Will Smith is an extremely talented actor and Carmelo Anthony is a Hall of Fame player. Both are hailed by their peers as all-time greats, but both share a similar problem in their respective professions. They care more about their individual successes and star power than the team’s success in Melo’s case and the film’s critical success in Smith’s case. Don’t believe me? Just read on.
Both pros experienced a lot of success early in their careers. Coming off a highly successful run in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Smith had a string of box-office hits with films like Bad Boys, Independence Day, Men in Black, and Enemy of the State (the latter two being critical darlings as well). Then came Wild Wild West which remains one of Smith’s biggest failures, both critically and commercially. Even worse, he turned down the lead role of Neo in The Matrix in order to star in Wild Wild West. Despite this colossal failure, Smith remained a star and box-office draw.
Melo was drafted number three overall by the Denver Nuggets after winning a National Championship at Syracuse in 2003. He helped turn the Nuggets around in his rookie year, taking them from 17-65 to 43-39, and earned a spot in the playoffs while finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting. Anthony steadily improved, eventually becoming an All-Star mainstay and making a few All-NBA teams, but he and the Nuggets were bounced in the first round in each of his first five seasons. This was contrasted with the postseason success of his fellow 2003 draftees LeBron James, who had made a Finals in 2007, and Dwyane Wade, who won the NBA title in 2006. Although commentators harped on this, Anthony’s numbers vaulted him into being one of the top players in the league.
Smith’s first prestige project was Michael Mann’s Ali, released in 2001. It was clear that Ali was Smith’s attempt at garnering critical praise and award buzz, both of which he did. His performance is truly magnetic as he channels “The Greatest”, but the larger film is just fine. It drags in a lot of areas and by the time it’s over, you’re almost relieved. Smith’s swing for the fences paid off though. He was nominated for his first Academy Award. A combination of critical derision and commercial success followed with Men in Black II and Bad Boys II. By this point in his career, moviegoers were going to see Will Smith, not the movie. Smith was able to get movies like I, Robot, Hitch, and Hancock off the ground and into theaters worldwide. With the exception of Tom Cruise, no other star could single-handedly get any movie made. While Smith was raking in the dollars, critical reception was mixed with The Pursuit of Happyness as a high point and Shark Tale and Seven Pounds as low points. Then came the death blow of Smith’s ability to open any movie: 2013’s After Earth.
The production of After Earth was plagued by a litany of bad decisions that should’ve been easily prevented. This is not a case of hindsight being 20/20. The producers (including Smith) ignored all the signs that led to this dumpster fire. Smith was still a bankable star at the time so that was fine. The wheels start to come off when you learn that the story of the film was conceived by Smith himself, who is not a writer. M. Night Shyamalan as director might’ve been the worst decision of the decade in the film industry. The kicker? Smith wanted Shyamalan to direct the film and persuaded him to do so. This is all coming off of Shyamalan’s 2010 directorial effort (or lack thereof), The Last Airbender, which is derided as one of the worst films ever made. Smith also required that his son, Jaden, co-star. The film opened in third place and lost about $20-$30 million.
To top it all off, Smith turned down a certain Western in order to star in After Earth (as well as Men in Black 3). That’s right, Will Smith said no when Quentin Tarantino offered him the part of Django in Django Unchained. Smith’s reasoning? He felt that the character of Dr. King Schultz, played by Christoph Waltz, was the real lead. He told Entertainment Weekly:
”Django wasn’t the lead, so it was like, I need to be the lead... The other character was the lead! I was like, ‘No, Quentin, please, I need to kill the bad guy!”
He amended this story a few years later claiming he turned down the role because he wanted to a love story, not a revenge story.
”It was about the creative direction of the story. To me, it’s as perfect a story as you could ever want: a guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken as a slave. That idea is perfect. And it was just that Quentin and I couldn’t see [eye to eye]... I wanted to make that movie so badly, but I felt the only way was, it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story.”
