The ‘Melo Quandary

I’ve been racking my brain. The wheels are turning, I’m drifting in and out of conversations, and people are frequently telling me I look pre-occupied. But I can’t figure him out.

I can’t, for the life of me, understand Carmelo Anthony.

I need to get in his brain. I need to feel what he feels and see how he sees. Only then will I be able to grasp the flow of his logic, the impulses that drive his actions. I won’t be able to sleep properly until I know what prompts the NBA’s leading scorer to sucker punch Mardy Collins.

I’m not certain where to begin. There’s the NBA angle. David Stern is trying to shed the ‘gangsta’ image that Ron Artest, Jermaine O’Neal and the Palance at Auburn Hills gave the league last fall. People have been starting to forget, and Stern was looking forward to building the league’s image around its young superstars, of whom Carmelo Anthony is a part. To call what took place at Madison Square Garden a setback would be a serious understatement. On top of that, it’s no secret that Commissioner David Stern places emphasis on marketing his marquee talent. In fact, none of the current professional sports leagues markets their players better than the NBA. The attitude holds that you draw viewers to the game by advertising the talent doing battle on the court. Look at the promotion for the Christmas day clash between the Lakers and the Heat. Shaq vs Kobe? No sir, it’s Kobe against Dwyane Wade, because the league knows what match-up their fans will be talking about. David Stern used to spend time thinking of ways to keep Carmelo Anthony in the national spotlight. After this he’s awake at night with a notepad and jar of Tums dreaming up ways to keep him out.

Imagine for a moment you are Carmelo Anthony’s agent. Your main man is leading the league in scoring, you know that you have a great endorsement deal with Jordan Brand, and now even bigger deals loom on the horizon. ‘If Melo keeps this up’, you think to yourself, ‘I may get that yacht.’ You come home to your beautiful apartment, plug in the Blackberry to let it charge, and flip on the television while you put your feet up. Of course, you knew the Nuggets were in New York, so you flip on Sportscentre, assuming Melo dropped anywhere between 30-50 points on the hapless Knicks. And as you see the images of Anthony running in and sucker punching Collins replaying over and over again, you wonder how quickly you could liquidate your assets and start your career all over again in the Philippines. Anthony stands to lose $42,673 for each of the 15 games he will miss due to suspension. That’s $640,095, lost, because Melo felt he needed to punch someone in the face.

The fall-out from the New York incident, among some other aspects, is Anthony’s tarnished image. The league’s leading scorer is now the player about whom announcers will add, ‘of course despite questions about Anthony’s character and decision making, Carmelo continues to play well,’ and things of this nature. Also, Anthony has made the decision easy for potential endorsers. It’ll be a while before he gets back to the D-Wade or LeBron James pay bracket - which is where he was headed if he had only kept up his scoring barrage. James, newly turned 22, has long since seemed to grasp that his demeanor and actions on the court are equally important to his financial gain as his on court play. Until Anthony learns this lesson, he’ll continue to hurt his earning potential.

Once again, fans and skeptics alike are forced to question Anthony’s character. Unlike the other gems of the 2003 draft class Wade, Bosh and James, he has already exhibited a less than spotless reputation. First it was getting caught with a bag of marijuana, one that a friend of Anthony’s later claimed as his own, and though it wasn’t Anthony’s drug problem, his choice of friends raised eyebrows. Then there were questions about his attitude at the Olympics when Anthony was vocal with Larry Brown about his lack of playing time. People began to question Melo’s character, and making the inevitable comparisons to the maturity of James and Wade. In college, he was known for his easy smile and affable personality. There were no questions about character, no mentions of run-ins with the law or bad influences in his life. And following his previous mishaps it seemed Anthony was set to put the past behind him. The World Championships were the first positive indication that things had changed. Anthony was the leading scorer on a team that featured the league savior (James), the recent finals MVP (Wade), Chris Bosh, super-soph Chris Paul and Shawn Marion. Melo followed that up with a great start to the season, at the time of his suspension, averaging a league-best 31.6 ppg.

I’m left wondering what’s next for Carmelo Anthony. Allen Iverson joining the Nuggets could be the best-case scenario for the league, the Nuggets and for Anthony himself. Iverson has been there before. He was the brash, young superstar who constantly found himself embattled with the league and with the law, yet he persevered to have a remarkable career. As strange as it sounds, Iverson could serve as a mentor for Anthony, and if Carmelo is smart, he’ll realize the wisdom that AI can provide. The trade is a pleasant distraction for the Nuggets. AI provides timely scoring and a pleasant distraction from the altercation and its fall out. Iverson’s arrival could mean that Anthony’s bad-boy tendencies can still turn out for the positive, and certainly will save him from the drifting off into a decision making abyss, which the NBA experienced with other talented, yet problematic players like Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest (Ron-Ron could have been a super-star, now he’s damaged goods).

The crux of the issue, the fulcrum from which this pendulum will swing, is whether or not Carmelo Anthony realizes exactly what is at stake. Putting aside the financial ramifications, the damage to his reputation and the damage to his marketability from a league standpoint, name some NBA legends, the leagues past great champions that had such a glaring mental weakness. The fires of competition are not an excuse. You think Michael never wanted to cold-cock Dominique Wilkins? That Larry Legend never got sick of battling with Magic Johnson? Melo has won at every level in which he’s competed. He played high-school ball at storied Oak Hill Academy, won a NCAA National Championship as a freshman at Syracuse, and has shown this year that he’s an elite player in the NBA. The only question remaining is whether or not he’s willing to throw it all away. And as always, in situations such as these, only time will tell.