Winning a championship in sports is an extremely difficult task in any level of competition. Winning a D1 college championship in basketball is extraordinarily difficult in the one-game playoff system that is March Madness. Winning an Olympic gold medal poses an even greater difficulty in the fact that you have to first be good enough to be selected to the team of the greatest in the world and still go out and defeat the best players from every other country. Winning an NBA championship may be the greatest difficulty because of the length of the season, postseason, the opponents and the wear and tear on the body. Only eight basketball players have ever accomplished the feat of winning all three and there is another that has an opportunity to do so.
LeBron James and Kevin Durant are arguably the two best players in the NBA today. While both have won an Olympic gold medal, neither will have a chance to win an NCAA title as LeBron never attended college and Durant played only one season, losing in the tournament. Their legacies will ultimately be defined solely by their careers in the NBA. Carmelo Anthony, on the other hand, has a chance to succeed anything those two men and almost every other NBA basketball player in history has ever done: win an NCAA title, an Olympic Gold medal and an NBA Championship.
While that in itself would be historic he already has two Olympic Gold medals and only one other man has ever won two gold medals as well as a college title and professional title. You may have heard of that man, his name is Michael Jordan. Carmelo has an opportunity to join Michael Jordan as the only people to ever win in all the biggest stages and twice for their country. But Carmelo doesn’t need to stop there. In two years, he will probably play in the Olympics again and go for a third gold medal which would put him in even more exclusive territory, his own.
Before we think about Anthony winning a third gold medal his current resume still lacks the NBA title and let’s face it, he’s not going to win in New York. Back in January Melo scored a career-high 63 points in a game, and no one batted an eyelash. LeBron scored 62 points last week, one fewer than Melo, and the story the next day was about how it was one of the all-time great performances. What does that tell you? No one cares about basketball in New York; no one cares about the Knicks. Carmelo needs a championship ring to be considered an all-time great player. His legacy will always be in doubt until he gets one, if he gets one.
At the end of this season he has a chance to leave New York and go elsewhere to win a title. But there is one thing that could truly hold that up, money. If Melo leaves New York he will be leaving a lot of money on the table. The question that he needs to ask himself is How much is it worth to win a ring? Carmelo has a ton of money and it’s still not like he will be playing for free no matter where he goes. As the incumbent team, the Knicks can offer him an extra year and $33million more than any other team. Leaving the Knicks would mean leaving that money and extra year on the table. Not only that but there aren’t many places he can go that give him a great chance at winning.
If he decides to leave the Knicks in search for a title and another big market, his choices will be extremely limited. In fact there may only be one choice, Chicago. The Bulls have put together a roster that plays hard every day. They’ve played the better part of two consecutive seasons without their best player, Derrick Rose—a former MVP—and have surpassed every expectation. They currently sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and last year they made it to the second round of the playoffs with a third string starting point guard. According to many news outlets the Bulls will go hard after Carmelo this offseason and it will be in both their best interests to join forces.
The Bulls went to New York last week and laid a beating on the Knicks; they jumped off to a 16 to one lead and never looked back and won 109-90. Anthony witnessed firsthand how good the Bulls can be without him and Rose. Imagine what they could be with him and Rose. The Bulls need Melo to get past LeBron’s Heat. Melo needs the Bulls to become a champion. They would make a perfect match.
Michael Jordan is the greatest player ever to wear a basketball uniform but one ring for Carmelo puts him in the same territory as Jordan. One ring and one more gold medal put him in his own exclusive territory. Carmelo has a choice coming up, he can continue losing in New York or he can win that elusive ring. To do so, though, he’ll have to wear the same uniform as the greatest ever.
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