Carmelo Anthony has spent most of his basketball life in the same conversational neighborhood as the game’s immortals, so when he’s asked to name an all-time starting five, people naturally expect the usual pillars. Michael Jordan. LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. The safe answers, the consensus icons, the names that keep barbershop debates alive.
Anthony didn’t go there.
Asked by Fanatics to build his all-time five, the Hall of Fame scorer went with a lineup that immediately grabbed attention because of who wasn’t on it, and because the picks came with a tell: this wasn’t a “greatest résumé” exercise, it was a “guys I’ve seen up close and believe in” roster.
“Point guards, I got a chance to play, I wish I played earlier in my career with Derrick Rose,” Anthony said. “Shooting guard, I mean, I played with AI. You know what I mean? So I go with AI. Threes, T-Mac. I don’t want to say this, but I would say Garnett. And then at the five, I mean, Shaq is Shaq.”
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That’s Derrick Rose, Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O’Neal, a group that reads less like a consensus Mount Rushmore and more like a love letter to peak dominance, fearlessness, and the parts of the sport that can’t be captured by ring-counting.
Rose at point guard is the most personal pick in the bunch, and Anthony essentially explained why: he’s thinking of the version of Rose that was a problem before the knees and the timelines caught up, the downhill blur who made the floor tilt. Iverson is even more straightforward, Anthony played with him in Denver, lived next to that daily competitive fire, and picked him like someone choosing a tone-setter as much as a scorer.
McGrady at the three is the purest “hooper’s choice” on the list, the kind of selection that says, I’m betting on apex talent, not longevity arguments. Garnett at the four is where Anthony paused, “I don’t want to say this”, a hesitation that only makes sense if you remember how real NBA grudges can be, and how much it still means to publicly stamp a rival with respect. And Shaq at the five is the easiest sentence anyone can say in these exercises: “Shaq is Shaq,” the human cheat code you drop into any imaginary lineup when you want the paint to belong to you.
The shock value, of course, is the snub list. No Jordan. No LeBron. No Kobe. The internet treats that omission like sacrilege because it clashes with the way fans usually build these teams: collect the biggest names and call it “objectively correct.” But Anthony’s version is more revealing than rebellious. It tells you he’s drafting feel, fear factor, and the kind of players who made the game hard for everybody else.
It also fits who Carmelo has always been: a scorer who appreciates other scorers, a star who came up in an era where individual shot-making was a form of identity. His NBA résumé is already cemented, 19 seasons, 10 All-Star selections, a scoring title, and a Hall of Fame induction on the way.
