Meet Kiyan Anthony, son of Carmelo, rising basketball star

Kiyan Anthony didn’t have a possible NBA profession in his sights till comparatively lately.

One might need thought this is able to be a pure ambition for Kiyan, the son of former Knicks famous person Carmelo Anthony and actress La La Anthony, since quickly after delivery, but it surely got here far more into focus as his sport elevated exponentially over the previous yr.

Kiyan is the topic of a brand new six-part docuseries on Additional time’s YouTube channel entitled “The Evolution”, with the primary episode debuting on Saturday.

“The NBA wasn’t within the image [a year ago] as a result of I didn’t know the way good I used to be and I didn’t know the way good I used to be going to be,” Kiyan advised The Submit in a telephone interview earlier this week.

Each father and son that Carmelo advised Kiyan at an early age that he wasn’t going to power basketball on him, however can be there for him if excelling within the sport grew to become his dream.

“As soon as I began going to work out and play with my AAU group, I noticed, ‘Oh that is truly enjoyable,’” Kiyan continued.

“Once I bought to highschool, I didn’t suppose I used to be actually good, however this previous yr I took an enormous leap and now I really feel like I can compete with the very best within the nation.”

Kiyan performs for Lengthy Island Lutheran Excessive Faculty in New York and for his father’s Workforce Melo EYBL (AAU equal) group.

Carmelo, as an NBA participant, was continually on the street till his closing season final yr; now he’s figuring out with Kiyan every single day.

“I really feel like a father now,” Carmelo advised The Submit, with a bounce in his voice.

“I really feel like an on a regular basis father — someone who’s there, waking up with you, I get to plot and plan and strategize the best way dad and mom do with their children, and never doing it from afar, in one other metropolis, in a lodge. I can actually information him now. I’m extra enthusiastic about that than something.”

This time final yr, Kiyan wasn’t in ESPN’s high 100 gamers within the class of 2025, and now he’s approaching the highest 50 and is the top-ranked participant in New York.

Kiyan has provides from and is hoping to go to Indiana, Michigan, Florida State and Syracuse, the place his father gained a nationwide championship.

Different provides embrace Maryland, Illinois, Pittsburgh, Seton Corridor, Memphis and Tennessee.

“If you happen to had requested me a yr in the past, I’d have stated I needed to go to D-1. I had a suggestion from Memphis then, however I really feel prefer it wasn’t actually real, as a result of going on the market towards competitors, I didn’t really feel like I might actually sustain a yr in the past,” Kiyan stated.

“I actually developed. Now I see myself guarding the very best gamers on the opposite group and going at them on offense. Earlier than I’d have relied on another person on my group to do this.”

Carmelo attributed the expansion to “endurance” and “believing within the course of.”

“Issues are all beginning to come collectively for him and formulate the best way we had a plan for him,” Carmelo stated.

“Now he has his confidence, and he’s enjoying towards greater and stronger guys, and he’s enjoying very nicely. At this age it’s all about how you are feeling as a younger man — your confidence and mentality — and I’ve seen these rise the previous 5-6 months.”

When Carmelo starred at Syracuse, there weren’t many different choices apart from faculty for taking part in basketball in between highschool and the NBA.

Now, gamers additionally might be a part of Additional time Elite — the place the fourth and fifth general picks within the 2023 NBA Draft, Amen and Ausar Thompson competed — or the G League, the place third general decide Scott Henderson performed.

Carmelo is an investor in Additional time, which has greater than three million YouTube subscribers, and along with basketball runs a helmetless soccer league and boxing matches.

Kiyan stated that “for now” his plan is faculty, however he’s maintaining his choices open.

Carmelo stated he’s there as a sounding board, however that they’re “not in a rush” and so they nonetheless aren’t having conversations about precisely the place Kiyan desires to go.

“I nonetheless need him to undergo the method of being recruited, and what that’s like as a child. I need him to expertise that,” Carmelo stated.

“So far as the colleges go, I inform him, ‘This can be a choice that you simply make. I’m not placing any stress on you to go to at least one faculty. What I’ll do is whenever you need to sit down and undergo these items, I’ll provide the execs and cons of every scenario, and my perspective on what scenario I believe suits your fashion of sport. After that, you make your individual choice, and as a father I’ll be happy with the choice that you simply make.’ ”

So far as what Kiyan desires viewers to take out of the “Additional time” sequence, he stated that “I simply hope that they’re capable of see the opposite aspect of my life — not simply basketball, as a result of I really feel that’s all individuals see of me within the media, so I simply need everyone to see me for who I actually am.”

Carmelo concurred, saying, “I need individuals to grasp what sort of child my son is. He’s nonetheless a child. He’s solely 16 years previous. He’s nonetheless going by way of issues as a teen as a younger man and making an attempt to determine life out, so I need individuals to see his character and who he’s — the child that I see each single day.”