Carmelo Anthony was one player that oozed with confidence. It is only right that his son, Kiyan Anthony, carries himself with the same self-belief. While it’s great that he was backing himself, the 17-year-old seemed to be extremely ambitious after claiming that he could beat Jayson Tatum in a 1v1 today… during a conversation with the Boston Celtics star.
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Jayson Tatum seemed to be testing Kiyan Anthony when he asked the latter an interesting question. Tatum wanted to know if Carmelo’s teenage son believed he was good enough to defeat an NBA champion. To everyone’s surprise, Kiyan boldly answered “yeah”. But immediately after, he grinned, admitted that he was lying, and gave respect to the superstar.
JT asked, “You think you can beat me now?”
Kiyan answered, “Yeah… Nah, I’m lying.”
Just before this incident, the high school player put JT on the spot. The 6ft 8” forward was asked to predict the score of a hypothetical 1v1 against a prime Carmelo Anthony. Despite the latter being widely regarded as one of the most dangerous offensive talents in NBA history, the Celtics leader backed himself to win 11-8.
Kiyan: “If you play my pops Carmelo Anthony 1 on 1 in his prime til 11 what you think the score would be.”
Tatum: “When was his prime?”
Kiyan: “Last year on the Nuggets going to the Knicks.”
Tatum: “And me coming off the year I won a championship? Me 11-8.”
https://twitter.com/overtime/status/1811456234140368959?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Unlike Kiyan, Tatum’s answer seems much more believable.
Judging the two from the respective seasons mentioned above, the 2009-2010 Carmelo would be a better scorer than the 2023-2024 Tatum. While Melo averaged 28.2 points, Tatum recorded 26.9 points. However, among the two, the former Duke Blue Devil has had 30.1 points as his highest scoring season (2022-2023) as compared to Anthony’s 28.9 points per game during the 2006-2007 season (per Basketball Reference).
It might be difficult to pick one out of the two. But, this might certainly be one interesting hypothetical clash that is worth giving more thought in the future.
Kiyan Anthony believes he’s defeating 17-year-old Carmelo Anthony
While Kiyan Anthony paid his respect to Jayson Tatum when asked about the result of a 1v1 today, the former didn’t hesitate to back himself as the winner of a clash against the 17-year-old version of the latter.
Tatum said, “When I was 17, you were 17…”
Kiyan confidently replied, “I think I would win.”
This isn’t the only time Kiyan has openly claimed to defeat a teenage version of an NBA player. Earlier this year, the Long Island Lutheran High School star believed that he would “fry” a teenage version of his father.
While the 10-time NBA All-Star appreciated his son’s confidence, he simply disagreed. Reacting to the clip on an episode of his podcast, the New York Knicks legend said:
“See the disrespect, see how he disrespect. Are you shi*ing me? Are you shi*ing me? I’m f**king with the fact that he believes that and he exudes that confidence… Usually at this age, you ask a question… It’s like immediate… This means you’ve been thinking out it”
Kiyan is a four-star recruit and ranked 9th in his class among all shooting guards, per ESPN. While he has offers from high-profile programs such as Syracuse and Memphis, the 6ft 4 youngster would aim to have a great senior year and receive offers from many more universities.
