Carmelo Named To the All-World Team; Male Athlete of Year

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Carmelo Anthony

The Denver Nuggets’ Carmelo Anthony was named the 2006 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year by USA Basketball today. Its sort of interesting since he’s not even playing basketball right now.

To boot, the world’s journalists were put together to name an All-World Championship, and of all the American basketball players, Melo was the only one to the receive the honor. Argentina’s Manu Ginobili, Greece’s Theo Papaloukas, and Spain’s tandem of Pau Gasol and Jorge Garbajosa rounded out the team.

After being snubbed by the US Basketball Team for the Olympics in 2004, Carmelo was chosen as co captain with Lebron James and Dwayne Wade and led USA Basketball in scoring (19.9 ppg). The team was 13-1 and earned a bronze medal.

In his own words about being named USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year:

“I’m very honored to receive this award,” Anthony said. “I want to thank Mr. Colangelo and Coach K and his staff for giving me the opportunity to play for this team. I worked extremely hard over the summer to prepare because I take great pride in playing for my country. I also want to thank my teammates. They’re a great group of guys and we had a lot of fun playing together. I look forward to continuing to work hard for USA Basketball and helping us get that gold medal in ‘08.”

Coack K of the USA Basketball Team had this to say:

“Carmelo was the ultimate team player. He had an outstanding summer, starting with our training camp in Las Vegas and ending with being a dominant player in the FIBA World Championship. He was a man after victories and showed how classy and mature he was in our one defeat. I love the way he plays the game, but I love the way he carries himself as a leader on the Senior National Team even better. He is very deserving of this award. With Carmelo, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James as the core of our National Team over the next two years, we have a lot to look forward to in USA Basketball.”

I hope so.

Resource:
SI.com - NBA - ‘Melo named USA Basketball’s athlete of year

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