Carmelo Anthony gets big-time basketball broadcasting gig

NBC has hired basketball legend and one-time Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony to be a leading studio analyst when the network begins broadcasting NBA games next season, according to The New York Times.

The 40-year-old retired from the game in 2023 and will likely soon be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Since he stopped hooping, Melo has gotten some fame from his 7PM in Brooklyn Podcast, which could be a good indicator of possible future TV chops.

Anthony is one of the greatest players in Team USA history, a legendary NBA player whose highlights were split between Denver and New York as well as a champion in college. Anthony averaged more than 20 points per game in all of his seven-and-a-half seasons with the Nuggets and made the All-Star Game four times. Denver was just 17-65 the year before they drafted him and made the playoffs every season during his tenure. Unfortunately, Anthony and the first round of the postseason didn’t get along. He lost in Round 1 five straight years to start his career and six of the seven years he was in Denver. The team went on a magical run to the Western Conference Finals in 2009, but that was after Chauncey Billups and his leadership and experience were brought to town.

Anthony eventually grew unhappy and demanded out of Denver, which he now disputes. After a long saga, that wish was granted in Feb. 2011 when Anthony was moved to the New York Knicks. Sent out with Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman, the Nuggets got a big package back. It was Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, the Knicks 2014 first-round draft pick, the Warriors’ 2012 second-round pick (obtained from previous trade,) the Warriors’ 2013 second-round pick (obtained from previous trade and $3 million in cash. Denver used one of those picks to select Jamal Murray.

Anthony is still a complicated figure in Nuggets history. He helped put the franchise back on the map after a dreadful eight-year stretch in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But he also torpedoed his way out of Denver when it felt like the Nuggets could achieve something special. He never reached an NBA Finals elsewhere. Since leaving Denver, he has talked ill of the Nuggets a bunch and has again brought up the controversy of his No. 15 not only not being retired in Denver but being worn by Nikola Jokic. The things Melo has done in the past few years have only further strained his relationship with fans in Denver. Even his retirement from the game seemed to undercut the Nuggets as he announced it the same day Denver clinched its first-ever trip to the NBA Finals thanks to a sweep of the Lakers—something Anthony never did.

Watching Anthony regularly talk about the Nuggers and Jokic on network television will be fascinating.

NBC is basically taking over TNT’s package of games with Inside the NBA moving to ESPN. NBA’s new broadcast package kicks in to start 2025, with ESPN, NBC and Amazon being the major partners. That means we’ll be seeing a lot of Melo since NBC will carry a ton of games. NBC has the All-Star Game, Monday night games exclusively on Peacock, Tuesday games on NBC and Sunday nights. NBC’s Sunday night slate will begin after Sunday Night Football goes away, so it could take over as the premier night for hoops viewing. NBC will also carry a third of the playoffs, including a conference final in six of the next 11 years.

Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle will handle play-by-play with Jamal Crawford and Reggie Miller doing color for games. The rest of the studio show has yet to be filled out so Melo is the building block to the team—hopefully for his sake being the star of a TV show will lead to more success for NBC than being the star of a basketball team did for the Nuggets.