Carmelo Anthony Was Targeted By Top European Teams Before His Retirement But Only Wanted To Play In The NBA

Carmelo Anthony had opportunities to continue playing basketball professionally in Europe but only wanted to play in the NBA.

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Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

Carmelo Anthony finally decided to drop the curtain on an incredible 19-year professional basketball career earlier this week.

Melo took to social media to announce his retirement, but it would appear he did have opportunities to continue playing, just not in the NBA, as per insider Marc Stein.

“League sources say Carmelo Anthony did receive some top-level European interest this season but decided that he wasn’t going to play anywhere unless the offer came from the NBA,” Stein wrote on his Substack.

It seems Anthony wasn’t interested in playing overseas the way that Dwight Howard and some other former stars have chosen to. He wanted his last hurrah to be in the NBA but it doesn’t look like any team really wanted him onboard at this stage of his career and that is fine. Only 10 players in league history have played a 20th season in the league so Melo has nothing to be ashamed of. Someone like LeBron James is very much the exception and not the norm.


Carmelo Anthony Is At Peace With Not Winning A Championship

Carmelo finished his NBA career with averages of 22.5 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.0 SPG, and 0.5 BPG. He is currently the ninth-leading scorer in league history with 28,289 points and was a 10-time All-Star who also won a scoring title in 2013. Despite all of that, Melo never won a title but he says he is at peace with it.

He stated that he won in life after getting drafted into the NBA in 2003 and that is fair. Melo could have very well won a title though had that 2003 NBA Draft gone differently, as the Detroit Pistons picked Darko Milicic over him with the second pick. The Pistons would, of course, go on to win the title in 2004, and had they picked Anthony, as he claimed they had promised to, he would have walked away with a ring.

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Gautam Varier is a staff writer and columnist for Fadeaway World from Mumbai, India. He graduated from Symbiosis International University with a Master of Business specializing in Sports Management in 2020. This educational achievement enables Gautam to apply sophisticated analytical techniques to his incisive coverage of basketball, blending business acumen with sports knowledge.Before joining Fadeaway World in 2022, Gautam honed his journalistic skills at Sportskeeda and SportsKPI, where he covered a range of sports topics with an emphasis on basketball. His passion for the sport was ignited after witnessing the high-octane offense of the Steve Nash-led Phoenix Suns. Among the Suns, Shawn Marion stood out to Gautam as an all-time underrated NBA player. Marion’s versatility as a defender and his rebounding prowess, despite being just 6’7”, impressed Gautam immensely. He admired Marion’s finishing ability at the rim and his shooting, despite an unconventional jump shot, believing that Marion’s skill set would have been even more appreciated in today’s NBA.This transformative experience not only deepened his love for basketball but also shaped his approach to sports writing, enabling him to connect with readers through vivid storytelling and insightful analysis.
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