Carmelo Anthony doesn’t seem as if he’s in the good graces of Colin Cowherd.
On Tuesday’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Fox Sports’ newest talking head had something unflattering to say about the New York Knicks superst—er, I mean, the New York Knicks forward, because Cowherd clearly isn’t OK with calling Melo a superstar:
"He's the most overrated star in the history of the league" – @ColinCowherd on Carmelo Anthony. #HerdHere
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) September 15, 2015
Two things here.
First, that’s the only context I have. I don’t know exactly what he was discussing, because I hardly listened to him while he was with ESPN, and I haven’t listened to him at all since he moved to Fox Sports. For all I know, then, he could have been asked if Carmelo Anthony was better then Michael Jordan or something, and that quote-bit was his knee-jerk reaction. I doubt that’s what actually happened, but in the interest of full disclosure, I don’t actually know.
Second, and this is important, Anthony is not the most overrated star in the history of the NBA. At this point, he shouldn’t even be overrated.
This isn’t a game in which I’ll start rattling off more overrated stars than Melo, nor is this to say that, at one time, Melo wasn’t overrated. But if he’s overrated now, it’s on those doing the rating.
Melo is flawed. We know this. And we’ve known it for some time. If we’re weighing him against LeBron James and Kevin Durant, we’re doing it wrong. Very wrong. He’s not either of those guys, and he’ll never be them. Melo is, first and foremost, a scorer, and he’s great at what he does.
Now 31, Melo has also proved to be a more willing passer, as his assist percentages would indicate, per Basketball Reference, and he’s even turned into a dangerous spot-up shooter. In 2013-14, his last healthy season, he drained more than 43 percent of catch-and-shoot treys, according to NBA.com, suggesting that, if he ever gets the chance, he’ll be a nice superstar complement.
Anyone still thinking that he can be the primary anchor of a championship contingent is admittedly overrating him. But that’s the problem. When someone has been in the league for 12 years, you should know who they are, you should know what they are.
And Melo isn’t on LeBron’s level, or on the same level as some other superstars.
But, in acknowledging this, we should also acknowledge that he is only overrated insofar as we expect him to be someone, to be something, he’s not.
