Boeheim: No title for Melo
Even Carmelo Anthony’s former coach does not think he will win an NBA title.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who coached Anthony en route to the school’s 2003 National Championship title and was an asstant for the Olympic gold medal team in Rio, said on Tuesday that the Knicks star is “unlikely to win an NBA title.”
Boeheim, though, made it clear it was not because of Anthony himself, but rather the teams built around him.
“He’s never been on a team that even had a remote chance of winning an NBA title. As a player, all you can do is try to make your team better and every team he’s been on he’s made them a lot better,” Boeheim told the Syracuse Post-Standard. “Denver hadn’t done anything prior to him getting there and he took them into the playoffs. They weren’t going to beat the Lakers or the Spurs. In those years, they won the championship most of the time.
“But he’s always made his team better. It’s obvious. You look back on your total basketball experience and he had a great high school team, he won the NCAA championship and he’s won three gold medals in the Olympics. That’s a pretty good resume,” Boeheim added.
Anthony has never it to the NBA Finals in his 13-year career with the Knicks and Nuggets. In fact, he has gotten past the second round just once, during the 200809 season, when the Nuggets were ousted by the Lakers in six games in the Western Conference finals.
This offseason the Knicks added Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah to complement Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis in an effort to become a contending team, but as long as teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers are around Anthony won’t be reaching the NBA Finals any time soon.
ROSE NUMBER: Derrick Rose’s No. 1 will always signify his time in Chicago, a time when he could play recklessly, without a care. But his new number, the one that he wore for part of his youth, will symbolize how he’s grown up. The oft-injured point guard spent eight years with the Bulls before being dealt to New York in June. With the Knicks, Rose will don No. 25.
“The past is the past, but that No. 1, I think, will always be stuck with me. It’s always going to remind people and give them memories of how I played when I was younger. I was playing reckless, and I was just ballin’. I had raw talent,” Rose told The Vertical. “Now, with the No. 25, I think you’ll see a more mature player. You’ll see the player that you saw toward the end of last year. More under control type of game, and I got a lot more options now this year. That No. 1 will always be engraved in me, and it’s not going anywhere. Twenty-five is ... a new step in the right direction.”
Rose wore No. 25 while at Simeon High School to honor Benji Wilson, a Simeon star player who was shot and killed as a high school senior in 1984. In that way, No. 25 will represent his time in New York but still ties him to Chicago.