Top 50: Carmelo Anthony, no. 7

by Cub Buenning Carmelo Anthony is largely to blame for me having any kind of job at SLAM. Six years ago, when the Denver Nuggets were taking the 19-year-old out of Syracuse University with the NBA Draft’s third pick, I was simply a Denver-area middle school teacher and coach, having just finished my seventh year in the classroom. Yes, I had started (on a whim) covering high school sports that previous fall for the local weekly papers in the western Denver suburbs, but I was in no way, a writer. Carmelo Anthony made me one. For the past half-dozen years, I have been able to see the youngster grow from a precocious teenager, to a misunderstood burgeoning star, to now finally a seasoned veteran and a devoted father. He has, once again, made basketball in Denver relevant and with last year’s addition of local hero, Chauncey Billups, Anthony might finally have arrived as one of the world’s most complete basketball players. No longer just content to put the ball in the basket, Melo has g...