For 3 many years we’ve coated many superb basketball characters, however some stand above the remaining—not solely due to their on-court abilities (although these are all the time related), however due to how they influenced and proceed to affect basketball tradition, and thus influenced SLAM. In the meantime, SLAM has additionally modified these gamers’ lives in numerous methods, as we’ve documented their careers with basic covers, legendary photographs, superb tales, compelling movies and extra.
We compiled a bunch of people (programming word: 30 entries, not 30 folks whole) who imply one thing particular to SLAM and to our viewers. Learn the full record right here and order your copy of SLAM 248, the place this record was initially revealed, right here.
Carmelo Anthony formally retired from the NBA in Might 2023, after racking up 28,289 factors, making six All-NBA groups and profitable three Olympic Gold medals. Whereas he spent his previous few seasons barnstorming across the League, he’ll be remembered for his tenures with the Nuggets and Knicks, the place he headlined some nice groups that had been finally dispatched by higher competitors. However I feel as time goes on, we are going to bear in mind Melo for extra than simply basketball.
Melo was in the identical 2003 NBA Draft class as LeBron James, which might put most gamers at risk of being overshadowed. However he shined his personal gentle and carved his personal path, which took critical work on and off the court docket. On the morning of the 2003 Draft, I sat all the way down to breakfast with Carmelo, proper there within the foyer of the Westin Resort in Occasions Sq. the place the NBA housed the gamers. His brokers needed us to fulfill upfront of Melo taking on the SLAM Rookie Diary, which I’d assist him write every month. We shared an ungainly meal collectively, Melo simply weeks faraway from profitable the NCAA Match with Syracuse, and simply hours away from the most important second of his life. I principally simply tried to remain out of his approach that day.
However we had been in fixed contact all through his rookie yr—shout out tmail, IYKYK—and it was exceptional to see Melo acquire confidence and begin to develop into himself. He matured, grew to become a father, had his personal line of Jordans, and was beginning to dabble in documentary manufacturing. On the time, you’ll bear in mind, there was no actual blueprint for an athlete trying to diversify their off-court pursuits. Michael Jordan was nonetheless constructing out Jordan Model and but to buy the Hornets, and Carmelo and LeBron had been feeling out comparable traces of inquiry concerning what their enterprise futures would possibly appear to be.
In the summertime of 2008, we reached out to Carmelo as a result of it was time to place him on the quilt of SLAM, his fourth cowl for the reason that 2003 Draft. Melo was coming into his sixth season, having averaged 24.4 ppg over these first 5 campaigns (all profitable seasons), together with two All-Star appearances. Nonetheless, it was robust for the Nuggets to interrupt by—issues had been so stacked that the 2007-08 Nuggets received 50 video games and nonetheless completed eighth within the Western Convention.
Down to offer us time for a canopy shoot, Melo needed to pitch us an concept: He needed to be on the quilt seated in a director’s chair. Nope, I rapidly responded. As a result of if there was one factor the good Dennis Web page taught all of us at SLAM, it was how one can make a dope journal cowl. It was arduous sufficient to do one thing compelling in that rectangular form, and having somebody sitting down actually restricted your choices from a design standpoint. However Melo had legitimately thought it out. His life was altering. He felt like he was in management. He needed to make use of one story to inform one other story, and the way higher than by utilizing a photograph with him in a director’s chair?
A compromise was reached. We might get a director’s chair and take footage with Carmelo in it, however for the quilt picture, we’d use no matter labored finest. Because it turned out, the director’s chair labored finest, turning into one of many extra memorable SLAM covers of all time.
We talked that day about his progress, and Melo famous, “It took me some time to determine that I had every thing in my very own arms. It was arduous to fathom that I went from a row home undertaking constructing to a penthouse. It’s nonetheless arduous to fathom that.”
Melo’s basketball story might have come to a sleek finish, however he’s clearly not completed. He guest-edited SLAM’s Social Justice problem in 2020, addressing head-on most of the social points in America then and now. The previous few years, he’s completed every thing from proudly owning a soccer group to appearing on TV and in motion pictures to launching a podcast to being profiled in Advert Week. And it don’t cease.
Individuals typically ask me who my favourite NBA gamers are, and the reality is, I don’t have favourite gamers a lot as I’ve favourite folks. Whereas Carmelo Anthony will go down as a Corridor of Fame basketball participant, perhaps the higher story is how he’s additionally grown right into a Corridor of Fame individual.
Photograph through Getty Photos.