Carmelo Anthony enters the Corridor of Fame as a Knick — and he wouldn’t have it some other manner.
A ten-time NBA All-Star, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and one of the vital iconic scorers of his technology, Anthony headlined the 2025 Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame class alongside Dwight Howard and WNBA legends Sue Chook, Maya Moore, and Sylvia Fowles, in addition to the whole 2008 USA Males’s Nationwide Workforce.
With Dwyane Wade and Allen Iverson at his facet throughout his induction speech, Anthony delivered a heartfelt thanks tour earlier than turning his focus to the town that outlined his NBA legacy: New York.
“To the New York Knicks and the city of New York, the Mecca of basketball: You gave me more than a jersey. You gave me an identity from the lights of Madison Square Garden to the heartbeat of every borough. I felt that energy, I carried it, I became it,” Anthony mentioned in his speech on Sunday. “And to the Knicks group, thanks for believing in me, for trusting me to symbolize the town that by no means sleeps, that by no means folds, that by no means stops.
“I may have played around the league, but my soul will always echo 33rd and 7th. Once a Knick, always a Knick.”
The Knicks acquired Anthony in a blockbuster 2011 midseason commerce with the Denver Nuggets, sending Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, and a first-round choose the opposite manner. Over seven seasons in New York, Anthony averaged 24.7 factors, 7.0 rebounds, and three.2 assists, delivering a 54-win season and a second-round playoff look in 2013 — the franchise’s most profitable run for the reason that Nineties.
His time in New York led to 2017, when the Phil Jackson-led regime traded him to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder. The transfer got here in the course of a seven-year playoff drought — however not the tip of Anthony’s connection to the town or its followers.
Throughout his speech, a visibly emotional Anthony mirrored on what it meant to put on the Knicks jersey below the brightest lights in basketball.
“New York is not for the faint of heart. It’s pressure. It’s expectation. But it’s also pride, power and poetry in motion,” he mentioned. “You [New York] confirmed me what it means to hold a metropolis in your again with grace, with grit and with love. To the followers, your ardour by no means wavered. Even when issues received robust, your hearth lit up each nook of the Backyard. Each chant, each roar, each boo, each second, we felt it. I felt it.
“I’ve been cheered, criticized. They called me a scorer who couldn’t win. They said I was too loyal, then they said I wasn’t loyal enough. But they didn’t know what it feels like to carry the weight of whole cities, to lace up your sneakers while the world is dissecting your soul. They never saw the lonely nights, the aching knees, the silent battles, but I kept going, I kept shooting, and I kept believing. Not because I had all the answers, but because I had a why. My why is bigger than me. My why was every kid in the hood who ever thought greatness wasn’t for them. My why was my son, watching to see if his father would fold or fight.”
Anthony additionally paid tribute to Syracuse College, the place he delivered a nationwide championship in his lone school season earlier than declaring for the 2003 NBA Draft.
“To Syracuse: one year, one championship, one spark that changed everything,” he mentioned. “You gave me my first shot at belief on a national stage, and I gave you my whole heart.”