Whatever helps you sleep better at night, Will. While Smith had an ok 2015 with Focus and Concussion, he then starred in critically reviled films such as Suicide Squad, Collateral Beauty, and Bright. However, Smith may very well be on the upswing after a committed performance as Genie in Aladdin and a welcome return as Mike Lowrey in Bad Boys for Life.
So, where does Carmelo fit in all this? Much like when Smith got his first Oscar nomination, Melo reached a new level of success when the Nuggets made it to the 2009 Western Conference Finals, helped largely by former NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups. The Nuggets lost in six games to the eventual champion Los Angels Lakers, but there was obvious improvement and potential with that Nuggets team. If they kept the core together, maybe they could make the Finals in the following seasons. The 2009-10 season was a step back as Denver lost in the first round yet again. Anthony began to voice his discontent with Denver and frequently expressed his desire to play in New York. Melo got his wish during the 2010-11 season and the trade effectively gutted the Knicks as their young guns (Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, etc.) went to the Mile High City. Anthony loved playing in Madison Square Garden. He loved it more than winning. Denver experienced greater postseason success than the Knicks during Anthony’s entire tenure in MSG with the exception of the 2012-13 season.
In the summer of 2014, Anthony became an unrestricted free agent and could’ve gone anywhere to try to get a ring or he could have stayed in New York (a prime free agent destination) and taken less money to lure other free agents there to build a contender. Instead, Anthony signed a max deal thus hamstringing the Knicks’ cap flexibility. The 2014-15 season saw the Knicks endure their worst season in franchise history, finishing at 17-65. But hey, at least he got to play in the Garden.
Melo followed up his stint in New York with short stints in Oklahoma City and Houston. At both stops, he could not come to terms with a diminished role due to his declining play. Houston benched him after ten games, and he didn’t play for the rest of the season because he wasn’t the right fit. Melo kept trying to play iso ball taking long 2-point jumpers off the dribble, some of the most unproductive inefficient shots for the analytics-driven Rockets.
After extended time away from the NBA, many commentators wondered why Carmelo Anthony wasn’t on an NBA roster. Former teammate Chauncey Billups offered up a theory,
”Melo was like a good teammate, man. Melo practiced every day. He didn’t miss any games. Now the only thing I will say - and I’ve even told Melo this - scoring 30 meant too much to Melo. It meant too much because he could have games where he had 20, 22 [points], we win the game and he’s mad. He might have 36 and he’s in there, you know, we lose the game and he’s in there picking everybody up. Scoring 30 meant too much, but I think now you look, fast forward the tape, and the reason why he’s not in the league... is he hasn’t mentally taken that step back to say, ‘OK, I’ll come in and play against the back-ups. I’ll try to help the team out. I know I might not be able to close, but I just want to help.’ Well, he’s not there yet.”
Mic drop.
Anthony is on the Trail Blazers now, largely due to the string of injuries the team has suffered. He’s playing starter minutes at the power forward position. However, he better prepare to come back down to earth when Zach Collins, Rodney Hood, and Jusuf Nurkic all come back from injury and Anthony is relegated to the bench. He can’t just laugh it off like he did during that press conference during training camp in his lone season in Oklahoma City. Bob McAdoo was a 3-time scoring champion with the Buffalo Braves, but didn’t have playoff success. When he was traded to the Showtime Lakers in the early eighties, he was blindsided and somewhat frustrated by his sixth man role, but he sacrificed in order to win his two championships. Maybe Anthony should take a page out of McAdoo’s book.
Look, you can’t deny both Will Smith’s and Carmelo Anthony’s respective talents, but clearly their egos have gotten in the way of them experiencing transcendent-level success. In Smith’s case, he should probably look at the later careers of actors like Matthew McConaughey and Brad Pitt. Both of those actors made concerted efforts (like taking pay cuts) to pick better projects which resulted in the McConnaisance and Brad Pitt’s Best Supporting Actor win for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Smith is as talented if not more talented than both of those actors. He just has to dial down the brand/superstar side of Will Smith and channel the actor/performer side more.
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