THE YOUNGEST TYCOON

Before he could order a drink, Carmelo Anthony turned his basketball fame into endorsement dollars and celebrity status. Now just 21, he’s the ultimate street kid turned unstoppably ambitious mogul. He might even be your next landlord

BY SEAN FENNESSeY PHOTOGRAPHY BY Rainer Hosch

Chilling in the weight room of Denver’s Pepsi Center arena, Carmelo Anthony stares at the gym as the University of Utah’s basketball team runs layup drills. He’s quietly scanning the court when someone breaks in, “Yo Melo, you know any of those boys out there?”

“Yeah, no. 4, the real tall dude. I played against him in the Olympics,” Anthony says.

“That’s the No. 1 pick right there,” he adds, getting his Dick Vitale on.

Anthony has his eyes on Utah sophomore Andrew Bogut, the AP National Player of the Year. He may sound like a grizzled vet, but Anthony is just a year and a half removed from walking through the cold quad of New York’s Syracuse University and three years away from the cracked streets of hometown West Baltimore. Now he sips Hennessy in the club (legally) and leads his tenacious Denver Nuggets on win streak after win streak while moving more weight than a forklift off the court. Anthony was born for this, positioned to helm an empire before he could get into an R–rated movie. His mug is plastered all over billboards and TV as the centerpiece of both the Jordan brand of apparel and Radio Shack. His milk mustache, the ultimate stamp of celebrity, glistens from dozens of magazines. He’s more than just a basketball player; he’s part of a new breed of young, multiplatform moguls.

And despite having the intense heat of the media’s burners following his every move, the 6’8” baby–faced small forward has dealt with the transition from the streets to the spotlight without becoming a monster. He’s soft–spoken and modest during Complex’s photo shoot. He’s not barking orders and demanding caramel lattes. He’s just laying in the cut, nodding his head lightly and mouthing the words to the Jadakiss mixtape booming on the speakers overhead:

But right now all I do is sit back and listen / To a wise young man who quickly became a rich one / Put me up on the fact that it ain’t hard to get some / Chips if I just keep writing with ambition.