Carmelo Anthony is headed to Springfield.
The New York Knicks legend, NCAA champion and three-time Olympic gold medalist has been selected for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame on his first ballot.
Although he never won an NBA title, Anthony did make 10 All-Star appearances and six All-NBA teams over 19 seasons after winning a national title in his only season at Syracuse.
ESPN’s Shams Charania was the first to report the 40-year-old Anthony’s selection for the Hall of Fame.
Anthony was among a number of finalists for this year’s class, including Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, Maya Moore and Jennifer Azzi as well as Miami Heat owner Micky Arison. As of Wednesday afternoon, Anthony was the only candidate revealed to have been approved by voters.
The Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 will be enshrined on September 9 in the birthplace of basketball, Springfield, Massachusetts.
Carmelo Anthony attends a game between the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks
Carmelo Anthony won a national championship at Syracuse before being drafted by Denver
Carmelo Anthony was among the biggest stars in the NBA during his tenure with the Knicks
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Born in Brooklyn and raised in Baltimore, Anthony attended Towson Catholic High School for three years before transferring to basketball powerhouse Oak Hill Academy, where he once faced off with a teenage LeBron James.
It was Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim who became the envy of every college coach when he successfully recruited the 6-foot-8 forward to upstate New York.
Anthony played only one season for the Orange, but was nonetheless instrumental in winning the school’s first and only national championship in basketball in 2003.
That summer, Anthony was drafted third overall in the NBA Draft by the Denver Nuggets after being passed over by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who took James, and the Detroit Pistons, who picked notorious disappointment Darko Milicic.
Over the better part of 19 seasons, much of which was spent in Denver and New York, Melo established himself as one of the premiere scorers in the NBA, leading the league in 2012-13 at 28.7 points a game. He would go on to finish third in that year’s MVP voting behind James and Kevin Durant.
He was a member of the disappointing 2004 US Olympic team, which took bronze in Athens, before filling a starring role for the 2008 squad, known as the ‘Redeem Team,’ that captured gold in Beijing. The US would go on to win gold again in London and Rio de Janeiro with Anthony at forward.
These days, Anthony’s son Kiyan is the star hooper in the family. The 18-year-old has declared his intention to play at Syracuse for Boeheim’s successor, Adrian Autry.