Knicks' Carmelo Anthony Receives High Praise from College Coach

"The thing I think about the NBA is that he made every team that he was on better than they were," Boeheim said. "Whether it was Denver or the Knicks, he made them better. They had to go up against the Lakers and the Spurs in Denver. They couldn’t do it, but he made the team better. That’s all you can do sometimes as players. You can’t make a team a championship team by yourself. You have to have a lot of parts to it. His time in Denver, there were some great teams with the Lakers and the Spurs. He made them better, and that’s all you can do as a player.”

The Orange duo accomplished plenty in just one season together, as Anthony racked up countless individual accolades before guiding Syracuse to its first national championship, the crowning achievement of Boeheim's 47-year term at the helm. Anthony then embarked on an accomplished professional career, one that once again racked up plenty of individual honors though a championship ring was noticeably lacking.

But, to Boeheim's point, Anthony began to flip the fortunes of the downtrodden Nuggets franchise that has since established itself as a perennial NBA contender: Denver had not been to the Western Conference Finals in 24 years before Anthony helped end that streak in 2009, when they faced off against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers.

Under Anthony's watch, Denver became a premier destination for star talents (i.e. Chauncey Billups, Allen Iverson), even if its luck would run out come playoff team: of Anthony's seven playoff trips with the Nuggets, four game against the team that would eventually rep the West in the NBA Finals.

While the Knicks won just one playoff series during Anthony's seven-year tour, things at least started off fairly well: Anthony guided New York to three consecutive postseason appearances during his first three years with the team, ending a streak where it had made it just once in the prior nine. The ultimate high point was a 54-win output during the 2012-13 campaign, one that saw Anthony lead the Association in scoring (becoming the first Knick to secure such an honor since Bernard King).

All that and more led Boeheim to declare that Anthony should have his jersey raised in both Manhattan and the Rockies, though he expects Anthony to keep focusing on only what he can change, similar to the attitude that helped partly define his playing career.

“I would guess," Boeheim said. "But I don’t pay much attention to what that is. Control what you can control.”