Kiyan Anthony played his first year in college basketball. His freshman year wasn't an ideal one. He could only average 8 points, 1.4 rebounds and less than an assist per game in 29 games. He only started 2 games and even his game time was very limited. He only averaged 18.7 minutes played per game all throughout the season.
When Kiyan committed to his father Carmelo Anthony 's alma mater, there was a lot of hype around his potential. The hype was also natural as one of the absolute greats of the game Melo had left a legacy behind him at the school. So when Kiyan Anthony did not straight away take over and played inspired basketball, the criticism and doubts were bound to come.
If he was not the son of a huge legend like Melo, there might not have been this much pressure. On the flip side, the case is not also about lack of talent. His high school performances and his overall skill set promises a lot of potential. Recently, Carmelo Anthony reacted to his son's freshman year. He judged it and spoke honest from both lenses, as his father as well as a basketball legend.
Melo shared how he has to have two hats while judging Kiyan Anthony's season. As a father, he was supportive of his son and did not judge this season to be a failure.
From the other lens, Melo said , "You coming into one of the biggest colleges, universities in college, right? So and there's a lot of history here. Your father did it. We did it. There's history here. The name is on the building. like this is stamped in and etched in stone for life. So there's a lot of pressure that comes with that."
"So I want to see how he handled that. To me, it wasn't a failure year for him. It was something that any 18year-old kid is going to go through in college, right?
"Also, they're not recruiting high school kids no more. You get what I'm saying? Unless you top two, three, four, five, you're being overlooked anyway as a high school senior coming out into college. They don't think you're ready. They don't think you're mentally ready. They don't think you're physically ready. They just don't think you're ready," he added.
Then he called out modern college basketball about how the student athletes are developed by the team now. He points out how communication is important even if they are not going to play, the players should be informed about it. He also revealed how he has taught Kiyan that these struggles are nothing and he has to grow from this and train more.
Melo voiced his opinion as he said that the NCAA needs to get a hold of college sports as a whole. "College sports is wild. It's a mess. It's wild. Like I'm in it and I'm seeing it from a business standpoint, from every aspect you can watch this from, it's a mess. And it needs to get under control," Melo said.
He also revealed how he is all for players getting the money they deserve. He even fought for the NIL structure the players have right now but he is definitely not happy for the way college basketball is run.
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