Two things have been made obviously clear since Carmelo Anthony’s return: The NBA desperately missed the longtime All-Star, and the 35-year-old still has something left in the tank.
As a crowd of reporters began to form outside the Blazers locker room, a team PR official preempted the onslaught by stating that Melo would not be talking before the game. But Anthony had spoken about seven hours earlier at Blazers shoot-around, after wrapping up a solo shooting session where, at one point, he hit 14 straight 3's. Even in a neutralized setting like this one, it was hard to square the sight with what Melo said just a few minutes later, that he had gotten to a point during his year-long absence from the NBA where he was ready to fully move on from basketball.
Had the Blazers not come through, Melo said he would have retired and continued to focus on his businesses, even though his family and particularly his wife refused to let him move on. “I’ve told her that plenty of times, ‘I’m done with this. I don’t want to do it. It’s time for me to accept this and move on. It’s time to focus on another part of my life.’ She won’t accept that.” He laughed, thinking about how things have turned out since he’s made it back onto a court and said: “I appreciate her.”
It would be difficult to paint a good image of Melo’s return if it wasn’t going so well. This week, the NBA awarded him Western Conference Player of the Week honors after he averaged 22.3 points and 7.7 rebounds and helped lead the Blazers to three straight wins. Melo refused to brand the award as validation, but once again, the reaction from his peers, the same ones who had griped publicly that he wasn’t on a team after being cast aside by the Rockets, was enough validation in and of itself.
Commentaires