NBA legend Carmelo Anthony’s son, Kiyan Anthony, had a challenging freshman season at Syracuse University. Kiyan was ranked as one of the top shooting guards in his class and had offers from Indiana, Michigan, Florida State, and others.
Kiyan also came in with a lot of star power and pressure because of his father’s basketball legacy. He made his debut for the Orange in November, registering 15 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists in a blowout win against the Binghamton Bearcats.
In his first start for the Orange, Kiyan had 19 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. After a good first impression, Kiyan started producing low-scoring games, finishing the season with 8 points per game.
He also averaged 1.4 rebounds in 29 outings, spending 18.7 minutes on the floor per game. But Kiyan is not running from pressure. He is focused on getting better during the offseason and coming back stronger.
Overtime recently posted a video of the 19-year-old on Instagram, and he looked different. Kiyan seems to have put on more muscle, and his movement on the floor also looked more fluid. He showcased some long-range shots, dunks, layups, and more.
His mother and Melo’s ex, La La, reposted the footage on her Instagram story. She has always been supportive of her son’s basketball journey and often highlights his development and accomplishments.
“So much fun today,” La La wrote on her IG story.
Kiyan showed flashes of brilliance in his freshman season. In the first three games, he shot 60%, 72.7%, and 58.3% from the field. Needless to say, he has the potential. It’ll be interesting to see how he approaches next season under new head coach Gerry McNamara, who was also Melo’s teammate at Syracuse.
Carmelo Anthony on His Son’s Freshman Season
Melo recently joined fellow NBA legends Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on an episode of ‘ALL THE SMOKE’. He was asked about Kiyan’s season at Syracuse and how he assessed it as a player and a father.
“A lot of times when I go back there for him, the player hat goes off…I’m in straight father mode,” he said. “To see him go through or deal with his freshman year this way, I sat back, and I really wanted to see how he was going to handle it.”
Melo acknowledged that there’s a lot of pressure on Kiyan because of his father’s legacy at Syracuse and basketball in general. In his opinion, the 19-year-old’s freshman season wasn’t a failure.
“To me, it wasn’t a failure year for him,” he said. “It was something that any 18-year-old kid is going to go through in college.”
Kiyan will never have to burden himself with the pressure of figuring things out on his own. Melo has experienced everything he’s going through now, and he is standing behind him to help him out.
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