Growing up Melo: Turnaround shot

Carmelo Anthony's stardom didn't come without a fall or two

Aaron J. Lopez, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 27, 2006 at midnight

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Carmelo Anthony stepped out of the Blackjack Pizza shop and walked to his car without a steaming hot pie.

Instead of a box, he carried a bag of raw ingredients sold by starstruck store employees eager to fulfill an unusual request from a celebrity athlete.

Once back in his kitchen, Anthony went to work kneading the dough, spreading the sauce and cheese and distributing slices of pepperoni before sliding the pizza in the oven.

"He came home and made the whole pizza from scratch," said Anthony’s fiancee, LaLa Vazquez. "He likes to be hands-on."

Indeed, Anthony is perfectly content these days diving into life’s simple pleasures: cooking, laughing, watching The Wire — it’s an HBO drama based on his hometown of Baltimore — and chillin’ with Vazquez, an MTV personality who is due in March with their first child.

Anthony is equally at ease on the basketball court as he prepares to begin his fourth season as the leading scorer and attendance magnet for the Denver Nuggets.

Gone are negative headlines that dominated his personal Dark Age of two years ago.

He instead graces the cover of Sports Illustrated alongside fellow 2003 NBA draft mates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Gone are the misconceptions of Anthony as a gangster, a thug, a pot head and a poster boy for the self-absorbed pro athlete.

He is a national team co-captain gaining respect for his strong work ethic and improving all-around game.

Gone are the whispers of Anthony’s declining worth to corporate America.

He remains a leading pitchman for the Nike Jumpman line created by Michael Jordan and is branching out into movies, music, sports drinks and cell-phone services.

Just 22 months after hitting bottom — slouched on his sofa, tears trickling down his face — Anthony has resurrected his image and re-established himself as one of the most talented, marketable and business-savvy athletes of his generation.

"He’s matured quickly," said Syracuse men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim, who reunited with his former star player as an assistant for USA Basketball this summer.

"Maybe some of the things he had to go through helped him — the adversity and the mistakes. Maybe that had a maturing effect on him. He’s still young, but I think some of the decisions he makes now ... show a lot of maturity. That’s great to see."

Began on Baltimore streets

Growing Up Melo dates to his upbringing in the rough streets of Baltimore, where survival instincts were standard issue and sports represented the road to salvation.

Growing Up Melo traces an uneven path of remarkable success followed by a swift and unforeseen crash back to Earth.

Growing Up Melo soon will include fatherhood and marriage, and if all goes according to plan, further validation as one of the top performers in the NBA.

"He’s back, man," says Tyler Smith, a junior guard at Colorado State who happens to be one of Anthony’s closest friends. "He’s stress-free right now. He’s just doing what he’s supposed to do. His time is coming."

The Nuggets feel the same way, and they have the W-2 forms to prove it.

Not only does Anthony enter the season carrying a renewed swagger and focus, but the 22-year-old forward enjoys the financial security of a five-year, $80 million contract extension that will take effect in 2007-08.

"It don’t even feel real right now," said Anthony, sitting on a leather sofa three months after signing his new deal. "It hasn’t even sunk in yet."

In perhaps another sign of maturation, Anthony did not let the windfall suppress his ambition.

After a monster 2005-06 season in which he averaged a career-high 26.5 points, he spent countless hours preparing for Team USA’s summer training camp.

Of the 23 players invited to camp under USA Basketball’s restructured men’s program, only 12 would represent America at the World Championship in August in Japan.

It was the perfect opportunity for Anthony to exorcise the demons of 2004, when he struggled to adapt to the unfamiliar role of a bench player under U.S. coach Larry Brown.

‘On a mission’

"You hear a bunch of other things, so I didn’t know what to expect," said first- year Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke. "I knew he was very talented, but what I found him to be is just a great guy. He was really easy to coach.

"He started out the practices like he was on a mission, because he was ready. He really set the standard for our team ..."

Anthony’s work ethic not only earned him a spot on the team, but Krzyzewski named him as one of three team captains, along with James and Wade.

Though Team USA could not improve upon its bronze medal of the 2004 Olympics, Anthony emerged as a pleasant surprise after averaging a team-leading 19.9 points.

This version of Anthony was the one most familiar to those who know him best, and it helped restore his once-battered reputation.

"My favorite moment is seeing him get through everything that was happening and playing like he did last year," said Dontaye Draper, another Baltimore native who has known Anthony since high school.

