“We Could’ve Played An Extra 4,5 Years”: Rip Hamilton Ponders Over How Carmelo Anthony On The Pistons Would Help Him

The 2003 NBA Draft Class is often considered one of the best in history. Carmelo Anthony was a part of the draft class along with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and more. Melo was slated to be the #2 pick, which belonged to the Detroit Pistons. However, he ended up being the third pick in the draft and went to the Denver Nuggets.

Pistons legend Rip Hamilton was asked about what would’ve happened if the Pistons drafted Melo instead of Darko Milicic as their number two pick. Hamilton’s answer sounded like he had given a lot of thought to the ‘What if’ scenario in the past.

He said, “If we had gotten Carmelo Anthony. Man, that would’ve been insane.” During the 2000s, the Pistons were one of the strongest teams in the league. They found their way to the Eastern Conference Finals four times. At the same time, they advanced to two NBA Finals, winning the championship in 2004. Hamilton said that he had had conversations about this hypothetical scenario with Chauncey Billups.

The 2004 Champion believes that he could’ve prolonged his NBA career with Melo taking charge of the team. He said, “I tell Chauncey, we could’ve played an extra four or five years in Detroit…Because Carmelo was gonna, at one point be the man for us.” Hamilton would’ve taken a backseat with Melo steering the ship.

This would’ve added some more years to his career because then he wouldn’t have had to shoulder the team’s responsibility. Unfortunately, the draft didn’t go as planned and Melo went to Denver. The decision was surprising for the 10-time All-Star at first as well.

Carmelo Anthony had big plans for the Detroit Pistons

On an episode of the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Melo was shown a picture of himself having a conversation with LeBron at the 2003 NBA Draft. Referring to his expression in the picture, Melo said, “That’s the picture when I found out I wasn’t going to Detroit.” The 40-year-old revealed the details of his conversation with LBJ.

He said, “We were talking about, yo, you going to Cleveland, I’m in Detroit, we’re right next door…We’re gonna play against each other, this is what the people want to see.” Melo was confident that he was going to be the #2 pick after LeBron and had some plans for his time in Detroit.

Even though Melo couldn’t go to Detroit, he made his mark in the league, establishing himself as one of the greatest scorers and players of all time.