The New York Knicks franchise added another Hall of Famer to their esteemed history with Carmelo Anthony being elected as a first ballot Hall of Famer last week. The basketball legend is one of the greatest players to ever don the orange and blue and led a few successful seasons after mostly dark years in the early 2000s.
Carmelo Anthony wants his jersey retired by the Knicks and Nuggets
Anthony doesn’t want the recognition to stop at the Hall of Fame, as he wants his jersey to be retired by both of his main two franchises, the Knicks and the Denver Nuggets.
“I would love to see that, man,” Anthony said, per NJ.com’s Adam Zagoria. “For me it’s like, why wait? You know, it’s why wait? If you got to think about it, then cool, just let it be … I would like to see that jersey in both rafters, Denver and New York.”
Anthony spent his first seven seasons in Denver before being traded to New York during his eighth NBA season, where he would then spend the next seven seasons. Most of his achievements came with those two teams, including all 10 of his All-Star appearances.
Anthony had a very successful Knicks career
With the Knicks, he became an exceptional jump-shooter and established himself as one of the top pure scorers in the game. He won a scoring title with New York in 2013 with 28.7 points per game and finished third in MVP voting that season.
Furthermore, he helped lead the Knicks to three separate playoff appearances, though they were unable to reach the conference finals in either of those appearances. Regardless, Anthony is still widely recognized for bringing energy and for making the Knicks’ franchise relevant again.
A jersey retirement would be well deserved and should be next on Anthony’s list of basketball accomplishments.