Even before making it to the NBA, millions of people already knew Carmelo Anthony’s name. He’s one of the greatest scorers in basketball history, one of Team USA’s all-time leading scorers, and a future Hall of Famer.
Anthony was the third-overall pick of the 2003 NBA Draft and made an immediate impact in the league, leading the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks to the playoffs before his career took a bit of a downfall.
But, long before that, it seems like people couldn’t even get his name right. Growing up in Baltimore after spending the first years of his life in New York, the young Melo had to start from scratch and even considered changing his name.
Carmelo Anthony Says He Almost ChangedHis Name To Tyrone Johnson
“I’m in 3rd grade. I’m coming from New York,” Melo said onArmchair Expert with Dax Shepard. “Nobody knows who the hell I am [in Baltimore]. I come the summer of ’92. School starts in September. So I have two months to meet some people, hang out. Mind you, I’m 8 or 9 years old at this point. When I get to 3rd grade, first day of school you gotta write your name on a white index card.”
“That whole summer, people was butchering my name. It was just like ‘Caramelo’ and ‘Camelo’. “There wasn’t no nothing bad to it. I just didn’t like people f–ing my name up. … So I write the name ‘Tyrone’ and I’m looking around and I’m like ‘what last name am I gonna go with?’So I see a textbook and it’s like ‘Johnson’ and something textbook. So I’m like, ‘Tyrone Johnson’,” Anthony said.
Well, kids will be kids. It’s hilarious to think that a frustrated young Carmelo wanted to be called Tyrone Johnson, and it’s even funnier to imagine all those children mispronouncing his name.
At the end of the day, Anthony decided to just suck it up and stick with his name. Now, I’m pretty sure that all of his former classmates are damn sure who he is.
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