“You wanted the money and you got it.”
Not sure what you’re going on about here. He turned down a big contract from the Nuggets and then was traded to the Knicks. When/where was he chasing money?
Why is wanting to make money even a bad thing? Imagine being mad at a person for trying to maximize their earnings.
So he’s always chased money. That’s what NYC was. A money grab. For him his wife for his life. He didn’t care about winning enough. So he got all he could get.
Winning a ring is different than winning in the NBA. Or winning as an NBA player.
Personally I never liked him. We fave up too much for him. So we couldn’t build a winner. He is a reflection of our owner. Don’t care enough about winning a ring. And don’t care enough to build for that. Plenty of athletes treat NYC like that. It’s unfortunate but true.
Nene and Dino? That was too much?
Money? Maybe. But certainly winning was NOT a priority to him. Sorry, but if you think it was, it can only be because you’re not aware of his antics when he was here. It actually started with the trade that brought him here. He certainly cared more about the number of shots/points he got and where he could show up after the game and his celebrity status. A cancer in the lockeroom if ever there was one.
If I had the awful teammates he had I would want every shot too.
He shared up the ball much more only in the handful of Amare Stoudemire years. And he passed plenty on the Olympic teams. Carmelo has never in his career refused to pass to a good player.
Love the anti-flopping idea. Fines were never going to do anything. But how would it be called? Seems like it’d have to be a coach’s challenge, in which case, to address it, they’d need a helluva lot more than one per game
Denis Schroeder just watched his NBA career end!
Just one more reason to add in arena video refs who watch replays of ever play as soon as the TV crew can get it to them…
Have them overturn any calls that were missed as well as any flops they see…
Flopping should be a automatic T. If after reviewing a game there was some flopping missed make it a T at the start of that player’s next game.
I wonder if the one way you could call the flopping is after the game by a video review board? Probably impossible but my thought is those times when a defensive player will get hit and then the flop reaction a split second later which is obviously unnatural. Don’t know how that would affect the game at hand but sorting it out during the contest sounds like a tough task. I look forward to seeing how they will address this.
Cricket is leading the way in this regard since they gave more power to the video refs than they on field refs the complaints about bad umpiring have disappeared…
The flopping thing sounds impossible to enforce. Love the idea if it’s consistent and fair though.
‘consistent’ and ‘fair’ are words that are foreign to the NBA.
If the Refs were better, and actually understood the game, then I doubt flopping would be problem. Since offense is essentially uninhibited right now, and defense is a nickel short of being outlawed, why not have an in-game penalty for an offensive player hunting contact. Games would be more watchable.
If LeBron can mull retirement after this season (whether or not he does retire), then it’s time for more of these older players who entered the league in the 00’s to be thinking about it, too. Dwight Howard was well-included in this HR posting about Carmelo’s retirement.
There are a lot of good young players coming into the league this year. I’m as sentimental about well-known players’ careers coming to an end as anyone, but there does come a time when a player doesn’t get a contract of any sort in an NBA season when the agent has to tell them it’s over.
Howard would be certain HOF if he retired, not much left for him to achieve. Better stats than HoFer Rodman.
Just suspend Smart, Lowry, Chris Paul, Embiid, Lebron, Beverly, Harden, Trae Young, Schroder, Curry, Draymond and Brunson, the whole of next season …… that should drastically cut the flopping.
Double technical for Lebron. Laying on the floor for over two minutes because someone touched your head as you roll in the floor with the cameras on you is a bit much. The guy is built like a tank. Would love to see him play the 88’ Pistons.
You can asses penalties for flopping after the gm. A fine. Then if you keep doing it a suspension. You will see it on tape. Refs do miss it.
Bothers me that with 3 refs. They still miss too many calls. And always cater to stars.
I think they’ve been doing this for some time now e.g. 5K fine.
During the first few years, they’ve fined the usual suspects e.g. Smart.
However, the NBA only seems to fine those very blatant ones.
They should have been extremely strict on this, as flopping is probably at an all time high. I’m sure most people cant stand a behemoth like Embiid falling down on the floor, every other play.
They tried this already. No one cared about the fines, and a lot of them were argued or overturned. Punishments that involve money have a much higher legal standard than in-game punishment. The NBA can be sued for unfair fines or suspensions but they cannot (usually) be sued for penalty fouls.
The NBA badly needs to follow the world of cricket… Have video refs in every arena who have the power to overturn any call made by the on court refs…
No mess, no fuss, correct calls every game…
NBA & college players flopping is caused by the referees.
If you don’t fall down, you will never get an offensive called. When can someone tell me they saw any referee call an offensive foul if the person didn’t fall down. If it has happened, it was no where near enough!
Same thing on layups. Why does every guard who goes to the hole and scores wind up flat on his back and in the pile of photographers after every layup?
New rule. On the floor for more than 30 seconds, you’re out of the game. If you are truly injured, then you’re most likely out anyway. A fine will also have to be paid unless you actually miss the next game or go on the IR.