Carmelo Anthony has stolen the spotlight and emerged as the go-to-guy. (Source: Getty Images)

To draw an analogy, if the 2003 draft class is like UK music then Lebron would be Coldplay (the “Parachutes” album version), Wade would be the Gorillaz (the mainstream popularity hit about a year after it was warranted), Chris Bosh, Kirk Hinrich, Boris Diaw, Darko Milcic and Josh Howard would be some sort of combination of Keane, The Streets, Franz Ferdinand, the Artic Monkeys and Gnarls Barkley; and Carmelo would be Snow Patrol. Despite the high praise bestowed upon them (Carmelo for his title at Syracuse, U2 calling Snow Patrol the next big thing) both seemed to have gotten lost in the shuffle behind more high profile acts.  Well, it now seems that Carmelo has found his ‘Chasing Cars’ moment at the FIBA World Championships in Japan.

The Carmelo Anthony we’re seeing at this international basketball event is light years away from the same player we saw at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. Two years ago Anthony was singled out and blasted for his performance in Greece after openly asking for more minutes and overall looking like he would prefer to be anywhere other than Athens. To be fair other young players like LeBron, Amare Stoudemire and Wade didn’t have the best experiences either, riding the pine for long periods of time under then USA coach Larry Brown who heavily favoured a veteran rotation. The disappointment culminated in a bronze medal.

This year Team USA is helmed by Duke’s Coach K – someone who knows how to manage all the young players on the roster. His first step was to appoint Wade, James and Anthony as his tri-captains. “It was a pretty easy decision to select those three guys, from the very start they have asserted themselves and showed leadership through how hard they worked, their cooperation and the fact that they wanted to be like everyone else.  They didn’t come in as stars, they came in as members of the team.  Everyone looks up to them and they look up to them even more now because they have set such a good example.” Krzyzewski’s decision seems well warranted now especially when you consider how high ‘Melo has raised his level of play.

Thus far, Carmelo leads the US in scoring, is shooting 14-for-28 from the 3-point line and sits as the tournament’s fourth highest scorer despite only averaging 22 minutes a game. Just process that last line again; he sits amongst the statistical leaders despite only playing in roughly half the game. Truly remarkable.

‘Melo’s defining moment at these games came during an incredible come-from-behind performance against Italy. The US was down by 12 to the Italians in the third quarter when Carmelo took over. He finished the game with an American record 35 points eclipsing Kenny Anderson’s mark of 34 which stood for 16 years. He scored 29 points in the second half, 19 of which came in the third quarter. In the end Carmelo finished with a shooting line of 13-for-19, including 5-of-7 from three point land and five rebounds.

‘Melo’s tournament play and specifically his tour de force performance against the Italians shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise because Carmelo is the NBA’s best clutch shooter.  

That’s not my opinion, that’s fact.

Over the last three years, from the 2003-2004 season to the 2005-2006 season Anthony has hit 11 out of 17 game winning shots; that’s a .647 shooting percentage. The next closest clutch shooter is Ray Allen who has hit on 8 out of 18 attempts. To put Anthony’s clutch performance stats into perspective Kobe Bryant is 7 for 32, DWade is 6 of 17 and shockingly LeBron is only 4 of 19 on game winning shots.

However this tournament ends for the Americans, Carmelo Anthony has officially changed the NBA power dynamic. Any discussion of the best young players now needs to include a 1C option.