http://www.sacbee.com/100/story/96829.html
...and here they come
A brawl at Madison Square Garden dealt a right cross to Carmelo Anthony's image.
By Scott Howard-Cooper - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:24 am PST Friday, December 22, 2006
Call it the great retreat.
When Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets sucker-punched Mardy Collins of the New York Knicks, re-igniting the biggest NBA fight since the infamous Detroit-Indiana brawl of 2004, and quickly went in reverse to the other end of the court to avoid retaliation, Anthony went backwards in several ways.
In that instant, he went from an established team leader enjoying the best stretch of a star-crossed career, pacing the Nuggets to a 13-9 start while boosting his off-court image, to a cheap-shot artist who still puts himself in the wrong situation.
The right hand to Collins, the Knicks rookie whose excessive foul on J.R. Smith sparked the melee, earned Anthony a 15-game suspension, barring him from the Pepsi Center tonight as the Kings visit for the expected Denver debut of Allen Iverson.
Beyond that rebuke from Commissioner David Stern, though, it was another condemnation for Anthony's image, complete with ironic bad timing to emphasize his battle for a positive reputation.
It was only two days before, in his hometown of Baltimore, some 200 miles from Madison Square Garden, that he helped open a youth center with a donation reported to be $1.5 million. He committed twice as much, according to the Nuggets, five weeks earlier toward a new basketball practice facility at Syracuse, the school he led to the NCAA title in 2003.
And then came Saturday night in New York.
Anthony, 22, was so conscious of the setback he took the unusual step of releasing a statement the next day, taking responsibility and apologizing to everyone from Collins to Nuggets fans to the entire NBA to his family "for the embarrassment I have caused them." He acknowledged the damage was not limited to the 15 games on the sideline. In fact, Thursday he decided not to appeal his suspension, according to reports.
"I just realized one of my biggest dreams when we opened the youth center in Baltimore that bears my name," he said in the statement. "To see the community excited and hundreds of kids smiling was an incredible feeling. Now the thought of thousands of kids seeing this incident on TV pains me. This is not the example I wanted to set."
Anthony had already been one of the league's best-known players. But until recent months, his name had been built on the one season at Syracuse, capped by being named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament, and on scoring a lot for the Nuggets.
It's just that it came while making a combined 44.8 percent of his attempts, indicating he was shooting a lot, too, and not shooting well. He logged 32.8, 42.2 and 33.3 percent in Denver's three playoff appearances.
Even more damning, he appeared in a 2004 music video that threatens harm to "snitches" that help the police, although Anthony, unlike others, did not appear with weapons. The role brought a torrent of criticism and magnified other scrapes with the law that in other cases might have been dismissed as indiscretions of youth.
"I'm just on there," Anthony told the Baltimore Sun in a story about the video. "I understand that everybody is on there talking about killing and doing this and that, but it's not like I'm on there with guns. I was back on my block, chillin'. I was going to show love to everybody, thinking it was just going to be on the little DVD, that it was just one of my homeboy's recording."
His image started to improve last offseason. Anthony signed a five-year, $80-million extension, turned in arguably the best showing for Team USA during the world championships in Japan, made the seven-figure donations to Syracuse and the Baltimore youth center, and began 2006-07 with matching strides on the court.
He shot 50.3 percent in the 22 appearances before the suspension began Monday, up from his career mark of 44.8 percent and easily on pace for a single-season high.
He averaged 4.1 assists, after never topping 2.8 the first three seasons.
He was the best player on one of the better teams in the Western Conference and, finally, had appeared to play to the potential of the No. 3 pick in 2003. LeBron James, the first choice, had already established himself as a star and Dwyane Wade, the fifth selection, had reached greater heights still by leading Miami to the 2005-06 title, and now Anthony was pushing into the stratosphere after years of unsubstantiated comparisons.
"I don't think he worked that hard at trying to change his public image," said Greg Buckner of the Dallas Mavericks, a Denver teammate the previous two seasons. "He was just being himself, I think. He's not going to be one of those guys who's going to go out of his way to try and make people think he's this and that. He's just going to be himself."
Buckner calls Anthony "a great guy. He thinks about other people first. I think he had a bad rep early on in his career, but he's nothing like that reputation."
The fight in Madison Square Garden, which resulted in the suspension of seven players and a $500,000 fine for each team, threw Anthony back into the perception game, complete with unexpected mainstream losses: Northwest Airlines pulled the December issue of its in-flight magazine because he was a feature subject.
"Northwest does not want to appear to condone in any way the behavior of some of the players during Saturday's game, including Mr. Anthony, by continuing to offer the current edition of WorldTraveler," the magazine said in a statement.
Another step backwards.
About the writer: The Bee's Scott Howard-Cooper can be reached at showard-cooper@sacbee.com.
