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Carmelo Anthony Entered The Top 20 On The All Time Scoring List Last Night, Is He The Most Frustrating Star Of This Era?

Oklahoma City Thunder v Sacramento Kings

That shot right there gave Carmelo Anthony 25,195 points, which put him past the legend Jerry West, who now sits outside the top 20 all time with 25,192. Melo would go on to score 15 more points after that and currently sits just 69 (nice) points behind Reggie Miller for 19th. Given his average this year and the fact that OKC has 18 games left, we should see him pass another legend right around early next week. This achievement puts Melo into verrrry impressive company within NBA history, take a look for yourself

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Hard to hate any name on that list and it just goes to show how good of a career Carmelo Anthony has had. There are other guys like him who also don’t have a ring like Malone, Alex English, Dominque Wilkins, and Reggie Miller, a few with one and then some with multiples. But I can’t help but look at this list and see Melo’s name and think of this list of guys who are beloved by their respective franchises, for whatever reason Melo doesn’t have that same relationship with his fanbases.

I think given the body of work, when you talk about some of the best star players from this era Melo has earned the right to be mentioned with the Dirk/Lebron/Wade/Pierce/KG etc of the world. But I also think that your opinion of Melo probably depends on where you live.

For example, if you live in Denver and are a huge Nuggets fan, you probably have a pretty good memory looking back at your Carmelo Anthony experience. The Nuggets had not made the playoffs for 8 straight years before Melo walked through the door, and in that first year alone they went from 17 to 43 wins and a playoff appearance (bounced in Rd1).  The Nuggets would go on to win at least 49 games 4 times, made the playoffs every year of Melo’s stay, ultimately reaching as far as the Western Conference Finals. In 8 seasons in DEN Melo proved to be one of the best scorers in the league and averaged 24.8/6/3 on 45/31% splits. He proved that he could be a guy that carries you to the playoffs in the West, but maybe not too much further than that. I’m sure there was some frustration with all the first round exists and how things ultimately ended, but Melo was a great Nugget. I don’t think there were that big of expectations for him, it was just good to see a small market have such a dominant player.

But that all changed when he got traded to the Knicks and signed his 130M deal. This is something I didn’t want to speak on from a biased Celtics fan perspective. Personally I loved the underachievement, but it’s not about me. I wanted to see how true Knicks fans felt so I reached out the Clem and KFC. Here’s what they told me to use when I asked them to sum up Melo

Clem: “Fuck #Me7o. You can use that quote in your blog too”

KFC: “Polarizing. You either hate him or you stan for him. But when you’re 130M player top 3 pick top scorer of all time and you’re finishing top 5 pick every year? Cmon gimme a break you get that blame. Long story short – if you can’t even carry your team to playoff contention you’re not a top tier guy”

To be honest I think I sort of accidently triggered Kevin a little bit because he did go on a bit of a tangent but I think overall I get his point. Carmelo didn’t live up to the hype in NY I think is a safe way to put it. Playing in the inferior conference, you have to have more success than what he had. Where it gets tricky is his production wasn’t all that different from DEN. In 7 seasons in NY he finished with 24.7/7.0/3.2 averages with 44/36% splits. So it’s not as if he was playing bad basketball, he just couldn’t carry those Knicks teams to a world outside of the lottery. They made the playoffs his first three years, with two first round exits and one second round exit, then nothing for the last 4 years. This is important because this happened during the prime of his career. Whereas the start of his career was mixed with big time on court production and team success, once he moved to NY things sort of changed, where it was more about Melo getting his and whatever happens with the team is secondary.

It’s why I think so many Knicks fans are split on him. It is true his franchise was a complete disaster, but he knew that going in. He knew what the expectations were when he signed that deal and ultimately he did not deliver, which is why fans are mad. Hell I would be mad too. But he also gave you moments where you loved watching him and you knew he was in a zone where no defender could stop him. That’s the frustrating part.

Which brings me to OKC. On this team he doesn’t have to nearly be the same caliber of player as he needed to be in DEN/NYK, there isn’t close to the same amount of pressure on him, but there absolutely is more team pressure. Statistically this is the worse Melo has ever played. He’s never had this poor of a shooting season (40%), and this is the first time he’s averaged under 20 points in his career. His role is different which is why I think OKC fans may have different expectations for Melo. If I had to guess they just want him to be a good 3rd option (which is crazy to think about) behind Westbrook and PG13. They are going to want to rely on him to provided consistent offense during a playoff series. Additionally maybe give a little bit of effort on defense, but it’s more of a pressure off situation.

This is a role a few guys on that top 20 list have also had at this stage of their career, most notably Pierce and KG. But if you remember, they had instant sucess. Right now, OKC is playing for their playoff lives, which is not something you’d think a team adding this sort of talent would be, but I don’t sense the same amount of rage coming out of OKC like we saw when a Melo team underachieved in NY. Maybe that’s the market difference, maybe that’s because people care more about Westbrook I’m not sure but there is a different feel with how OKC Melo is being perceived.

It’s hard for me to think of a player THIS good for THIS long that has such mixed emotions among fans. I think Westbrook and Harden are up next this this debate, but that’s more about style of play than anything else. People I feel like have a hard time admitting that Melo has been a great NBA player and HOF lock.

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So congrats Melo on breaking the top 20 all time scoring list, and maybe that’s just how your story ends. One of the best scorers we ever saw play while also hating you for your underachievement. Could be worse.