There’s a surplus of descriptive terms I can say about Carmelo Anthony, many not the most positive, and while he’s not the best player in the NBA, heck he’s probably in the top 15, but on Thursday, August 2, 2012 Carmelo Kyam Anthony was the best player for Team USA.
Carmelo Anthony’s offense on Thursday was art in motion, his shot selection, smart, and his shots made, ingenious.
Carmelo Anthony was stroking the international ball and it brought back a vintage Melo, a Melo before the New York Knicks drama, a Melo who was just Melo.
While we may laugh when Carmelo speaks about defense, or when he’s speaking to the media, but it’s a cold day in hell when we don’t recognize his offensive prowess. It was on full display during the Thursday USA-Nigeria game.
He scored 37 POINTS UNDER 15 minutes.
I didn’t stutter.
Carmelo Anthony SCORED 37 POINTS UNDER 15 MINUTES.
He scored 37 points on 10-for-12 shooting from beyond the arc, in which broke the former scoring record of an ex-New York Knick Stephon Marbury who racked up 31 points in the 2004 Olympics.
Carmelo Anthony dominated, owned, alienated, sexually accosted…
Basically, he made Nigeria his bitch on Thursday.
I can…you can…cynics can say whatever they would like in relation to WHY Melo was able to possess his inner offensive genius and go to work. They will say it was Nigeria, or that it was Olympic basketball, they will list the X’s and O’s, they will give credit to who knows what, but the thing is ….
Carmelo did good. He did real good.
Sure, he may never do that in the League, but he DID do it for Team USA, and that’s something we can all appreciate.
I often say: “Melo is a top 5/10 talent, but a top 20 work ethic”, but on this day it just all worked for Melo.
For this day, Melo was THAT guy.
