Image via Complex Original
Not since Patrick Ewing left the team in 2000 have the Knicks boasted a superstar like Carmelo Anthony. As arguably the league's most prolific scorer, 'Melo was greeted with excitement and high expectations when he joined the team in 2011. But after a few early exits from the NBA Playoffs, New Yorkers have turned on the six-time All-Star with an enraged fervor usually reserved for accosting slow walking tourists on the sidewalk.
Is Carmelo Anthony the prodigal son? Is he destined to lead the Knicks out of their four-decade-long span of heartbreaking disappointment? Or is he another ball hogging stat filler that chokes when it matters most? The crack team at Complex Sports examines: Carmelo Anthony: Badass or Jackass?
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Badass: Melo Wins a National Championship
When: 4/7/2003
As a freshman, Melo leads his Syracuse squad to a championship over Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison's senior-led Kansas team. Winning Most Outstanding Player of the tournament alone is crazy enough, but to do it as a teenager in his first year on campus automatically qualifies Anthony for a badass business card. Who'd argue with that? According to Jim Boeheim, "[he's] the best player in college basketball. It wasn't even close." That's something you can slap on your resume. Pistons brass should've listened.
Jackass: Carrying Marijuana Through an Airport
When: 2004
There's really only one place in Colorado that you can't carry marijuana and it's in an airport. In 2004, inspectors at Denver International rifled through Anthony's belongings and find weed in his backpack. Lucky for Melo, he has good friends and a member of his entourage signs an affidavit to claim responsibility. You have to be a jackass to carry anything illegal on you at an airport. Even "The Mile-High City" frowns on transporting drugs over state lines.
Jackass: Appears in Stop Snitchin' DVD
When: 2004
David Stern doesn't like it when players violate dress code, so you know he was turnt when one his league's marquee players passively endorsed withholding information from law enforcement. Carmelo Anthony appears alongside a drug dealer on a DVD called Stop Snitchin, a video campaign that insinuated violence against would-be informants. The controversy of his cameo and the subsequent fallout made Melo look like one of basketball's biggest jackasses. We all do dumb stuff when we're 20 years old, professional basketball players just take it to a new level.
Badass: The Nuggets Make the Conference Finals
When: 2009
You're always going to be measured by how many rings you get, especially in an era where ESPN chirps about it 24/7. When LeBron won his championship last year, that put pressure on everyone else. Carmelo's best effort came in '08-'09 when he helped lead the Nuggets, along with Chauncey Billups, to a 54-win season and playoff victories over New Orleans and Dallas. They then took the eventual champion Lakers to six games in a battle to play Orlando. Anthony averaged 27.2 PPG in the postseason and led Denver in scoring for five of their six matchups against Los Angeles.
Hate on Melo all you want, but he came up big in the biggest series of his career. Despite what the "Worldwide Leader" constantly claims, you can't blame an individual for losing a team game, especially when that athlete plays extraordinarily well.
Jackass: The Infamous Knicks-Nuggets "Brawl"
When: 12/16/2006
While playing with the Nuggets, teammates JR Smith and Carmelo Anthony find themselves in a bench clearing melee after a hard foul by Knicks guard Mardy Collins. Anthony retaliates on behalf of the recently mugged Smith by throwing a telegraphed haymaker and immediately retreating from an extra turnt up Nate Robinson. Melo, you're not a frat guy from a state school in the Midwest. You can't just throw some soft knuckles at a dude, sprint out of the building, and pretend to be about that life. That shit isn't tolerated by Michigan State's Pike chapter, so it definitely isn't working in the NBA.
Badass: Carmelo Makes Olympic History
When: 8/2/2012
Carmelo sets an Olympic record by scoring 37 points against Nigeria, the team's highest ever single game total. Later, he'd win an Olympic Gold Medal. If you bothered to stay up until 3 a.m. last summer, you'd have seen a guy knocking down more threes than a clumsy daycare teacher. Going 10-for-12 from distance shows other nations that the United States has shooters outside of its drone program. On a team with LeBron, Kobe, and Kevin Durant, Carmelo was No. 2 in scoring (behind Kevin Durant) and helped repair a broken image caused by some less than stellar international efforts from past "Dream Teams."
Jackass: Melo Arrested on Suspicion of DUI
When: 4/14/2008
In 2008, Carmelo Anthony is pulled over for weaving all over I-25 with his brights on. After failing his field sobriety test, Anthony is booked on suspicion of drunk driving and released to a "sober responsible party" in the early morning hours of a regular season game day. That night, Anthony shoots 3-for-14 and scores 11 points in what some in the Denver press call "the worst game of his season." If there's a silver lining, the event is apparently jackass rock bottom for the embattled star and, to date, Anthony's made serious strides in reconstructing his image.
