Carmelo Anthony is Painful, Off the Court

I believed in Carmelo Anthony because when he was at Syracuse he carried a team on his back, as a freshman, to a national championship. For years I've supported him as a player because of what he did 12 years ago. But after reading this article about him from ESPN, I now must admit, the guy is a headed straight toward Loser Town on the downtown express train.

Where to begin, where to begin...

If you read the article, you'll understand this. If you didn't it has to do with Carmelo wanting to craft a certain image for himself that is apart from basketball. This came about because his 7 year old son had a write something about his father for school, and all he could come up with was "basketball player." Some might say he's being kind...

It's worth reading if you want to really delve in the life of a delusional almost-star.

First off, Carmelo should probably surround himself with people who don't need his money, so at the very least he'll get honest opinions.

What Carmelo wants to be is the next Greg Norman, and I would argue their careers are quite similar. Norman fell far short of the greatness he could have achieved, winning the Open Championship twice, but never a major stateside. That definitely rankles him.

Melo won the NCAA tournament, and will forever be known for that, but on some level that's like winning the Open Championship (don't want to argue the merits of individual vs team sports).

They've both won, but not to the level they want to.

Melo is compared in this article to the likes of Jordan, Agassi, Elway & Beckham, but all of these guys are WINNERS ON THE COURT FIRST. Melo isn't. Their success is derived from their WINNING IMAGE. Melo wants to craft an image around himself equal to these other people, except he doesn't have the "Winner" moniker naturally bestowed upon him by society.

You can't buy this.

Yet at the end of the day, my gut tells me Melo has already GIVEN UP on trying to achieve the on the court success, which leads him to focus on this "next stage" of his life. To me it wreaks of being a quitter, or someone without their priorities in order.

I understand his infatuation with money considering his background, but investing in a new share economy, or social media, which in turn gives you many more millions won't make you a winner. It will only mean you're a person with connections, who took a lot of swings, and one of them hit. I don't look at John Paulson and think, "What a winner!" I think, "that guy got lucky, and he still kind of sucks."

So Melo can be average on the court, and maybe financially lucky afterward. And? That doesn't change his image one bit. In fact, it kind of makes his image somewhat lame.

If he wants to do something about his life and image, maybe take less money, build a championship team on the court, become a winner in the field that gave you a platform, and at least show people you can win. If that doesn't work out, be bigger than money. Help people in Baltimore, like Mike Bloomberg. Build a damn hospital that tries to help babies born with HIV. Give your money away like Warren Buffett. How about Be BIGGER THAN MONEY AND IMAGE?

That's attractive!

Maybe then people will give a shit about who you are...after you lost.