Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups have history. Billups was a veteran when Carmelo was reaching his prime. This was all happening in Denver. The crazy Nuggets that had players like Allen Iverson, Chris Andersen, JR Smith and of course Carmelo. But they didn’t stop there. They were also teammates in New York. So Chauncey knows Carmelo well.
Moving onto now. Chauncey Billups has retired. Carmelo Anthony is the King of the New York Knicks heap that is trying to get out of the doldrums of the NBA.
But in this particular story. Billups is not concerned with the team. He’s concerned with Carmelo and his leadership skills.
“He’s not that guy,” Billups said on “The Knicks Blog with Anthony Donahue” radio show. “Melo’s a good friend of mine, one of the best players I ever played with, but he’s not the guy who’s going to stand up in the locker room and give this rah-rah speech and get the team to rally. That’s not who he is.
“One thing he is, he’s going to come to play every single night, he’s going to practice every single day. He is who he is, He’s not that guy [who leads vocally]. But for who he is, he’s great. You’ve got to find another guy to make speeches, and another guy to do most of the leading. [Carmelo’s] going to most of the time lead by example. He’s not going to be vocal, he’s not going to rock the boat.”
Not to harp on but Chicago have plenty of leaders that actually lead. Carmelo could’ve just slotted in and they would’ve been title favorites. But oh well.
Billups has hit the nail right on the head. Carmelo isn’t a real leader. I’ve never seen him in a huddle hyping the team up. Dwyane Wade does it. LeBron James does it. Carmelo does not.
