Born on May 29, 1984, to Mary, an African American and Carmelo Iriarte, a Puerto Rican, Carmelo Kyam Anthony was a former American NBA player.
He was named an NBA All-Star ten times and a member of the All-NBA Team six times throughout his 19 seasons of NBA play. He was the 2003 Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament while playing college basketball for the Syracuse Orange, which led to a national title for the team. One of the greatest scorers in NBA history, he was selected for the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
Anthony became Denver Nuggets’ third overall choice in the 2003 after he had played for Syracuse for one season.
Anthony has participated in the Olympics four times in total for the US national team, capturing gold medals with the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic teams in addition to a bronze medal with the 2004 team. He held the all-time scoring, rebounding, and games played records for the US Olympic team as of April 2016. Among NBA lifetime scoring leaders, he is presently ranked tenth.
Philanthropic Works
Anthony served as the Family Resource Center’s spokesperson in Denver and assisted in planning “A Very Melo Christmas,” a Christmas gathering for children from less affluent families.
Anthony organises an annual 3-on-3 competition in Baltimore called “Melo’s H.O.O.D. (Holding Our Own Destiny) Movement 3 on 3 Challenge” and contributes money to the renovation of a neighbourhood community centre for young people. On December 14, 2006, Anthony inaugurated “The Carmelo Anthony Youth Development Centre” in Baltimore.
He gave a $1.5 million donation to the Living Classrooms Foundation, a nonprofit that “offers over 35,000 children, youth, and young adults in the east Baltimore community innovative hands-on education, job-training, and community service programmes.”
Anthony gave $35,000 to the relief efforts following the tsunami brought on by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
On January 8 and January 9, 2005, he beat Houston and San Antonio, respectively, and contributed $1,000 for each point scored. A new basketball practise facility at Anthony’s alma mater, Syracuse University, will be built with a $3 million donation.
According to the NBA’s official website, “Anthony’s gift represents one of the largest individual donations to Syracuse University Athletics and is also believed to be one of largest by a current professional athlete to the school they attended.”
Anthony came in at number eight on “The Giving Back 30 List of Largest Charitable Donations by Celebrities in 2006” with philanthropic donations of $4,282,000.