"I really was proud of him with everything he went through. People talking about how he’s a thug, he’s this and that. Every person has adversity. He went through it and grew from it."

The ‘drama stuff’

It is impossible to appreciate Anthony’s rise from the Valley of Disrepute without knowing the background of his descent.

"You mean the drama stuff?" Vazquez says with a lighthearted tone.

Yes, the drama stuff.

Shortly after returning from the Olympics in Greece, Anthony made what appeared to be a routine visit to his former neighborhood in west Baltimore.

Four months later, brief portions of his trip were captured on an underground DVD that glamorized drug dealers and threatened to kill informants who cooperate with police.

Anthony, a silent bystander in the film, later explained that he did not condone the contents of the DVD and said he was unaware it would be made public.

The infamous cameo might have been dismissed as a momentary lapse in judgment if not for a series of missteps preceding the DVD’s November 2004 release.

Upset and confused about his lack of playing time at the Olympics, Anthony was chastised by the old-school-coach Brown in August and cast as a self-absorbed player by the international media.

His image was blemished further with his involvement in a fight at a New York nightclub while coming to Vazquez’s defense. Three men later tried to extort $3 million from Anthony in exchange for surveillance video of the scuffle.

On Oct. 15, 2004, Anthony was cited for possessing less than 1 ounce of marijuana — a petty offense — after a security officer at Denver International Airport found a small plastic bag with the drug in his backpack.

Throw in nagging ankle injuries, a 17- 25 record and two coaching changes midway through the 2004-05 season, and Anthony found himself suffering through the worst six months of his life.

"I used to go home after games and after practices not wanting to talk to nobody, not wanting to be around nobody," said Anthony, adding that he tuned out phone messages from friends and family members telling him that things would get better.

"I broke down one night," he said. "I was like, ‘I can’t take this no more.’ People kept telling me, ‘You’re going to get through it. Don’t worry about it.’ At that time, you don’t want to hear that. You don’t be wanting to hear nothing."

No easy way out

At that point, Anthony could have kept his head down and sulked his way through the rest of the season.

That would have been the easy way out.

If there’s one thing you need to know about Carmelo Anthony, it is this: He was not brought up to take the easy way out.

Mary Anthony, a deeply religious single mother, emphasized basic values as she raised her four children. She taught her three sons and one daughter to respect others and value education in all its forms, be it in the classroom or through life lessons.

Fall 2004 certainly qualified as a life lesson, and Anthony has emerged wiser because of the experience.

"Just seeing him happy and bounce back to laughter, it’s like, ‘Wow! Old times again,’" Mary Anthony said. "It’s back to Carmelo laughing and enjoying and cracking jokes.

"He’s grown into maturity very well. I knew that he would come through it, because that’s the person he is. I couldn’t be prouder of him for allowing that to bring the best out of him.

"It’s not that he’s trying to prove anything to the public. He’s just proving to himself that, ‘I’m not that person. I’m not that guy. I’m above that, I’m beyond that.’"

So just who is Carmelo Anthony?

He is Culinary Carmelo (kitchen utensils sold separately), Businessman Melo, Community Service Carmelo, Father- to-Be Melo, Jokester Carmelo and Loyal-till-Death Melo.

The assorted personality traits, revealed to the public in varying degree, help paint a picture of a sometimes misunderstood NBA star.

How did he develop those traits? That’s another story altogether.

lopezaa@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5388

About the series

Beginning today, Rocky Mountain News reporters Aaron J. Lopez and Jamie Paton, photographer Evan Semon and videographer Sonya Doctorian will chronicle the story of how Carmelo Anthony, has grown up right before our eyes.

Today: Anthony is at ease on and off the basketball court now, but that wasn’t always the case. This is the story of how Melo rose swiftly from a tough inner-city neighborhood to become one of the best players in the NBA.

Online Sunday: West Baltimore is where Anthony formed his deepest loyalties and learned how to bounce back from his mistakes.

Tuesday: How does he stay true to his roots and be attractive to big corporations at the same time? How does he invest his money wisely when he had never had money before? These were the questions facing Anthony even before he turned 21.

Wednesday: There were some growing pains — an immature moment or two, the 2004 Olympics, his buddies’ brushes with the law — but Anthony has become the Nuggets’ team leader, a role model and a soon-to-be father.

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