Carmelo Anthony, 10-time NBA All-Star, retires
NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony is retiring from professional basketball, he announced on Monday.
The 38-year-old Anthony played 19 seasons with six different teams, but did not play this past season. He was a 10-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection.
“Now the time has come for me to say goodbye, to the court where I made my name, to the game that gave me purpose and pride,” Anthony said in a video released via social media. “With this bittersweet goodbye to the NBA, I’m excited about what the future holds for me.”
Anthony led Syracuse to the NCAA tournament title as a freshman in 2003, then was part of an historic NBA draft class that saw LeBron James go No. 1, Anthony go No. 3, Chris Bosh go No. 4 and Dwyane Wade go No. 5. He played the first eight seasons of his career with the Denver Nuggets before a midseason trade to the New York Knicks in 2011.
A Brooklyn native who grew up in Maryland, Anthony spent seven years in New York before bouncing around toward the end of his career. He played one season in Oklahoma City, one in Houston and two in Portland and then finished up with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021-22.
One of the most explosive scorers in the sport’s history, the 6-foot-7 Anthony averaged 22.5 points per game in his career and won the league scoring title by averaging 28.7 points per game with the Knicks in 2012-13. His 28,289 total points are ninth in NBA history, 11th including those who also played in the ABA.
Though Anthony won a national championship in his lone college season and played on gold-medal-winning Olympic squads in 2008, 2012 and 2016, team success eluded him in the NBA. His teams never won a title, and only once — with Denver in 2009 — did he play in a conference final.