What Carmelo Anthony said about Syracuse before HOF induction
Ahead of his Hall of Fame induction, Carmelo Anthony reflected on his time and the relationships he built at Syracuse. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor
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UNCASVILLE, Conn. — There are three things Carmelo Anthony remembers about arriving at Syracuse University in 2002. It opened the Carrier Dome to him, gave him the ball and told him to go.
Syracuse led to one of the best and most transcendent college basketball seasons ever.
After leading the Orange to the 2003 national championship while averaging 22.2 points and 10.0 rebounds per game as a freshman, Anthony was selected No. 3 overall by the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Draft. Throughout his 19-year NBA career, he became one of the sport’s most prolific scorers en route to earning a first-ballot selection to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, where he’ll be inducted Saturday.
Twenty-two years after leading the Orange to their lone national championship, Anthony still recognizes the impact his collegiate career had on him.
“That is the very beginning of why I’m sitting here today,” Anthony said of SU a day before his induction.
Here’s what Anthony added about Syracuse during his press conference on Friday:
Jim Boeheim’s influence
When Anthony was at SU, he said most people thought he had a great relationship with head coach Jim Boeheim. What Anthony said people don’t know is that Boeheim cursed him out every practice.
“We had a terrible relationship,” Anthony said jokingly, “because he was just yelling too much.”
“But I knew it was for a good cause,” he added. “I knew he had the best interest in me, he put me in the best situation to go out there and succeed. And when he gave me that, my duty back to him was to go out there and give him my all and hopefully win.”
Anthony added that Boeheim seemed to know when to say the right things at the wrong times and that his message to Anthony has been consistent since they met during Anthony’s recruitment process.
With everything Boeheim and Anthony went through together — highlighted by winning the 2003 title — Anthony explained they have a different honor, loyalty, bias and “way of speaking facts” with each other.
No matter what, one thing was clear about their relationship the whole time:
“If you’re talking about someone who is an advocate for Carmelo Anthony, it’s Jim Boeheim,” Anthony said.
2003 national championship
When Anthony entered the NBA, he was joining a Denver Nuggets squad that won 17 games in 2002-03. As a rookie, he averaged 21.0 points — and in any other draft class, especially one without LeBron James — he likely would’ve won Rookie of the Year, opposed to being the runner-up.
But beyond individual accolades is team success.
Anthony helped Denver win 43 games and reach the playoffs for the first time since 1995. He credits the foundation he built at Syracuse as a key factor in his instant and prolonged professional success.
In Anthony’s eyes, the biggest part of building that foundation was winning the 2003 national championship.
“That’s the moment that changed everything,” Anthony said.
From there, Anthony said all he had to do was learn how to be a great professional. Work out. Train. Lock in. Commit to the game of basketball.
Behind him, he had the experience of going through and winning a national championship. All Anthony needed was to build the intangibles around that to become a Hall of Famer.
Syracuse legacy
Beyond central New York, Anthony has strong ties to Baltimore, New York City and Denver — to name a few. He said his induction into the Hall of Fame is so special because it allows him to represent multiple aspects of his life in multiple places.
In terms of his individual legacy, Anthony said he wants to be remembered for doing things his way. But when describing what it means to represent the Orange, Anthony recognized that his accomplishments add to the SU legends who came before him.
“I’m just adding on to the greats that came before me — the Jim Browns of ‘Cuse,” he said.
While Anthony’s adding to what Brown, Boeheim, Dave Bing, Pearl Washington, Derrick Coleman, Ernie Davis and many before him have done, it’s undeniable that he stands alone as SU’s most accomplished athlete.
And when Syracuse athletes look at program legends moving forward, they can only hope to chase down Anthony’s legacy like he did with those before him.
