Carmelo Anthony: Juxtaposed with Tracy McGrady’s Hall of Fame career

Looking back at Carmelo Anthony’s career; has he really achieved significantly less than Tracy McGrady to not qualify for the NBA’s Hall of Fame?

As of today, Carmelo Anthony is unemployed and has last been seen shooting jumpers at a Lifetime Athletic gymnasium.

However, the aftermath of his short Houston Rockets stint has only added fuel to the popular narrative that his entire career has been a huge disappointment.

Some of Anthony’s most common critiques include: Lack of playoff success, being a “black hole,” having a massive ego, and always prioritizing financial security over winning.

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And all of these sentiments are absolutely fair, but as a result, it’s also lead to many arguing that Anthony is not worthy of being inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.

Yet, not too long ago there was also an elite scorer who the NBA community often referred to as “T-Mac.” For those of you who aren’t too familiar with his career, let me briefly recap his past, while also providing some context.

In 1997, Tracy McGrady was drafted by the Toronto Raptors and went on to play alongside his second-cousin, Vince Carter. They were both must-see TV with their elite athleticism, especially in transition.

In recent years, following his retirement, McGrady has repeatedly mentioned how much he’s cherished his time in Toronto, but he knew he was always going to be second fiddle to Carter and never receive the opportunity to be anything more than that; as a young player, he wanted his own team and coveted super-stardom.

Hence, the reason why he eventually departed from Toronto, through a sign-and-trade, and went on to play for his hometown Orlando Magic team.

With high hopes of forming a dynamic duo with then superstar, Grant Hill, McGrady soon found out that his free agency decision wouldn’t go as planned.

Since Hill was injured for a majority of those years, with severe ankle problems, McGrady was forced to carry a heavy load of the Magic’s offense. He scored enormous numbers (even earning two scoring titles in back-to-back years) only to watch his immense effort lead to consecutive losing seasons.

By the 2004 season, McGrady had reached his breaking point and demanded to be traded. After the Magic found a trade partner, in the Rockets, McGrady’s supporting cast went from Mike Miller and Darrell Armstrong to playing alongside future 2016 Hall of Famer, Yao Ming.

And yet, he never managed to make it past the first round (unless you want to include the couple of months he was a bench warmer for the Spurs’ playoff run in 2013).

Anthony, on the other hand, managed to lead the Denver Nuggets to the Western Conference finals, in 2009, only to be eliminated by Kobe’s Lakers in six games.

So the big question is: As great of a player as a pre-injured McGrady was, how come his lack of playoff success isn’t mentioned to the same extent as Anthony’s? And why does nobody mention the quality of the playoff opponents McGrady’s faced compared to Anthony’s?

Now, it would be fairly easy to label both of their careers as a dichotomy, especially since they have distinctive personalities and each brought different assets to the game: Anthony was never a good defender, but Tracy was solid, at least when he gave the effort; Mcgrady was a willing passer and Anthony rarely was.

In 2011, when Anthony had his eyes on New York, since he desired to qualify for the Bird Rights rule to get a max contract, as opposed to signing as a free-agent, he demanded to be traded. As a result, the New York Knicks gutted their roster to acquire him and were left with very little cap/draft flexibility to put sufficient talent around him and Amar’e Stoudemire.

But perhaps the most clear divergence among both players comes in McGrady’s injury riddled history; Tracy’s entire career is a “what if,” while Anthony never struggled with any severe injuries.

Yet interestingly enough, there were also correspondences they both shared: Elite scoring averages over multiple seasons, inefficient field goal percentages because of their volume shooting/contested shots, and both playing alongside injury prone stars, in Amar’e Stoudemire and Yao Ming.

Throughout Anthony’s Knicks tenure, despite putting up great scoring numbers, he never seemed to mesh well with Amare on the court, and it manifested itself with their constant low playoff seedings and early playoff exits, but oddly enough, the one time the Rockets made it past the first round in the McGrady/Ming era, was in 2009 when McGrady was sidelined after undergoing season-ending microfracture surgery on his left knee.

In 2005, 2007, and 2008, when McGrady had more help on the Rockets compared to his previous Magic teams, McGrady’s playoff opponents and results included: A 2005 Mavs team lead by Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, and Jason Terry that ended in six games. In 2007, McGrady’s Rockets went up against a Jerry Sloan coached Jazz team whose best players were Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams, but eventually lost in a hard-fought seven game series.

The following year, in 2008, they were eliminated in the first round – again – by the very same Utah Jazz team, only this time in six games.

On the other hand, when Anthony finally had a better supporting cast with the Nuggets (e.g. Iverson, Billups) from 2008-2010, his playoff opponents/results featured: a 2008 first round sweep to a Lakers team led by a Kobe and Pau duo. In 2009, a Western Conference Final battle against the same Laker team, ending in six games. And finally, in 2010, a six game first round elimination to the Jazz, a core very similar to the same one McGrady faced years prior, in terms of an offense that was centered around Boozer and Williams.

In essence, both players had flaws/stains in their careers – but in their primes – they were both generational talents. Just like McGrady is in the Hall of Fame for his accolades during the Magic and Rockets years, then Melo should likewise be remembered for his individual achievements in Denver and New York.

Although Anthony’s career might have not been perfect or on the same level as his peers from the 2003 draft class (LeBron and Wade), it’s not far-fetched to say that Anthony will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer for the very same reason McGrady was inducted for, in 2018: Scoring.