Golden Nugget

Mountain jam: Anthony posts-up the Phoenix Suns’ Boris Diaw during a regular-season contest last year.

While a freshman on the SU basketball
team, Anthony, you might remember, led Syracuse to an 81-78 win over
Kansas in the 2003 NCAA championship and received the Most Outstanding
Player trophy for his 20-point/10-rebound effort. Shortly afterward,
with the blessing of Coach Jim Boeheim, he declared himself eligible
for the NBA draft and was selected third by the Nuggets.

In August, Anthony was instrumental in
helping the U.S. men’s basketball team bring home the gold medal in the
2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China, as Team USA defeated Spain
118-107 in the championship game. Ironically, one of the assistant
coaches on the team was Boeheim, reuniting Anthony with his college
mentor. After a recent Nuggets practice, Anthony told The New Times
what it was like to work with Boeheim again, and if his former coach
changed his college style to acclimate to the all-pro Olympic team.

“It was great having Coach Boeheim on
the staff for the USA team,” said Anthony, 24. “He made me feel more
comfortable and I don’t think he did anything different {from his
coaching methods at SU}. Coach’s style is already similar to most NBA
coaches.” 

Because of the rigid practice and game
schedule while in Beijing, Anthony wasn’t able to spend much free time
catching up with Boeheim. “The only time we spent outside of
basketball,” said Anthony, “was in the dining room at the hotel where
everyone ate meals. There wasn’t much time for anything else.”

There wasn’t even time to take day trips
to the Great Wall or pull an all-nighter whooping it up in the Beijing
after-hours club scene. But Anthony insisted he left with off-court
memories that were just as rewarding as winning the gold. “Visiting the
Olympic Village where all the other athletes lived was great,” he
continued. “We had a chance to hang out with other athletes from all
over the world and all different sports and it was also great to see
some of the other events. I got to see {record-breaking
Olympic-swimmer} Michael Phelps win gold medals No. 4 and 5.”

Not many professional basketball players
can boast of a gold medal and a college national championship. The only
title that now eludes him is an NBA championship, but ’Melo believes
that will change soon. But if it doesn’t, he’s content to rest on his
other championship laurels. 

“I absolutely plan to win an NBA
championship,” continued Anthony. “But I think the Olympic gold medal
means the most because it’s truly a global audience where the whole
world is watching and you can only participate in that every four
years. NCAA and NBA championships are won every year.” 

Rocky Mountain Hi

Anthony has taken the Nuggets to the
playoffs every year since his rookie season in 2003-2004, but still no
NBA Finals. Before the start of the season last year, the Nuggets were
heavily favored to win the Western Conference with a core of Anthony,
former Georgetown Hoya and 2001 NBA Most Valuable Player Allen Iverson,
and Marcus Camby, the 2006-2007 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. But
the Nuggets, with a record of 50-32, barely made the playoffs and lost
to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round.

During this past off-season, Camby was
traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, leaving the Nuggets devoid of their
most feared defensive weapon, suggesting they’re heading in more of an
offense-oriented direction. And as the team began training camp two
weeks ago, Anthony feels optimistic about the Camby-less and new-look
Nuggets. “I think we are going to surprise a lot of people this
season,” he said. “Without Camby, obviously, we all will just have to
do more defensively and I like what I see so far.”

Fans in Syracuse will be able to decide
for themselves at the Dome this Friday, and the Nuggets’ fortitude will
indeed be tested. The man in the middle for the Suns is O’Neal,
arguably one of the greatest centers of all time. But while Shaq is
well past his prime, the Suns also will be running and gunning with
two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, and another one of Anthony’s fellow
Olympians, power-forward Amare Stoudamire. So if the Nuggets think they
can pose a serious run at the NBA championship this year, defeating the
Suns will be necessary.

Gold times: Anthony proudly displays the gold medal during the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Jed Jacobsohn/NBAE/Getty Images

While fans are expected to greet
Anthony—as well as the rest of the Nuggets—with a hero’s welcome when
his name is announced before the game, it will be interesting to see
the reception Iverson receives. Georgetown has long been SU’s biggest
Big East basketball rival and Iverson received many boos at the Carrier
Dome between 1994 and 1996. Anthony and Iverson have been teammates the
last two seasons and Anthony mentioned that they indeed pay attention
every time their former colleges square off and keep a friendly rivalry
going. “We talk a little trash to each other,” he said. 

While Anthony has been superb on the
court since his rookie campaign, averaging more than 20 points a game
every season and earning All-Star status in 2007 and 2008, some of his
behavior has been controversial. In 2004, he was cited for marijuana
possession at the Denver International Airport; charges were later
dropped. In 2006 he was one of the main instigators in the infamous New
York Knicks-Denver Nuggets brawl, landing a sucker-punch to the jaw
that sent Knicks guard Mardy Collins to the floor, and resulting in a 15-game suspension.   

But the years since have seen a major
change in his personal life that seems to have helped him grow up. On
Christmas Day in 2004, he became engaged to MTV veejay Alani “La La”
Vazquez; in March 2007, the couple welcomed their first child, named
Kiyan. “My son has changed my whole life,” said Anthony. “I look at
things differently knowing I have a child depending on me and it made
me realize that life is more than just basketball.”

But as he gears up for another season
with the Nuggets, the beat of the dribble goes on. From the 2003 draft,
three other players that were selected in the top five were Olympic
teammates of Anthony’s: Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dwyane
Wade of the Miami Heat and Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors.

These four can arguably stake a claim at
being the best in the game. And after getting to know them on a more
personal level during the Olympics and witnessing their skills
firsthand as a teammate, Anthony said he still can’t say who he thinks
is the best and, if he had to pick one to join him on the current
Nuggets team, who it’d be. 

“I can’t really just choose one,”
Anthony noted. “I would kill to have any one of those guys on my team
because you are talking about three of the top players in the world.” 

While all four should warrant equal
respect, almost immediately after the 2003 draft, before any of them
ever played a game in the NBA, a rivalry between James and Anthony was
conjured by commentators and marketing machines. It seems they were
longing for and wanting to recreate the hype that surrounded every
Magic Johnson-Larry Bird match-up.

But that rivalry began in college, when
Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans defeated Bird’s Indiana State
Sycamores for the 1979 NCAA championship. And while Anthony indeed took
the college world by storm his freshman year, James went straight from
high school to the pros; they never played against each other until
they were in the NBA. Anthony is still baffled at how he and James
were, and still are, labeled as fierce adversaries.

“It’s just hype,” he continued. “We do
love to compete against each other, but that’s it. Lebron and I are
actually good friends.”

But when asked if they had to settle their “rivalry” mano a mano
in a best of five series, Anthony doesn’t doubt the outcome. “Lebron is
a great player,” he said. “But I am a deadly one-on-one player; I would
win 3 games to 2.” 

(Send comments to tkahley [at] syracusenewtimes.com)

Orange times: ‘Melo makes his way to the basket during a game against Georgia Tech in 2003 and at a Rally at the Dome below. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO