Nineteen seasons in the NBA, a league scoring championship, 10 All-Star selections and four Olympic medals.
That’s the resume of Carmelo Anthony, who on Saturday will be enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
But before that, there was Syracuse.
Orange fans remember NBA great Anthony as the magician behind the program's only national championship, which came in 2003. That was the only season at Syracuse for Anthony, now 41.
Another Hall of Fame legend, Dick Vitale, was right when he called the first Syracuse game, against Memphis, of the 2002-03 season and said this of Anthony when the freshman scored on a breakaway dunk in the first two minutes of the game.
“That’s the first of many, my friends,” Vitale said. “When it’s all said and done, he will become – believe me when I tell you this – the best diaper dandy ever to wear the Syracuse uniform.”
He was right.
Anthony’s season was legendary. He averaged 22.2 points and 10 rebounds per game over 36.4 minutes per game. He shot 45.3 percent from the field and sparked the Orange, one big play after another, to a 30-5 (13-3 Big East) record.
In the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse defeated Manhattan, Oklahoma State, Auburn and Texas to reach the national title game – an 81-78 win against Kansas, He had three double-doubles, including 33 points and 14 rebounds in the semifinal against the Longhorns, and was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
To Anthony, none of those NBA moments would have happened had there not been that season, that championship, at Syracuse.
“That’s where it started,’’ Anthony told reporters Friday at Hall of Fame festivities. “That’s the beginning. That’s where they opened the Carrier Dome up to me. They gave me the ball and then told me to go. That was the very beginning of why I’m sitting here today.’’
His 2002-03 season led to the career that was to come, he said.
“That championship is the reason why – part of the reason why – I’m here today,’’ Anthony said. “When you talk about winning a championship in college and being able to have a foundation to start off with, that was the foundation. The championship was my foundation coming into the NBA.
“So I had that. So the only thing for me was I had to build on top of that. Be consistent, become a great pro, work out, train, lock in, commit to the game of basketball. Oh, and try to win a championship. Like all of that started from winning that championship in college.
“So I always would say that’s the moment that changed everything.’’
Anthony will be a double enshrinee on Saturday. He also will enter the Hall of Fame as one of the members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal in Beijing in 2008. Anthony won a bronze medal in Athens in 2004, then came back to win three gold medals, beginning in Beijing.
Among the members of that team were Kobe Bryant, LeBron
James, Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard, who also will be inducted Saturday for
his individual career achievements.