Carmelo Anthony is a legend of college basketball as in 2003, he led Syracuse to a National Championship before being drafted by the Denver Nuggets. Melo went on to be a prolific scorer in the NBA although right now, he's on the outside looking in as far as a contract is considered. Despite all of this, Anthony is looking to stay connected to the basketball world and on Wednesday night, he surprised the Syracuse basketball team with a pre-game speech.
"I just want to let ya'll know how important this is for me to be here on your guys opening night. [Boeheim] didn't even know I was coming," Anthony said via TMZ. "I wanted to be here for you guys. I know the excitement that's surrounding you guys right now. Nobody gonna give ya'll a shot. Everybody gonna count ya'll out. But as long as you got each other right here, this is what matters."
Unfortunately for Anthony and his alma mater, they ended up losing the game by a whopping score of 48-34. It was a historically low-scoring night for Syracuse as they took on the defending-champion Virginia Cavaliers. While it's nowhere near Melo's fault they lost, it must have been a bad feeling having to watch that game after they got clobbered at home.
Hopefully, Syracuse can improve as the season rolls on. We're sure Melo would prefer that to be the case.