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Carmelo Kiyan Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets, of the National Basketball Association. As a freshman in college, Anthony led Syracuse University to a 30–5 record and the school's first NCAA championship in men's basketball in 2003. He was named the Most Outstanding Player (MOP) of the 2003 NCAA Final Four and MVP of NCAA East Regional. He was also named the consensus national Freshman of the Year and was a unanimous choice as the Big East Conference Freshman of the Year. Anthony was selected as the third pick in the 2003 NBA Draft and named the 2005 Rookie Challenge MVP.

2005–06 season
Anthony played and started in 80 games during the season. He averaged 26.5 ppg (8th, NBA), 2.7 apg, 4.9 rpg and 1.1 spg. His eighth place finish in NBA scoring was the highest finish by a Denver player since the 1990-91 season, when Nuggets guard Michael Adams finished the season sixth in NBA scoring.
On November 23, 2005, with the Nuggets facing the two-time defending Eastern Conference Champion Detroit Pistons, Anthony hauled down his 1,000th career rebound. A month later, Anthony recorded a then career-high 45 points in a losing effort against the Philadelphia 76ers. On March 17, 2006, versus the Memphis Grizzlies, he scored 33 points to push his career point total over the 5,000 mark. Also, in doing so, he became the second youngest player to accomplish that feat (behind James). As the month of March came to a close, the Nuggets finished 11-5, and Anthony was named as the NBA Player of the Month for March. He also took home Player of the Week honors for March 13, 2006 – March 19, 2006.
During the season, Anthony made five game-winning shots in the last five seconds: at Houston on January 8, 2006; at home versus Phoenix on January 10; at Minnesota on February 24; at Indiana on March 15; at home versus the Los Angeles Lakers on April 6. All five of those game-winners were made on jump shots, while the shot against Minnesota was a three-point field goal. Anthony also made a shot in the final seconds to force overtime vs. the Dallas Mavericks on January 6.He made shots in the final 22 seconds against the Cleveland Cavaliers on January 18, 2006, and the Philadelphia 76ers on March 9, which gave the Nuggets leads they would never lose.
Anthony was named to the All-NBA Third Team for the season, alongside Phoenix' Shawn Marion, Houston's Yao Ming, Philadelphia's Allen Iverson and Washington's Gilbert Arenas.
The Nuggets finished the season in third place, winning the Northwest Division for the first time in Anthony's career. Denver faced the sixth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. The Clippers held home court advantage in the series, due to ending the regular season with a better record (Denver finished 44-38; Los Angeles finished 47-35). The Clippers won the first two games of the series on their home floor. The Nuggets split their games at home in Denver (winning game three; losing game four). Denver then lost game five at Los Angeles, which eliminated the Nuggets from the playoffs.

