Syracuse Basketball: Carmelo Anthony can change narrative in Portland

Former Syracuse basketball stud Carmelo Anthony is on a mission to change the narrative with the Portland Trailblazers. Here are all the details.

The narrative surrounding former Syracuse basketball star Carmelo Anthony is a narrative brought by the media. Carmelo has been one of the most successful basketball players in the NBA during his professional run.

Sadly hoops fans went nearly a year without enjoying Melo on the hardwood. Thankfully that lull is over after Carmelo signed a deal with the Portland Trailblazers.

In his debut, he scored 10 points, but on a 4-of-14 shooting performance in 24 minutes of action.

Carmelo looked a lot more comfortable in his second game on Thursday night in a tight loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. He dropped 18 points including three triples, seven boards, four assists, and three turnovers in 29 minutes of play.

When you think about his NBA journey, it’s been an incredible run.

Anthony was a dynamic player entering the league with the Denver Nuggets. When Carmelo went to the New York Knicks it was a blessing for him to be in New York and get the opportunity to turn a franchise around.

In 2014 when Anthony was headed for free agency he had a ton of options on the table in which he could choose from and he chose to stay in New York.

The narrative around Anthony started when he chose the money in New York over going to a team for less money but with likely a better chance to win.

His ending in New York didn’t end as planned with him being forced out of New York when Phil

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Jackson was in the front office and then his career started to take a major hit.

Anthony was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder where he was the scapegoat when they got eliminated early in the playoffs. Anthony actually had a good season in Oklahoma City but just didn’t seem to fit the team and the style of play that they were running.

When Carmelo ended up in Houston the following season they struggled mightily to start the season and they waived Carmelo making him the scapegoat again for a consecutive season. After Anthony was waived he didn’t sign for the rest of the season and he wasn’t signed over the summer either so he was a free agent heading into 2019.

Nobody knew what was going to happen with Anthony as he was linked to a couple of teams but he finally got signed by the Portland Trail Blazers on a one-year non-guaranteed deal.

This was the chance that Carmelo was waiting for to showcase himself and the new style of Carmelo. Everybody will have their eyes on Carmelo to see if he can fit in with Portland and how he will play with their two stars in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.

Anthony will play the power forward position for Portland which is where he needs to be at this point in his career so he can stretch the floor and use his deadly mid-range game against the bigs in the league.

Anthony has a huge opportunity to change his whole narrative and become that team player who can help bring them to their ultimate goal which is a championship.

Prior to his NBA debut, Carmelo Anthony revealed on his Instagram why he’s changing his jersey number with the Portland Trailblazers:

"“Carmelo announced that he would be changing his number to 00 because it’s a number greater than any assignable quantity or countable number, can never be given an exact value, a process that never stops, and a chance for a new beginning while leaving the past behind where it belongs.”"

Before he was signed by Portland, Carmelo face-timed with the sister of season ticket holder Anthony Donahue and life-long knicks fan Gianna Gregoire who was diagnosed with brain cancer in a really cool feel-good moment.

Something else that would be a feel-good story is seeing Carmelo Anthony continue to have success in the NBA.

We can speak for all basketball fans on this one, the NBA is better with Melo front and center. This narrative around his career is based on recency-bias, fans judge people based on what they’ve seen recently. Carmelo has a chance to change that narrative in Portland.