'Melo Gold

Duel at the Dome: Shaquille “Shaq-Fu” O’Neal (below) and his Phoenix Suns were no match for Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets at the Carrier Dome. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

Several NBA greats’ sneakers were
chirping on the Dome floor during the contest, but the crowd was in a
’Melo mood. While the Nuggets lineup was being announced and it was
Anthony’s turn, the 22,115 fans in attendance remembered their roots
and let out a roar so loud that it still might be echoing during the
next SU football home game. That would be their first cheers of the
season, courtesy of ’Melo, the gift that keeps on giving.

And it was dramatic—and awkward—for
Anthony to be the focal point of the night considering the other
players he was sharing the court with. The Suns were represented by
four-time NBA champion and one of the most dominant centers of all
time, 7-foot-2-inch, 350-pound Shaquille O’Neal. Grant Hill, a 1991 and
1992 collegiate champion during his enrollment at Duke University, also
played significant minutes at the Dome, while two-time NBA Most
Valuable Player Steve Nash and three-time NBA All-Star Amare Stoudemire
were suited up and in the building, but did not play because of
injuries.

“Usually when we go on the road we get
booed,” said Anthony. “{With the Nuggets} I’ve never had 20,000 people
cheering for me on the road before, but this was almost like a home
away from home in a sense.”

One of Anthony’s current teammates is
someone who has been on the receiving end of many jeers in the Carrier
Dome in the past: Allen Iverson, who in 1994 and 1995 played college
ball for the Georgetown Hoyas, SU’s biggest rival in the sport. And it
was going to be interesting to see if being associated as a teammate
with Anthony was going to be enough for the Dome fans to let down their
guard and do the unthinkable

. . . root for a Hoya. And they did, almost as loudly as they cheered Anthony.

“I joked with {Allen} Iverson and I told
him, ‘You’re the first Georgetown Hoya that’s ever got cheered here,’”
said Anthony of his friendly rival. “But I told him, ‘I got my fans
here and I’ll let them cheer for you this time.’”

Even Anthony’s former Syracuse coach Jim
Boeheim said it was kind of a shock to the system at first seeing a
former formidable opponent teamed up with one of his most prized
pupils, but now he thinks they’re better off in tandem. “I’m used to it
now,” said Boeheim about the pairing. “I’ve been seeing them play
together for a couple of years now and they are both great players and
fun to watch.”

Anthony played a significant amount of
time in the first and second quarters, and appeared briefly in the
third quarter before calling it a night—totaling 14 points, 9 rebounds
and 5 assists in 24 minutes of action. Toward the end of the fourth
quarter, the crowd was chanting “We want ’Melo” over and over again,
but to no avail. But it wasn’t his coach’s decision.

“I asked him if he wanted to go back in and he said
‘no,’” said George Karl, coach of the Nuggets, after the game. “There
was no rhythm to my rotation and I didn’t want anybody to get a lot of
minutes, but if he wanted to play, I would have let him back in.”

Anthony used the lame old excuse that somehow training
for the past four years on the men’s U.S. Olympic basketball team,
which culminated in the team winning the gold medal at the 2008 summer
Olympics in Beijing, had left him more listless than usual. “I had a
long summer,” said Anthony. “I wish I could have went back in there,
but I had a long summer. I just wanted to get everyone involved because
we got guys here that are still trying to make the team and I wanted to
give them a chance to get out there and showcase their talent and give
them more of an opportunity to try and make the team.”

And while he claimed to be letting the
“other” guys play for humanitarian purposes, he really didn’t do too
much to help the current SU basketball team out. He did say that he
picked SU junior forward Paul Harris’ brain to see where he was at and
warned him not to battle Boeheim because it’s a lose-lose situation,
but that’s where his philanthropic endeavors ended.

When asked if he was going to take the
current SU team out and show them a good time later that night, ’Melo
played the role of party foul. “No, they got to practice tomorrow,” he
said. “I don’t need Boeheim calling me tomorrow and getting on my back
about that.”

—Tom Kahley