2006–07 season
In the eighth game of the season (a 117-109 home win against the Toronto Raptors), Anthony tied the franchise record of six-straight 30-point games recorded by Alex English (1982-83 season). Coincidentally, Alex English witnessed Anthony tie his record as English is now an Assistant Coach with the Toronto Raptors. Anthony fell short of establishing a new record in his ninth game (a 113-109 home victory over the Chicago Bulls on November 21, as he finished with 29 points. After the Chicago victory, Anthony again tied the club record of six-straight 30-point games, failing to break it the second time around, as he scored 24 points in his 16th game (a 98-96 home loss to the Atlanta Hawks) on December 6).
On December 16, Anthony was one of many players involved in the infamous Knicks-Nuggets brawl during a game at Madison Square Garden. Footage showed Anthony laying a punch on the face of New York's Mardy Collins and subsequently backing away. As a result of his actions, Anthony was suspended for 15 games by NBA commissioner David Stern.[44] Shortly thereafter, the Nuggets traded for Allen Iverson in a bid to form a deadly combination with Anthony. The duo didn't get to play alongside one another until a home game against the Memphis Grizzlies on January 22, which was the day Anthony was allowed to return from his 15-game suspension. Anthony finished the game with 28 points, as he and Iverson combined for 51 points.
On February 2, Anthony and fellow teammate J.R. Smith were involved in a minor car accident. Neither player was injured in the collision. The only information released by the team was that the car Smith was driving belonged to Anthony. Three days later, Anthony recorded his first ever NBA triple-double, with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, in a 113-108 loss to the Phoenix Suns. When the reserves for the Western Conference All-Star team were announced, Anthony was left off of the roster.[48] However, with Yao Ming and Carlos Boozer out with injuries, NBA commissioner David Stern chose Anthony as a replacement (along with Josh Howard). Anthony scored 20 points with 9 rebounds in his All-Star debut. Anthony was the first Denver Nugget to be named an All-Star since Antonio McDyess in 2001.
Anthony won Player of the Week honors three times during the season (November 20–November 26; November 27–December 3; and February 5–February 11), and received Player of the Month honors for April, after leading the Nuggets to a 10-1 record for the month and into sixth place in the final regular season standings of the Western Conference. Anthony finished the season as the league's second leading scorer behind Bryant, with an average of 28.9 ppg, while adding 6.0 rpg, 3.8 apg and 1.2 spg. He was named to All-NBA Third Team for the second straight year, along with Miami's Dwyane Wade, Detroit's Chauncy Billups, Minnesota's Kevin Garnett and Orlando's Dwight Howard. For the second time in three years, Anthony and the sixth-seeded Nuggets faced the third-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. In a virtual repeat of the 2005 first round playoff matchup between the two teams, Denver won the first game in San Antonio, 95-89, only to lose the next four games. The Nuggets were eliminated in the first round for the fourth straight year. In the playoff series against the Spurs, Anthony averaged a team-high 26.8 ppg to go along with 8.6 rpg, 1.2 apg and 1.0 spg.
[edit] 2007–08 seasonOn January 24, 2008, Anthony was named to his second consecutive NBA All-Star Game—his first as a starter. He finished as the leading vote-getter among Western Conference forwards (1,723,701 votes) and second in overall voting to Kobe Bryant (2,004,940 votes) among all Western Conference players.On February 8, Anthony scored a career-high 49 points in a 111-100 home win over the Washington Wizards.He had a field goal percentage of .760 on a 19-of-25 shooting effort, and his shooting percentage was the second highest in the last 13 years for a player who took 25 or more shots in a game (Bryant was first with a .769 field goal percentage on a 20-of-26 shooting effort, in a 99-94 road victory over the Houston Rockets on December 21, 2000).
On March 27, in a 118-105 Nuggets home win over the Dallas Mavericks, Anthony scored his 9,000th career point. He played in 77 games during the regular season, finishing as the NBA's fourth-leading scorer with 25.7 points per game, and had career-highs in rebounds per game (7.4) and steals per game (1.3). He tied his career-high in blocks per game (0.5), and ended the season with 3.4 assists per game, which was the second-best mark of his career.
The Nuggets finished the 2007-08 season with exactly 50 wins (50-32 overall record, tied for the third-best all-time Nuggets record since the team officially joined the NBA in 1976), following a 120-111 home victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in the last game of the season. It was the first time since the 1987-88 NBA season that the Nuggets finished with at least 50 wins in a season.Denver ended up as the 8th seed in the Western Conference of the 2008 Playoffs, and their 50 wins marked the highest win total for an 8th seed in NBA history.It also meant that for the first time in NBA history, all eight playoff seeds in a conference had at least 50 wins. The Nuggets faced the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers (57-25 overall record) in the first round of the Playoffs. The seven games separating the Nuggets overall record and the Lakers overall record is the closest margin between an eighth seed and a top seed since the NBA went to a 16-team playoff format in 1983-84.The Lakers swept the Nuggets in four games, marking the second time in NBA history that a 50-win team was swept in a best-of-seven playoff series in the first round. For the series, Anthony averaged 22.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg (playoff career-high), 2.0 apg and 0.5 spg.

2008–09 season
On December 10, 2008, in a 116-105 home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Anthony tied George Gervin for the most points scored in one quarter in NBA history by scoring 33 points in the third quarter.[57] Gervin had set the record when he was competing against David Thompson for the scoring title on the last day of the 1977-78 season. Anthony shot 12 of 15 (80%) in the third quarter and finished the game with 45 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals.
On January 4, 2009, Anthony broke a bone in his hand in a game against the Indiana Pacers. He opted to have the hand splinted rather than have surgery; his recovery time is estimated at three to four weeks. He had already missed three games in late December with a sore elbow.