Anthony, Carmelo

▪ American athlete

born May 29, 1984, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.

      American professional basketball player credited with turning the Denver Nuggets, then the worst team in the National Basketball Association (NBA), into a play-off team in his first season.

      Anthony, who grew up in a high-crime neighbourhood in Baltimore, Md., was sent by his mother to school in western Virginia to provide a better learning environment. In 2002–03 Anthony attended Syracuse University and led the basketball team to its first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship. Anthony received the 2002–03 NCAA Final Four Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, partly because of the 33 points he scored in the semifinal game. He also was named Big East Conference Freshman of the Year (2002–03), and in 2003 he won the ESPY award for best male college athlete from ESPN. After his freshman year of college basketball, Anthony entered the NBA's 2003 draft.

      Anthony, a forward, was the third pick in the draft of that season and signed on with the Denver Nuggets for a three-year contract worth almost $9 million. In his rookie year he started in all 82 regular season games, posting an average of 36.5 minutes playing time per game. He averaged 21 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per game that season. He helped lead the Nuggets to 43 wins, more than doubling their win record from the previous season and earning the team a spot in the play-offs. Anthony's rookie season was considered to be second only to that of Cleveland Cavaliers' forward LeBron James.

      After his first season Anthony improved his game performance, averaging 26.5 points per game in the 2006–07 season and becoming the second youngest player in NBA history to score 5,000 points. Anthony was a member of both the 2004 bronze-medal-winning U.S. men's Olympic basketball team and the 2008 gold-medal-winning team.

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