Carmelo Anthony is one of the most legendary basketball players of his generation. A highly regarded prospect before making it to the league, Anthony was the third overall pick of the 2003 NBA Draft, and he proceeded to go on and put together a Hall of Fame career.
Melo was a ten-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA member, and while he never won a title, his legacy was cemented in stone quite a while ago. And yet, the Syracuse product recently revealed that he never actually thought he would make it to the NBA.
Anthony's shocking NBA admission
Looking back on his career now, it's easy to say that Melo was a surefire basketball star, but he never saw it that way before he made it to the league. That may have been what inspired him to work so hard towards achieving his goal.
Even with all the hype surrounding him before his NBA arrival, Anthony never truly believed he would make it. Given how hard it is to get in the league, Melo revealed he had so many people trashing his hoop dreams that he eventually believed that he wouldn't make it himself.
"NBA to me was like The Wizard of Oz," Carmelo Anthony said on The Why with Dwyane Wade . "It was like 'No, that's impossible to make it.' You get so hammered down, 'You would never make it, you would never make it, you would never make it.'"
"I was hearing that since eighth grade, so cancel them basketball dreams and cancel them NBA dreams. They not coming to west Baltimore, to Myrtle Avenue, to come get you, so get that dream out your head. Go be a cop, go be a fireman, them dreams is washed. They kill your dreams before you even have a chance to dream."
Carmelo proved all of his haters wrong
There's no denying that only a select few people in the world are good enough to make it to the NBA. Yet many kids growing up dream of making it to the league, and sure enough, Anthony was one of those kids.
Unlike other players, though, the 10-time All-Star quickly proved he had the talent to make it to the league. However, he found himself getting caught up in the constant notion that he wouldn't make it to the league because making it to the NBA was so rare. What made him different?
Instead of being deterred by all of that, Melo put his head down and went to work. He turned himself into one of the top prospects in the game, and eventually, he put together the strong body of work we noted above that will soon earn him entry into the Hall of Fame.
Anthony is living proof that you can accomplish your dreams, even when people want to destroy them. Of course, you have to put in the time to get there, but this is a great message that all young hoopers should take note of as they attempt to pursue their own NBA dreams.
Related: Carmelo shares why Kobe's game-winner during his rookie season was the best-ever: "He flew off the helicopter and he came with his uniform on"
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