The struggles of star forward Carmelo Anthony and his New York Knicks have been well-documented this season. They have significantly underwhelmed throughout the campaign and won’t sniff the postseason, putting up a lowly 26-38 record through 64 games. We’ve seen plenty of extracurricular drama off the court for New York as well this season, not helping their case to put a quality product on the hardwood.
A lot of that unneeded attention has been surrounding the aging Carmelo Anthony as his older age doesn’t exactly match up well with Phil Jackson’s plans of rebuilding the franchise around stud big man Kristaps Porzingis. This has resulted in plenty of trade rumors flying and friction between the disgruntled star and the Knicks front office.
While Anthony’s career as a Knick could potentially be coming to a close as early as this offseason, the 14-year veteran doesn’t see his NBA career concluding anytime soon, as he recently said he’d like to play 20 seasons in the league. Following from Marc Berman of the New York Post:
“I would love to get 20 in, I could do 20,’’ Anthony said Wednesday at the shootaround at Bradley Center. “I could do 20. I’ve done a great job taking care of my body. I’ll continue doing that. No severe injuries. I can see myself going for 20.’’
Of course, these comments came after a historic night of basketball, as the hoops world witnessed Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki hit 30,000 career points shortly after he said he’d like to return next season and make it an even twenty as well.
Currently 32 years of age and with nearly 14 years of experience under his belt, Anthony would be 38, nearly 39 by the end of the season, in his 20th campaign. While Anthony still shouldn’t be close to considering retirement at this particular juncture, the Syracuse product’s numbers have taken a slight dip this year as he’s averaged 23.2 points per game to go along with an uncharacteristically low 6.0 rebounds.
With his future in New York looking cloudy to say the very least, it’s likely Anthony would probably close out his playing days in another uniform if he was to reach his quixotic goal of 20 NBA seasons.
