Bright lights. Packed arenas. Thousands of fans screaming your name. Carmelo Anthony lived that life for years. And now, he’s about to seal it with the ultimate honor, a spot in the Hall of Fame. But if you know where Melo came from, you know this wasn’t the life he was supposed to have. The streets he walked, the struggles he faced, they don’t exactly hand out NBA dreams there.
In his memoir Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised, Melo recounts a childhood marked by violence, poverty, and the early loss of his father at age two—yet it’s also filled with lessons from devoted coaches, neighborhood mentors, and a community that refused to let him fall. He credits those figures with carving out a path from Towson Catholic and Oak Hill Academy to an NCAA championship at Syracuse and, ultimately, NBA stardom.
Lately, Anthony has been mining those memories to define his own street etiquette. On a recent episode of 7PM in Brooklyn, a comedian with a net worth of $7 million, Karlous Miller quipped, “I ain’t checking in either… to check me out,” poking fun at the modern celebrity ritual of announcing one’s arrival in new cities. Melo didn’t miss a beat. Carmelo said, “I disagree with the check-in situation. You know what I mean. I just think it’s if you going somewhere to a city and it’s you playing on bulls**t you want bulls**t then you might have to check in. But you playing you going to a city and you just you respecting that city you ain’t got to check in.”
Former NBA basketball player Carmelo Anthony on the Kentucky Derby red carpet. May 03, 2025
To lay it out simply, it ain’t about fear. It’s about respect. For Carmelo, it’s less about rules and more about energy. You come correct, stay humble, and remember where you came from, you won’t have a problem. And maybe that’s what made him different growing up in West Baltimore. He didn’t just survive it. He learned from it.
Carmelo Anthony gives life-changing advice to his son
Carmelo Anthony knows more than most the void left by a missing father. After losing his dad at age 2 to cancer, Melo channeled that loss into drive—an experience he now draws on guiding his only son, 18-year-old Kiyan Anthony.
Kiyan’s hoops odyssey began at Christ the King High School in Queens (alma mater of Sue Bird and LeBron James Jr.’s opponent) before transferring to Long Island Lutheran for his junior season. At just 15, he earned a scholarship offer from Syracuse. That’s where his father won an NCAA title—yet insisted he “wanted to create my own name” on campus. Mother La La Anthony has been equally hands-on, revealing on 7PM in Brooklyn she’d “go to war” for his development—literally.
But Kiyan isn’t just another kid with hoop dreams. He’s chasing a name stitched in NBA history, worn by a 10-time All-Star who climbed every rung of the sport’s harsh ladder. And living up to that kind of legacy? It’s heavy. So Melo keeps his advice simple but deep: “Don’t be afraid to do it your way.”
He knows it won’t be easy. “You got to let them take their own bumps, too,” Melo said, his voice laced with the kind of wisdom you earn, not borrow. “When you ready, you going to come back and say, ‘He was right. I’m ready.” That advice echoes Kiyan’s evolution on the cour. From a tentative freshman finding his way to a top-40 recruit unafraid to embrace Melo’s scoring pedigree or forge a new style as a playmaker. Melo stresses not just basketball drills but life skills, urging Kiyan to “ask the right questions early” and “trust what you know” so he avoids “empty mentors and false friends.
Because for Carmelo, it’s not about shielding his son from darkness. It’s about teaching him how to navigate it without losing himself. He wants Kiyan to avoid the same empty mentors, false friends, and wasted years Melo faced. To ask questions early. To trust what he knows. And to understand that being independent doesn’t mean being alone. And that, that’s the kind of advice that can change a life for good.
The post Carmelo Anthony Clashes With 7 Million Comedian Over Differing Street Etiquette appeared first on EssentiallySports.