...and here they come
A brawl at Madison Square Garden dealt a right cross to Carmelo Anthony's image.
By Scott Howard-Cooper - Bee Staff Writer
Last Updated 12:24 am PST Friday, December 22, 2006
Call it the great retreat.
When Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets sucker-punched Mardy Collins of the New York Knicks, re-igniting the biggest NBA fight since the infamous Detroit-Indiana brawl of 2004, and quickly went in reverse to the other end of the court to avoid retaliation, Anthony went backwards in several ways.
In that instant, he went from an established team leader enjoying the best stretch of a star-crossed career, pacing the Nuggets to a 13-9 start while boosting his off-court image, to a cheap-shot artist who still puts himself in the wrong situation.
The right hand to Collins, the Knicks rookie whose excessive foul on J.R. Smith sparked the melee, earned Anthony a 15-game suspension, barring him from the Pepsi Center tonight as the Kings visit for the expected Denver debut of Allen Iverson.
Beyond that rebuke from Commissioner David Stern, though, it was another condemnation for Anthony's image, complete with ironic bad timing to emphasize his battle for a positive reputation.
It was only two days before, in his hometown of Baltimore, some 200 miles from Madison Square Garden, that he helped open a youth center with a donation reported to be $1.5 million. He committed twice as much, according to the Nuggets, five weeks earlier toward a new basketball practice facility at Syracuse, the school he led to the NCAA title in 2003.
And then came Saturday night in New York.
Anthony, 22, was so conscious of the setback he took the unusual step of releasing a statement the next day, taking responsibility and apologizing to everyone from Collins to Nuggets fans to the entire NBA to his family "for the embarrassment I have caused them." He acknowledged the damage was not limited to the 15 games on the sideline. In fact, Thursday he decided not to appeal his suspension, according to reports.
"I just realized one of my biggest dreams when we opened the youth center in Baltimore that bears my name," he said in the statement. "To see the community excited and hundreds of kids smiling was an incredible feeling. Now the thought of thousands of kids seeing this incident on TV pains me. This is not the example I wanted to set."
Anthony had already been one of the league's best-known players. But until recent months, his name had been built on the one season at Syracuse, capped by being named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament, and on scoring a lot for the Nuggets.
It's just that it came while making a combined 44.8 percent of his attempts, indicating he was shooting a lot, too, and not shooting well. He logged 32.8, 42.2 and 33.3 percent in Denver's three playoff appearances.
Even more damning, he appeared in a 2004 music video that threatens harm to "snitches" that help the police, although Anthony, unlike others, did not appear with weapons. The role brought a torrent of criticism and magnified other scrapes with the law that in other cases might have been dismissed as indiscretions of youth.
"I'm just on there," Anthony told the Baltimore Sun in a story about the video. "I understand that everybody is on there talking about killing and doing this and that, but it's not like I'm on there with guns. I was back on my block, chillin'. I was going to show love to everybody, thinking it was just going to be on the little DVD, that it was just one of my homeboy's recording."
His image started to improve last offseason. Anthony signed a five-year, $80-million extension, turned in arguably the best showing for Team USA during the world championships in Japan, made the seven-figure donations to Syracuse and the Baltimore youth center, and began 2006-07 with matching strides on the court.
He shot 50.3 percent in the 22 appearances before the suspension began Monday, up from his career mark of 44.8 percent and easily on pace for a single-season high.
He averaged 4.1 assists, after never topping 2.8 the first three seasons.
He was the best player on one of the better teams in the Western Conference and, finally, had appeared to play to the potential of the No. 3 pick in 2003. LeBron James, the first choice, had already established himself as a star and Dwyane Wade, the fifth selection, had reached greater heights still by leading Miami to the 2005-06 title, and now Anthony was pushing into the stratosphere after years of unsubstantiated comparisons.
"I don't think he worked that hard at trying to change his public image," said Greg Buckner of the Dallas Mavericks, a Denver teammate the previous two seasons. "He was just being himself, I think. He's not going to be one of those guys who's going to go out of his way to try and make people think he's this and that. He's just going to be himself."
Buckner calls Anthony "a great guy. He thinks about other people first. I think he had a bad rep early on in his career, but he's nothing like that reputation."
The fight in Madison Square Garden, which resulted in the suspension of seven players and a $500,000 fine for each team, threw Anthony back into the perception game, complete with unexpected mainstream losses: Northwest Airlines pulled the December issue of its in-flight magazine because he was a feature subject.
"Northwest does not want to appear to condone in any way the behavior of some of the players during Saturday's game, including Mr. Anthony, by continuing to offer the current edition of WorldTraveler," the magazine said in a statement.
Another step backwards.
About the writer: The Bee's Scott Howard-Cooper can be reached at showard-cooper@sacbee.com.
