Carmelo Anthony
 

Carmelo Anthony has never won an NBA title, and frankly, he's never been close. Maybe one day he'll play with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul, but that's a story for another day.

Anthony does have a champion's pedigree, though. In his lone season at Syracuse in 2003, he led the Orange to the only NCAA men's basketball title in school history. After Syracuse's Elite Eight win Sunday over Virginia, the Orange are two wins away from replicating Anthony's feat.

The Knicks forward was hyped.

"They don't want us to win!" Anthony says, via Snapchat. "Cuse nation is in full effect!"

Many analysts had Syracuse written off the bracket in the hours leading up to Selection Sunday. Yet, somehow, as a No. 10 seed, Syracuse has beaten the odds to reach the Final Four.

The program has had an uphill battle to reach this point in the season. An earlier NCAA investigation led to Syracuse imposing a one-year postseason ban on itself in 2014-15 and the NCAA stripping Jim Boeheim of 108 wins. Boeheim was also suspended for nine games this season and Syracuse lost eight scholarships from 2015-16 to 2018-19. But that didn't keep the Orange out of the Final Four.

Now, Melo's infectious joy has seeped into his Monday morning shootaround.


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