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Chauncey Billups Does Not Believe Carmelo Anthony Can be a Vocal Leader

By William Lee

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Former teammate of Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks, Chauncey Billups does not believe that Anthony can be a vocal leader as per Ian Beglay of ESPN New York. On “The Knicks Blog with Anthony Donahue” radio show Billups had this to say about Anthony’s leadership quailites.

"“He’s not that guy,” “Melo’s a good friend of mine, one of the best players I ever played with, but he’s not the guy who’s going to stand up in the locker room and give this rah-rah speech and get the team to rally. That’s not who he is.”“He is best served when he doesn’t have to be the leader of the team,”"

Although Billups does not see Anthony as being a vocal leader, he also does not believe he has to be in order for New York to be successful. Billups believes that Phil Jackson should sign a free agent this summer to fill that void.

"“One thing he is, he’s going to come to play every single night, he’s going to practice every single day. He is who he is, He’s not that guy [who leads vocally]. But for who he is, he’s great. You’ve got to find another guy to make speeches, and another guy to do most of the leading. [Carmelo’s] going to most of the time lead by example. He’s not going to be vocal, he’s not going to rock the boat.”“[Carmelo] will lead by example,” “He’s going to come to work and he’s playing for the win every night. There’s no question about that, that’s who he is. He’s a great player, he wants to win. He’s going to come to work. He’s going to lead by example, he’s not going to be vocal.”“I’ll just say this, you’ve got all that cap room, you better go find someone [to be a vocal leader]. Melo, that’s not who he is and we are who we are. That’s like asking me to be this guy with a 40-inch vertical and go in there and be dunking on everybody like I’m Russell Westbrook. You can’t ask an apple to be an orange, that’s just not fair.”"

Billups first teamed up with Anthony when he was traded to Denver two  games into the 2008 season in exchange for Allen Iverson.

The trade was a huge success, pairing up Billups’ leadership and clutch shot-making abilities with Anthony’s overall offensive prowess took Anthony to his highest professional peak so far, reaching the Western Conference Finals. Not only was it a massive success for Anthony’s career but the 2008-2009 Nuggets’ season marked the first time Denver had gone back to the Conference finals since 1985. Denver would lose to the eventual 2009 NBA Champions, the Los Angeles Lakers.

When Anthony was paired up with another vocal leader in 2012, again we saw Anthony at his maximum potential as a Knick. New York under the guidance and leadership of Jason Kidd won the Atlantic Division with a 54-28 season. Kidd and Anthony put together one of the most entertaining Knicks seasons in quite some time, and finally helped New York get past the First Round in over a decade.

Anthony is at his best when paired up with a veteran point guard able to command the respect of the whole team with his leadership abilities. So everything Billups said is true, Anthony does not have to be that vocal leader, but that means Jackson needs to go out there and find that vocal leader for the Knicks…AND ASAP!

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