Anthony is inducted into the Hall of Fame! Billups: If we had chosen him that year, we would have won at least three championships

Translator's note: The original text was published on ESPN. The data in the article were as of the time of the original text (September 4th local time). The dates and times involved are all local time

Hajim Warrick still remembers the scene when he first met Cameron Anthony before a wild ball game at Syracuse University more than 20 years ago.

That summer in 2002, when the team walked from the training hall of the old Manly Arena of Syracuse University men's basketball team to the court, to put it nicely, Varick was just half-believing and half-doubting at the time.

"I looked at him and thought, 'The person who everyone is praising is this little fat guy?'" Varick said in an interview with ESPN.

The sophomore quickly understood why. The genius forward with a round face from Baltimore, with a comprehensive skill set and scored 27 points in his college debut against Memphis at Madison Square Garden, quickly proving himself.

Anthony achieved unprecedented success in his only season at Syracuse: the team lost its name at the beginning of the season and finally achieved an amazing record of 30 wins and 5 losses. He scored more than any freshman in team history and became the first freshman in NCAA history to be named the most outstanding player in the final four. In 2003, he led Syracuse to win the first and only men's basketball championship in team history. He scored 33 points and 14 rebounds in the semi-finals against the University of Texas, and 20 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists in the finals against the University of Kansas.

"He stood out," Syracuse meritorious coach Jim Boyheim said in an interview with ESPN. "We have had a lot of great players. Going back to Dave Bing, he is an incredible player, and Dwayne Washington, Sherman Douglas, Derek Coleman, Ronnie Secali, Billy Owens, John Wallace. There are many, many. But Cameron won the championship. It's that simple. He is a great player, and he won the championship."

Unfortunately, in Anthony's 19-season NBA career, he never won the championship again. However, when Anthony was inducted into the Ney Smith Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend, he successfully bypassed the 'Champion Theory' - an iron rule that is usually used to judge the player's historical status.

Anthony's overall achievements—and the path he has opened to achieve them—have enabled him to be inducted into the Hall of Fame without a doubt. He ranked 10th in the NBA's all-time scoring list with 28,289 points. He ranked third in the U.S. men's basketball history total score list, winning four Olympic medals – including three gold medals. He was selected into the All-Star 10 times, the NBA All-Squad 6 times, and is one of the NBA 75 superstars.

Anthony's reputation was not defined by a champion he had never touched on, but was created by the principles he adhered to to win.

Anthony's NBA career was accompanied by a series of "ifs".

starts with draft night.

After LeBron James was selected by the Cavaliers as the No. 1 pick, the Pistons chose Serbian big man Dako Milicic in the second pick, leaving Anthony to the Nuggets in the third pick.

Anthony's start in Denver was impressive: he raised the Nuggets' victory from 17 games to 43 games and led the team to the playoffs, and ranked second after James in the vote for Rookie of the Year. And in the Pistons that upset the Lakers and eventually won the championship, Milicic had almost no playing time.

That was the only championship of the Pistons during a period of dominance, during which time they reached the division finals for six consecutive years and entered the NBA Finals for two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005.

What if Anthony was on the piston at that time instead of Milicic?

"I certainly thought about this," said Chauncey Billups, former Pistons point guard and current Trail Blazers head coach, in an interview with ESPN. "I mean, I've thought about it for a long time. It's been a long time. And I really believe that if we had chosen Melon that year, we would have won at least three championships." A few years later, as Anthony's average score climbed to around 25 points and was recruited as a key member of the reorganized U.S. men's basketball national team, another major "if"-style guess was staged. This time, he himself held control.

What if he did not sign a five-year early contract extension with the Nuggets in the summer of 2006 and chose to become a free agent so that he could join forces with the same classmate James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in 2010?

"The original plan was Bosh and Wade, and then LeBron and I went somewhere. We just couldn't determine where to go," Anthony said on his July 2024 appearance on Paul George's podcast P.

But he finally made a decision: stay on his own island instead of boarding the "banana boat". He now explained that he was not willing to risk losing any guaranteed salary at the time, and he also felt that his potential role in the super team always seemed inappropriate.

"Imagine that when I was 23 or 24 years old, I was leading my team every year, but I was going to be the fourth choice in the team," he told George. "It's like, I'm looking for my position in this league. And you want me to give up on that and be the fourth choice? I don't know how I'm going to do that psychologically. So I thought, 'Go to him. I can't be that fourth person'." In 2008, he participated in the Olympics in Beijing with James, Wade, Bosh - and Kobe Bryant - in Beijing..

He also reunited with Boyheim, who was then an assistant coach to head coach Mike Shashevsky's coaching staff. The nickname of "Olympic Melon" was born.

