A year ago, Carmelo Anthony lived in a cramped South Campus apartment and drove a beat-up Chrysler. Now, he rents a penthouse condo in downtown Denver and fumes around town in a BMW 745.

He’ll never want for anything again. A six-year, $18-million Nike shoe deal and three-year, $10.4-million contract with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets should see to that.

So when he arrived in Syracuse on Friday to formally announce the Nuggets’ Oct. 19 exhibition game against the Detroit Pistons in the Carrier Dome, he surely knew he could run this city.

His first chance came at the Marx Hotel on Saturday afternoon, moments after he finished a press conference promoting the game. An employee from a local night club schmoozed Anthony, inviting him to spend some time at his establishment.

‘What kinda food y’all got?’ Anthony asked.

Flummoxed, the schmoozer responded, ‘Uh, sushi, chicken, steak …’

‘Y’all got catfish?’ Anthony asked, smirking.

Seems he hasn’t changed.

Sure, he’s more polished when talking to the media, more comfortable with his role as one of Nike’s most prolific pitchmen – a veritable corn-rowed dollar sign. Yet he’s still a 19-year-old kid, willing to take a free meal when he can, eager to retain whatever shreds of youthful innocence the NBA and its crass commercialism haven’t already sapped.

He planned to play with some teammates Saturday before probably heading to Konrad’s.

‘I’ll just go in the back,’ he quipped before hopping into a tan Jaguar and driving to campus.

No, he hasn’t changed. Except for those corn rows, which are now so long that they’re practically dreadlocks.

‘A lot of people say I’m on top of the world right now,’ he said. ‘I don’t realize where I’m at right now.’

Perhaps that’s because he’s everywhere – in Los Angeles, guest announcing on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live;’ in Sacramento, getting advice on mortgages and insurance; on the cover of the NCAA March Madness 2004 video game; all over his own Web site (www.carmeloanthony.net).

The Nuggets even had him leave messages for their season-ticket holders. They’re counting on him to save the floundering franchise. He understands his role.

‘All the fun is over,’ he said with a hint of sadness. ‘Now it’s time to start the business.’

Of course, he’s treating himself.

He bought a thick, silver chain with a diamond-encrusted basketball emblazoned with the letters CA. He sprung for a watch with so many diamonds on its face that you can barely see the hour and minute hands. He owns a dog now, too – a Chinese Shar-Pei named Stoney. He even purchased a house in Maryland for his cherubic-faced mom, Mary.

Can he, at 19, handle it all? The schmoozers and the groupies and, oh yeah, the rigors of an 82-game NBA schedule? Will it spoil him? Perhaps. It’s done so to plenty others.

For now, though, he seems that same kid who dropped a Final Four guarantee, stole the nation’s heart fulfilling it and, in the end, wept at having to leave this school behind.

He’s here again for a week, returning for the first time since mid-May to promote the exhibition game, hang out with old teammates and receive his national championship ring at halftime of Saturday’s SU football home opener.

Then he’s gone. Back to Denver. Back to business.

So if you see him, take a good look. No doubt he’ll come back here again, but, by then, will you even recognize him? Will he greet you with that sunshine smile or a condescending scowl?

It’s his choice. He has the rest of his new life to decide.

Darryl Slater is a staff writer at The Daily Orange. E-mail him at dpslater@syr.edu.

Published on September 7, 2003 at 12:00 pm