Friday 15 November 2019 05:20, UK
Carmelo Anthony, the 19th-leading scorer in NBA history, is set for another shot at increasing his point total.
The 35-year-old forward agreed to a non-guaranteed contract with the slumping Portland Trail Blazers, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Thursday night.
Anthony has been out of the NBA since playing 10 games for the Houston Rockets early in the 2018-19 season. He last played on November 8, 2018, when he shot 1-for-11 from the floor and scored two points in Houston's 98-80 loss at Oklahoma City.
The Rockets then kept him inactive until trading him to the Chicago Bulls on January 22 in a deal that involved cash and the swap of two European players. The Bulls waived Anthony on February 1.
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A 10-time All-Star, Anthony was the NBA's scoring champion in 2012-13 when he averaged 28.7 points for the New York Knicks.
Selected with the third overall pick in the 2003 Draft by the Nuggets, Anthony spent seven-and-a-half seasons in Denver. He was traded to the Knicks in a February 2011 three-team trade that also involved the Minnesota Timberwolves.
After six-and-a-half seasons in New York, Anthony played with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2017-18 before his brief stint with the Rockets.
All of his 1,056 career games before last season were starts, but Houston brought him off the bench in eight of his 10 appearances.
Anthony has 25,551 career points, a figure that trails only LeBron James' 32,806 among active players. His career average of 24.01 points per game also sits 19th in NBA history. Only James (27.13), Kevin Durant (27.02) and James Harden (24.55) have better career scoring averages among active players.
The Trail Blazers (4-8) are coming off a 114-106 home loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, their sixth defeat in seven games.
Portland are averaging 112.2 points per game, which ranked 12th in the NBA through Wednesday. However, the Blazers' field-goal percentage (44.1), is just 23rd in the league.
The Blazers' next game is on Saturday at San Antonio, the start of a six-game road trip.
Anthony played one season of college ball, leading Syracuse to the 2003 national title and he was part of three gold-medal-winning squads with the United States team.