"Cameron has been scoring from day one, and the Olympic three-point line is shorter, so it's easier to score," Boyheim said. "He can score as soon as he comes on the court, I don't even know how many times, but it seems that every time he goes on the court, he can hit the ball. His first move. He gets a three-pointer and then shoots. Like, every time it's. He's a natural Olympic scorer." Jason Kidd, the starting point guard of the United States in 2008, said Anthony was the key to the team's chemistry, and he eased the tension between Kobe and James because the two had no friendship before.

"He's a mature guy," Kidd said in an interview with ESPN. "He knows how to get everyone together... The most important thing about Melon is that he's great on the court and off the court. He's a great teammate, and I say that because it's not just about basketball."

In a game against Paul Gasol and the Spanish men's basketball team, Anthony came out of the bench to score 13 points in 17 minutes to help the Redemption Team - a team that will also be inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend - complete their mission. Three years later, Anthony started his brilliant chapter in the Knicks. He played there for 7 and a half seasons. In 2012, he lost to the Heat led by James, Wade and Bosh in five games in the first round (he scored 41 points in the Knicks' only victory). The following season, he became the scoring leader, averaging 28.7 points per game, and led the Knicks to 54 wins and became the second seed in the Eastern Conference before losing to the Pacers in the second round of the playoffs.

The Knicks failed to break their championship drought, but Madison Square Garden—the stadium where he started his college career—had a blood boiled by him again. The Knicks' return to the NBA's prime time schedule, such as the opening game and the Christmas game, and Anthony's signature three-point celebration move - pointing three fingers to the temple - was also imitated by many players. His nickname for "melon" has become more popular, and his Knicks No. 7 jersey became the league's best-selling jersey in 2013, and his reputation as a scorer has been consolidated.

"'Okay, I'm going to lead a team by myself', that's a commendable idea," Gasol said in an interview with ESPN. "He did. It's obvious that first, they had good teams, but they had better teams at the time. The same goes for the Knicks - it takes a certain degree of ambition and confidence to do it. 'I'm going to go to the Knicks, I'm going to revive this team and get it back to the top after years of struggle.'" Boyheim added: "NBA It depends to a lot on the team you are in. He greatly improved the Nuggets' record, but they had to face Kobe, and then Tim Duncan. They couldn't win. They couldn't win the championship. And with the Knicks' lineup at that time, he couldn't win the championship. He improved the performance of his team. That's what you can do in the NBA. He is one of the top all-round scorers in history. He can shoot three points, break through, and jump shots in a hurry. He has mastered all the offensive skills."

Gasol also thought of the last assumption.

What if I didn’t suffer a stress fracture in my left foot for the second time in November 2019 and was cut by the Trail Blazers?

If Gasol did not have the injury that ended his NBA career, would Anthony still have a chance to extend his career?

Anthony went awkwardly parted ways with the team after only 10 games for the Rockets in 2017-18, and he had been out of the league for more than a year when he signed with the Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers used Anthony to fill the roster vacancy after Gasol's injury, and Anthony, who was once unemployed, could average 15.4 points per game for the Trail Blazers that season.

"So my injury gave him the chance to play again and prove himself," Gasol said. Anthony added 2,738 points to his total score in the final chapter of his career—he played for the Trail Blazers for two years, then spent his last season with the Lakers and teamed up with James—it was the performance at the end of this career that allowed Anthony to be among the top ten in the NBA all-time total score list.

Although retired four years ago, Anthony still holds a career record since the first live-text record in the 1996-97 season: hitting the most overtakes in the last five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime (18 times).

Anthony added two gold medals from London and Rio to his Olympic resume, and he still maintained the score record of the US men's basketball team in a single Olympic game - against Nigeria in 2012, he scored 37 points in just 14 minutes and 29 seconds. "Incredible," Boyheim said of Anthony's shooting performance in that game, including 13 of 16 shots (including 10 of 12 three-pointers). "That's crazy. It's crazy."

"He never fears the key moments," Kidd said, "he wants the ball. I think everyone knows that when the ball is in his hands, he shoots the ball, not the pass."

The title Anthony at Syracuse is still legendary. In March 2023, the team held its last home game for the retired coach Boyheim at the Carrier Dome Arena, and also held the 20th anniversary of the championship. And when Syracuse players looked at the freshman in the first wild ball game of the summer semester, the game was no longer held at the Old Manley Arena. They are playing now at the Cameron K-Anthony Basketball Center, a 54,000-square-foot training hall opened in 2009, thanks to the "little fat man".

"I think everything happened the way it should have," Billups said. "His career is complete enough."

Author: Dave McMenamin

Translator: GWayNe