Paul Pierce Didn’t Enjoy How Physical Carmelo Was
Carmelo Anthony was hurting his chest.
Defending Carmelo Anthony hurts.
He was a big, physical guy who attacked his defender like a raging bull.
He didn’t care who was between him and the basket -his goal was to get as close to the basket as possible and he was willing to use his 6-8, 240-pound body and strength to do it.
There was this series of plays from the 2009 Western Conference Finals where he annihilated Kobe Bryant in the post by bumping and pushing him all over the place as he fought for position.
Then, once he got position, he just scored the easy baskets.
This is what Paul Pierce believes made Anthony one of the toughest players to defend.
On an episode of the I Am Athlete podcast, Pierce said Melo (the original, not LaMelo Ball) was hard to play against because he was physical and he made you feel his attack.
“To me, [Carmelo Anthony], dog. No, listen though. I’d rather guard LeBron, Kobe, T-Mac before Melo. He used to hurt my chest. He’s a bulldog, like he going to be physical, you know. He post you up, he going to hit with a shoulder in the chest -you going to be hurting after the game.”
Camelo’s aggressive play is one of the reasons he’s one of the top scorers in NBA history.
He was the scoring champ in 2013 (averaged 28.7 points per game), is a 6-time All-NBA player and is currently 10th on the NBA All-Time Points leaderboard.
Final Thoughts
The first time I watched Melo was when he was competing in the Final Four with Syracuse in 2003 (when he led them to the NCAA championship) and the thing that caught my attention was his physicality.
He was constantly bodying his defenders down low and I enjoyed watching him bully his opponents.
No one was able to stop him. He was too big and strong and dominated everyone.
And it’s this style of play that made me become a fan of his.
Do you enjoy watching physical basketball?
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