Carmelo Anthony’s greatest chapters, ranked

Carmelo Anthony is a Portland Trail Blazer, unleashing a new era for one of the NBA’s most iconic players. Through the last 15 years, we’ve been blessed with many chapters for one of the most relentless bucket-getters ever. Syracuse Melo introduced us to our scoring king, Nuggets Melo raised him, Knicks Melo taught us betrayal, and now Blazers Melo is set to (maybe) show us redemption. His career has lasted a whole character arc.

In honor of his NBA return, it’s only fair we revisit all of our favorite forms of Melo, and rank them based on their historical importance.

Just don’t.

This is not a version of Melo that we like to recognize, but it happened. In OKC he played 78 games, but they were not-so-good ones. He averaged 16 points per game, but only shot 40 percent from the field. OKC Melo got benched, and was not happy about it, and did not come back the following season.

We don’t know what story this Melo will tell, but it sure as hell has to be better than the next two versions.

Never missed a shot. Absolute legendary Melo.

Hawks Melo got paid $25.5 million to never play a single game. The most King of Melos.

In New York, Melo went global. He was the biggest star on one of the biggest franchises in all of sports. He scored as frequently as he had for most of his career, even winning a scoring title in 2013, and took the lowly Knicks to a conference semifinals.

How his tenure in New York ended stunk, and that’s why Knicks Melo couldn’t rank higher than Nuggets Melo, but in his prime, this was an INCREDIBLE to watch Melo.

On the Denver Nuggets, Anthony became a national star. He averaged 21 points per game as a rookie and never looked back. He scored as many as 29 per game in his fourth season, and was an all-star four times in seven years. He made the playoffs every season, and even made the conference finals once.

Nuggets Melo was a star.

Melo always wears hoodies in his workout videos, and, since nobody misses shots in edited clips, Hoodie Melo is a legend.

This is the most fun version of Melo there is, because he dominated and also won. Melo earned three Olympic golds in four tries, and set American records for most points in a game (37), most made threes in a game (10), most free throws made (13 on 13 attempts), most career points (336), most career games (31), most career rebounds (125), and the list goes on.

The first version of Melo on the national stage was one of the greatest players ever. College Melo led the Syracuse Orange in virtually every category (scoring, rebounding, minutes, made field goals, and made free throws) and carried them to an NCAA championship. He was a total bucket, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds.