Look back at the legendary career of Carmelo Anthony, member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Anyone accomplished and appreciated enough to earn a spot in his/her sport’s Hall of Fame relishes the honor. But none of the enshrinees Saturday night at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame reveled in the experience more than former NBA scoring star Carmelo Anthony.

The stage inside and outside Symphony Hall for the Class of 2025 was set up nicely for Anthony, a 10-time All-Star who played most of his 19-season career with the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets.

Anthony, his family and his personal contingent of supporters were among the last to walk the red carpet heading into the ceremony. That gave him extra time to savor his literal entrance into basketball’s shrine, pausing for a flurry of photos with his kids and crew.

The event’s proximity to New York drew plenty of Knicks fans to the crowd gathered on the steps of Springfield’s glamorous musical venue. Shouts of “Carmelo! ‘Melo!” brought an arena feel to the evening’s prelude for one of Brooklyn’s native sons.

Finally, owing to Anthony’s status as a member of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team in 2022, the Syracuse star and four-time Olympian was the last of the league’s enshrinees Saturday to be called to the stage. Only WNBA legend Sue Bird followed him in the anchor spot.

“Tonight, I don’t just step into the Hall of Fame,” said Anthony, accompanied by his Hall presenters Allen Iverson and Dwyane Wade. “I carry with me the echoes of every voice that ever told me I couldn’t. I walk with the shadows of every alley, every cracked court, every empty plate. I stand for the dreamers, the doubted, the dismissed, for every soul trapped in a place where I broke free from.”

Anthony repeatedly wiped tears from behind his snazzy gold-framed dark glasses. His acceptance speech continued, emotional, eloquent and inspirational.

“You gave a kid from the projects a passport to the world… I gave [the game] everything I had.”

Carmelo Anthony gives thanks to the game of basketball and reflects on his career 👏

📺 Class of 2025 Enshrinement Ceremony on NBA TV pic.twitter.com/Ks2dtdbrBL

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) September 7, 2025

“We didn’t have much, but we had a dream,” he said. “And if you were lucky, we had someone telling you not to give up on it. More often, what we heard was, ‘That ain’t for you, don’t aim too high, ‘Melo stay in your lane.’

“When you grew up in the shadows, you either get swallowed up by them or you learn how to shine away.”

Anthony, now 41, directed more comments at young people in the building or watching NBA TV. He urged them to push through setbacks, hone a work ethic and trust their will.

“You are the quiet whisper inside you that says, ‘I know there is more for me in this life.’ Hold on to that voice. It will be tested,” he said.

At that moment, as if on cue, a dog out in a hallway barked.

Anthony didn’t blink.

“The dogs will bark,” he ad-libbed, eliciting impressed laughs from the star-studded audience.

“They will tell you it’s foolish. They will laugh at your belief. But let me tell you, they laughed at me too,” said Anthony, who led the league in scoring in 2013 and ranks 12th all-time with 28,289 points.

Then he launched into a series of appreciations and shout-outs to his father, his mother, his siblings, Syracuse University (where he led his team as a freshman to the 2003 NCAA championship), his NBA roots and others in his life.

Anthony and 2025 Hall classmate Dwight Howard double-dipped Saturday because, in addition to their individual inductions, both were honored with the rest 2008 US men’s basketball squad. Otherwise known as “The Redeem Team,” it was enshrined as a team entry for winning gold at the Beijing Games and reasserting America’s place atop the sport against growing international competition.

Half of the 12-man roster have earned Hall of Fame status for their work in the NBA: Anthony, Howard, Wade, Chris Bosh, Jason Kidd and the late Kobe Bryant. Two more, LeBron James and Chris Paul, are obvious Hall of Famers in waiting a few years after their active careers end.

But the whole group, save for Bryant, was on the stage last night, many wearing the traditional Hall of Fame orange sport coats. The coaching staff was there as well – Mike Krzyzewski and assistants Jim Boeheim and Mike D’Antoni – as was Jerry Colangelo, the director of USA Basketball who turned around the program beginning in 2005.

Howard, 39, had a reputation as a fun-loving player in a career that saw him win three Defensive Player of the Year Awards and earn eight All-Star selections. He flexed some of that in his speech with his talent for impersonations, briefly doing his versions of Dikembe Mutombo’s and coach Stan Van Gundy’s distinctive voices.

“It started when I was kid,” Howard explained during a media session Friday. “I would watch movies and listen to my Mom and Dad talk, then go into the bathroom and act like that. … I would look into the mirror and impersonate the actors.”

“You motivated me to challenge every shot.”

Dwight Howard credits Dikembe Mutombo for being such a good role model for him growing up!

He also does his best impression of the finger wag 😆 pic.twitter.com/kwuJTVeEK6

— NBA History (@NBAHistory) September 7, 2025

Howard sometimes was seen, for the smile on his face, as an unserious player at a time when the NBA was more obviously contentious.

“It was upsetting,” said the No. 1 pick in the 2004 Draft, straight out of high school in Atlanta. “The seriousness was the consistent work I was doing every day behind the scenes. When I got to the game, it was entertaining. Everybody’s paying to come see us play. So I would block a shot and I would smile.

“From the time I was born, I wanted to go to the NBA. Everything I did was to get to the NBA. Why would I make it and not be happy?”

Other members of the Class of 2025 who welcomed into the Hall at Symphony Hall were Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan, Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, longtime referee Danny Crawford, and three WNBA stars: Bird, Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore.

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.