NEW YORK _ Carmelo Anthony will return to Madison Square Garden on New Year's Day with the Trail Blazers, perhaps for the final time as a player (who knows?), and the inevitability of the end all raises the question of whether his number should be retired at MSG.
Anthony, 35, is hopeful.
"Do I think about it? Anybody would want to get that opportunity if it's there," he said recently. "We'll see when that time comes. Hopefully, they'll hang '7' somewhere up there."
Anthony, who is struggling with his shot lately (31 for 83 in his last six games), is a lock for the basketball Hall of Fame and should crack the top-20 in all-time scoring. But the Knicks are historically more selective with their immortality selections. Only eight players have been honored with retired jerseys in the Knicks' 73-year history: Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Earl Monroe, Bill Bradley, Dick Barnett, Dick McGuire and Dave DeBusschere.
Six of those players were champions with the Knicks. The other two are Ewing and McGuire.
Anthony's Knick credentials include 6 { seasons of mostly his prime. He sits seventh on the franchise's all-time scoring list with 10,186 points and secured a spectacular season in 2012-13, when he averaged 28.7 points and finished third in the MVP voting. He also led the Knicks to 54 wins that season and their only playoff series victory in the last 20 years.
But any serious argument about Anthony's jersey in the rafters must go through the line of players before him who deserve consideration. Six come to mind.