Badass: Melo Confronts a Mouthy Kevin Garnett
When: 1/8/2013
What do you do if some dude tells you the love of your life tastes "like Honey Nut Cheerios"? If you're like us, sadly, it probably doesn't process for a few minutes. But if you're Carmelo Anthony, you confront the league's biggest trash-talker Kevin Garnett.
Think about if you were employed in a work environment where, as your shift ends, some guy insinuates he slept with your wife? That would be nuts, dude. And if you were to throw a few roundhouse kicks and body blows to that weirdo from the temp agency, human resources would absolutely have your back. Thanks to Drake, men think they can talk like this to other men. But they can't. And if they do, they better prepare for a meeting in the parking lot.
Jackass: Threatening Kat Stacks on Twitter
When: 8/29/2010
A few words to the wise: If you're going to make a criminal threat against someone, don't do it on Twitter—especially when you have a few million followers. That shit might get out. Infamous hip-hop groupie Kat Stacks asked Melo if he "tastes like caramel" in 140 characters or less. The All-Star responds by allegedly offering $5,000 to the first person who'll "slap the shit out of [her]." Anthony claims his Twitter was hacked and quickly deletes his page, a tried and true jackass move from the athlete Twitter fail guidebook.
Badass: Set Knicks Record With 30-Straight 20 Point Games
When: 1/30/2013
There was a point this past season where Carmelo went NBA Jam on the league with a ball that left smoke rings above the rim. Setting a standard like this, with month's worth of consecutive 20-point performances, is an accomplishment. This ain't the Bobcats or the Pelicans, it's the New York Knicks and they have nine numbers hanging in the Madison Square Garden rafters. So when No. 7 went off this past winter we took note. The only dude in New York who scores more than Carmelo is wearing No. 2 for the Yankees.
Jackass: La La's Full Court Wedding
When: 2010
It's a bad idea to put your wedding on TV, even on deep cable. VH1's built an entertainment empire on the dysfunctional relationships of professional athletes, so you can start counting down the days until a high profile divorce happens when the network picks up a pilot. Also, weddings are corny as hell. When you're choked up, reading vows, and have tears streaming down your face, you want ONLY close friends and family in that room. Trust.
The six episode season of La La's Full Court Wedding purportedly gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look of Carmelo Anthony and La La Vasquez's nuptials, but really just made the couple look as vapid and unrelatable as Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise. If you can watch La La fret over which custom-made wedding gown she's going to wear without screaming "Jackass!" at the TV, then you're stronger than us.
Badass: Wins 2013 Scoring Title
When: 2013
Melo's a scorer, that's his role and what we expect from him. In 2013, Melo did what Melo does: score, a lot. Carmelo claims the scoring title (though he was actually fifth in total points), in the biggest city in the country, on the best Knicks team of the century. That's worth celebrating, Knicks fan. Kevin Durant (who did "technically" have the most points) is once again the bridesmaid and, finally, Melo is No. 1.
Jackass: "The Carmelo Room"
When: 4/19/2012
If you make $15M-$20M a year, go ahead and commission some art for your living space. Just don't ask an artist to create an enormous portrait of your likeness, display it proudly above your fireplace, and let your wife Instagram the blatant narcissism and collective poor taste. If you allow any one of these things to happen, you're a jackass. If you co-sign all three, you're Carmelo Anthony.
Badass: Melo Leads Knicks to First Playoff Series Win Since 2000
When: 5/3/2013
Anthony scores a team high 29.2 PPG (just like in '08-'09 with Denver) proving that he doesn't disappear under the pressure of the postseason. Did New York get upset by Indiana? Yes. But don't sleep on the Pacers. They're one of those teams from flyover country that no one notices until they get their own Larry O'Brien Championship trophy. Melo led his team in scoring for literally every game of the 2013 Playoffs, so we should cut him some slack. Especially after finding out he has a torn labrum.
Final Verdict: Badass
Carmelo Anthony is a lifetime 25.7 PPG in the NBA playoffs. He's led his team to the postseason in every one of his 10 years in the league. He's a scoring champion, a six-time All-Star, and No. 7 is the best player to wear a Knicks uniform since Patrick Ewing. The problem for Knicks fans isn't with Anthony, it's with themselves.
The Knicks aren't the Yankees, or even the Jets for that matter. If you compare basketball pedigrees, they're in virtual lockstep with franchises like the Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers, and Utah Jazz—except no one expects those teams to win a championship or a trade for Carmelo Anthony to turn things around in two years. Things aren't so bad for the Madison Square Garden faithful, they just need to pull the reins on an exaggerated sense of self-entitlement. This team will get knocked out of the playoffs for the next five or six straight years. That's as good as it gets around these parts, so celebrate.