Carmelo Anthony - Classic Mavs ‘Pipe Dream’ - Retires as 10-Time All-Star
DALLAS - Over the course of the 2010s especially, Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavs were relentless in their pursuit of big-name acquisitions - and DallasBasketball.com was relentless in reporting on the “pipe-dream” scenarios.
One on the most infamous of those? The July 2014 bid on Carmelo Anthony … in the news now because the 10-time All-Star announced his retirement from the NBA on Monday.
Anthony last played in the NBA in 2021-22, when with the Los Angeles Lakers the 38-year-old came off the bench, averaging 13.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and one assist.
Anthony was one of the brightest stars in the league in the mid-2010s, right there in so many wars with LeBron James and Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal and Chris Paul … and a short list of other players in the NBA who were All-Star selections … who Dallas could never quite catch up with.
As we recall, the ‘Melo visit to the Metroplex was a short one and a not especially sweet one under the supervision of owner Cuban.
But even Dirk Nowitzki thought it a worthy try, saying in advance of the recruiting meeting, "If Carmelo would really love to come here, we'd love to have him.”
Anthony, who won a scoring title, did some of his best work with Anthony's best seasons came during the 2012-13 campaign when he averaged 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 67 games with his hometown New York Knicks.
In addition to his seven years with the Knicks, Anthony also spent time playing with the Denver Nuggets, Portland Trail Blazers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets.
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