Carmelo Anthony just earned his third Olympic gold medal. He is the best to ever suit up for the United States men’s basketball team and he’s amongst the best to ever represent our country at the Olympic games.
Not Michael Jordan or any of those Dream Team players.
Not LeBron James, the reigning NBA finals MVP.
Carmelo Kyam Anthony.
Anthony, the captain of the 2016 team, has wrapped up his international playing career with a total of four Olympic medals (three gold, one bronze) and is tops in games played, points scored and rebounds in Team USA history. He also has the record for most points scored in a single Olympic game with 37, as he obliterated Nigeria. No other American men’s basketball player can say they have reach these heights on the international stage.
Oh, and in case you forgot he’s been doing work domestically since the early 2000s. In 2003, Anthony led the ‘Cuse to their first NCAA title and won that year’s Most Outstanding Player award. The following year he made the All-Rookie team. He also won a NBA scoring title in 2013, made nine All-Star teams and six All-NBA teams while maintaining his status as one of the most dynamic scoring threats in the league.
The detractors will dismiss the Carmelo’s gold medals because he lacks an NBA championship on his mantle, which is unfair and misguided. It’s not just the gold medals and the stats that make Carmelo the greatest U.S. men’s hooper. It’s Melo’s off the court exploits that have exemplified the spirit of the Olympics that sets him apart from his cohort. Melo has given back to communities literally from sea to shining sea, and as a Knicks fan I couldn’t be more proud to have him as the face of franchise and to be able to cheer him on to gold at the Olympics, again.
Melo volunteered to use his platform to promote peace and togetherness in the debate surrounding the ceaseless murders of Black and brown men and women at the hands of police and irresponsible attacks on police officers. This isn’t something to be taken lightly— how often do we wish we had more athletes like Jim Brown, John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Billie Jean King, Jackie Robinson and the late great Muhammad Ali who were willing to stand for something?
Sidebar: Ali was always a hero and inspiration for Carmelo Anthony amongst many others including us here at Hip-Hop Sports Report.
After Alton Sterling, Philando Castile were added to the list and the attack on the Dallas police officers were slain, Carmelo first took to Instagram to challenge his fellow athletes to speak out and use their influence to help make positive change.
There’s NO more sitting back and being afraid of tackling and addressing political issues anymore. Those days are long gone. We have to step up and take charge. We can’t worry about what endorsements we gonna lose or whose going to look at us crazy. I need your voices to be heard. We can demand change.
This wasn’t Anthony’s first foray into activism. His charity work in his hometown of Baltimore, MD through his Carmelo Anthony Youth Center is renown, as was his march for the movement after Freddie Gray lost his life while in police custody. In and op-ed piece for The Guardian, Melo wrote, “I felt in my heart it was time put something out there and call on my fellow athletes to band together.”
Carmelo held a closed door town hall entitled “Leadership Together: A Conversation With Our Sons & Daughters” in Los Angeles and brought along some members of the women’s and men’s Olympic basketball teams to meet a reported 80 African-American and Latino-American children and local law enforcement. This event was just one small step in bridging this divide and hopefully changing lives for the better. This is our American ideals and the Olympic spirit in practice.
(Photo by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)
That session was closed to the public, but Anthony also spearheaded a memorable moment for all to see when he along with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the president of the NBA Players Association Chris Paul stood together at the ESPYs to publicly state the need for change and peace.
Sidebar: For the record each of them have their own individual philanthropic endeavors and deserve commendation.
Melo’s efforts to raise awareness among his influential compatriots has earned praise from the extremely progressive Commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, and has even broken through the impenetrable force field many consider basketball “alpha and omega”, Michael “republicans buy shoes, too” Jordan. MJ recently broke his twenty-plus-year silence on the disproportionate level and frequency of violence faced by Blacks at the hands of police officers. “As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers,” Jordan said. “I grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, as I know their pain all too well.”
Carmelo’s leadership by example from the sports arena into the social space is helping us push towards the “more perfect union” that the founding fathers wrote of when creating the constitution and that President Obama famously spoke about in 2008. The Olympic games are about bringing out the best in humanity via sport; Carmelo Anthony has decided to use sport to bring out the best in humanity. Considering Melo’s social impact and undeniable athletic prowess, he is without a doubt the greatest to ever represent the United States of America on the court.
“Despite everything we’ve got going on right now in our country, we’ve got to be united,” says Anthony upon winning his third gold medal. “America will be great again. I believe that, but it’s one step at a time.”