Melo Joins 20,000 Point Club

Pretty elite company when you think about it. Sunday night, Carmelo Anthony joined the elite in the NBA, hitting his 20,000 point. Anthony knocked down a 3-pointer from the left wing with 7:41 to go in the first quarter to reach the 20,000-point threshold, becoming the 40th player in NBA history to crack that milestone. Carmelo becomes the 6th youngest player, at 30 years 157 days, to hit the milestone. He trails Oscar Robertson (30 years 97 days), Michael Jordan, (29 years 326 days), Wilt Chamberlain (29 years 134 days), Kobe Bryant (29 years 122 days) and LeBron James (28 years 17 days) as the fastest to hit 20,000 points. The only player in the 20,000-point club who is eligible for the Hall of Fame and not enshrined is Tom Chambers (ESPN).

Not only is Carmelo the 40th player to hit that milestone, he's also the 8th active player to hit the mark, joining Kobe, LeBron, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Tim Duncan and Vince Carter. Carmelo has spent 12 years in the league, playing between Denver and now here in New York. At 30, Carmelo still has a lot of gas left in the tank in his career, but has a long way to go to catch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his 38,387 career points.

So now it begs the question, where is Carmelo going to end up on the all time scoring list when all is said and done? It depends on two things. One is his health. Outside of his rookie season in Denver, a year in which he played a full 82 game schedule, Melo hasn't been able to play a full season. The closest he has been able to come to that is 80 games in 2005-06 with Denver. Otherwise he has played as little as 60 games in a year and at most 77 games in a year. So if, and this is still an if, Carmelo can play 67-80 games a year, including the rest of this season, for another five maybe six years, then he has a shot at it.

The other thing that has to work in Melo's favor is his production. On average, Anthony has scored about 25.8 points per game in his career, and he averages 26.4 points per game in his time with the Knicks. If he can keep up his averages, based of some quick calculations, Melo could finish his career with 32,221 points, which would place him around 4th place all time in scoring in league history. That's if he can stay health, and keep up his averages that he's had throughout his entire career.

Carmelo has made an impact throughout his career, and still has a lot left in the tank to prove he can be a star player in this league. All he needs now is a ring to go along with his ever growing legacy!