No Hummer, he's driving Big East

Carmelo Anthony: The `other' NBA-bound prodigy, he's acing his probable only year at Syracuse.

College Basketball

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Carmelo Anthonyby the numbers:

20.7 points per game

9.3 rebounds per game

45.6 Total field-goal percentage

36.5 Three-point percentage

35.3 Minutes per game

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The mind and body that once caused Carmelo Anthony so much grief will make him very rich very soon. In the interim, America's other 6-foot-8, 18-year-old basketball prodigy is getting kicks that beat driving a $50,000 SUV.

How peculiar, that while the hoops world turns on the status of his Hummer-driving, throwback jersey-wearing buddy, LeBron James, Anthony has found a cocoon in the Carrier Dome, home of the world's largest regular-season crowds.

Considering the baggage-free zone at Syracuse University where Anthony resides, is there an NBA team that might pass on James, this decade's version of the greatest high school player ever, and instead make the No. 1 pick in next June's draft a freshman forward who's two years removed from Towson Catholic High?

Exactly how big is Anthony's upside?

As wide as his considerable backside and as vast as the floor game that has sent opponents scurrying for defensive stoppers.

"His age is what makes him so intriguing," said an NBA scout, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We would all feel less excited if he was 22, but we see him at 18, and wonder, with normal progress, what will he be like in a few years? What we know is that he can shoot, put the ball on the floor and that he plays within himself. He's got a great basketball IQ."

Anthony absorbs the comparisons to the talent of Tracy McGrady and savvy of stars of an earlier vintage, like Magic Johnson. He hears the praise for his physique and smarts, and can't help but laugh as he recalls his rocky entry into high school.

Anthony was academically ineligible at the start of his freshman and sophomore seasons at TC, and in between he was reduced to tears by the growing pains that stretched him from 6 feet to 6-6.

"Those struggles? I can laugh about them now," Anthony said, "I'm enjoying life right now."

Sprawled in a couch after a light session of lifting weights, Anthony asked if he could turn on a TV. It was the day that Ohio high school officials suspended James, and Anthony was searching for news the old-fashioned way, checking CNN and ESPN. It would be hard to get through to his contemporary's cell phone, not that chatting up the best players in the world is ever a problem for Anthony.