Carmelo Anthony Teleconference Transcript
Carmelo Anthony
Denver Nuggets Forward
On how the idea came about (for a new practice facility):
“Coach Boeheim and his wife brought the idea to me. We were just going back and forth while I was out in Vegas for (USA Basketball) training camp. I told them that I would check with my (management) team and see what we could do to help this come about.”
On what the Syracuse community means to him:
“When I got there the way they took me in as a child was special. They treated me like I was native – like I was one of theirs and I appreciated that. I thought that winning the championship was enough, but it wasn’t, so I had to give back to let them know that I didn’t forget about them.”
On what having a building named after him means to his legacy:
“I don’t really know what it means right now, but in due time it’ll start to make a little more sense. Like you said, it’s a legacy thing. It’s not just for this year or the year after. It’s for a lifetime.”
“My legacy is going to be there forever. People are going to have the chance to go in that facility and not have to fight for court time or field time. Everything is going to be spread out and people will have the opportunity to work to the best of their abilities.”
On if he wished the new facility was available while he was at Syracuse:
“Yes, of course. We practiced at Manley and we had 10 teams in there. You had the track team on the track and we were on the basketball court and the football team was in the weight room. Soccer and lacrosse … you used to have everybody in there. Now you can spread it out and people can feel more comfortable when they are working out.”
On what’s going to be in the building:
“We’re still going over that right now. They sent me the proposal and the blue print of what it is going to look like, but we’re still going over that right now.”
Dr. Daryl Gross
Syracuse Director of Athletics
On what’s going to be in the facility:
“It’s going to be state-of-the-art. We know it’s going to have two courts to it. It’s going to have a Hall of Fame and all of those types of things. It’s going to be really modernized.”
On how much the project will cost:
“Well, most of these buildings are in the neighborhood of $10-25 million. We are in the design stage right now. We want it to be done right. ‘Melo’s name is going to be on it forever and we want it to represent excellence and being extraordinary. We want to give the student-athletes the right atmosphere. We are still in the design phase, but I will tell you that his gift is obviously very significant and it’s very rare because you don’t see these things happen very much. It shows you why he’s so successful as a basketball player on and off the court.”
On what the name of the facility will be:
“Carmelo is definitely on the committee for that, but he threw out something earlier that sounds good. The ‘Melo Center sounds pretty good, but we have a lot of ideas there.”
On what Carmelo’s gift means:
“It goes so far beyond basketball because it enhances the culture for all our student-athletes. The basketball court is right in the middle of Manley Field House and all of you know that Manley was first built as a football facility. So now you have your own practice facility for basketball that’s state-of-the-art. Now we can do some things with Manley. We can bring lacrosse in there and soccer in there when it snows and football and all the other sports. It helps every student-athlete that is in that building. Now you don’t have kids that are having to wait ‘til midnight, like softball for instance, to practice in the Dome because you can’t get any court time. It gives us a chance to compete and we talk about being extraordinary. We believe Syracuse is one of the biggest names in the country and we want to live up to that. Carmelo, when he was there lived up to that and brought us our first national championship and so he’s giving other people that chance now.”
On where the location of the facility is going to be:
“We are still talking about where the exact location is going to be. We expect it obviously to be in the area of Manley Field House and our athletic complex. We want to be very strategic and really brilliant on that. There is a committee that will be handling this and we will go through all the right procedures and protocol. The timing of Carmelo’s gift is perfect to keep the momentum of this project going. All I can tell you now though is that it will be in the athletic complex.”
On if this is the same project George Hicker was pushing for:
“Well this is a project that George Hicker wanted to see come to fruition, I can tell you that. We’ve had such a nice collaborative effort. In addition to Carmelo giving the lead and significant gift, we’ve had a tremendous number of our great donors and alums and friends of Syracuse that have given as well. George is part of that group that I’ve just described.”
On how long this project has been in the works:
“We always say that we are going to dream at Syracuse because we want to be as extraordinary as we can be. We’ve always talked from Day 1 about SU tomorrow and what that meant. Part of that plan is a basketball facility. It’s just dreaming and planning and then making it happen. We have so much great energy in our athletic department and great leadership with coaches like Jim Boeheim. You also have model student-athletes like Carmelo giving back so it makes the plan come to fruition. Instead of going the other way and hopping over hurdles we dream about it and work backwards and it seems to work out for us.”
