SWEET BABY MELON
“At the end of the day, you don’t forget where you came from. I took Baltimore to Beijing with me, and now, I’m bringing Beijing back to Baltimore.” Carmelo Anthony

There are many ways to measure the character of a man. In my world, and for my purposes, oftentimes I must look not only to the man himself, but those he surrounds himself with. Do his friends treat others with respect? Do they lie? Cheat? Steal? (a-hem boom) Assault woman? Start fights? Cheat on their ladies? All these things should be taken into consideration before any of our hotties get placed on a pedestal. Another very important aspect of an ‘athletes’ character is who they select to represent their personal foundations. As a writer, I depend on many PR firms to feed me info on what kind of charity events or foundation activities are happening. A good PR firm will let the entire world know what their client is doing…there are of course numerous PR firms that couldn’t care less about informing the public about the good deeds of their clients. This is a major stone in my shoe and a major gripe among many writers who don’t understand why anyone would hire a PR firm who doesn’t work well with the media. I’m not going to list those I think are indifferent to spreading good news, but I am going to give massive props to Carmelo Anthony for working with Matt Saler and Maroon PR who are doing a phenomenal job in terms of releasing information about Carmelo Anthony’s Foundation. And it ain’t called Carmelo Cares for nothing.

Last weekend, my sweet Melo was in Baltimore where he made a b-line for his Carmelo Anthony Youth Development Center to share his gold medal with over 200 kids. The center in East Baltimore isnt just for an ego boost either, as Melo contributes about $300,000 of the annual $500,000 budget. Indeed a mighty-mighty fine man. The children in attendance were from the Inner Harbor East Academy and the Crossroads School. “There was no way we were missing a celebration like this,” said Inner Harbor East principal Beverly Manigo. “You know, when I told my teachers about this yesterday, I think they were as excited as the kids…How many people you know do this?” she said, “Most of these guys become famous and maybe they donate something, but for him to create this kind of place for kids who might not have any other place to go, it’s different.”

Yes it is different. That’s because Carmelo Anthony is different. He cares about kids, he cares about his roots, his hometown, his legacy. “I just want to say I was so glad to go 15-hours away to Beijing and represent Baltimore City,” Melo said before placing replica gold medals around the necks of teachers and coaches from the schools…makes this girl wonder how I can get a replica placed around my neck…call me crazy, but I would indeed sleep with it. (Not sure my man would be down with that, but he’d understand).

Sweet Melon also has an enormous soft spot for the Ravens and Orioles. Looking phenomenal is his own personal (how do I get that) Ravens jersey, he served as an honorary captain at the Baltimore Ravens game on Sunday, where he did the coin toss. “It means a great deal to be at the Ravens’ first game, their home opener,” said Carmelo. I never thought I would be doing the coin toss out here. It’s just an honor for me.” Melo was also set to throw out the first pitch for the Orioles game but mother-nature cancelled those plans.

He did find time today to do a little Q&A on ESPN chat, where he said the coolest thing he saw in China was “Usain Bolt”…revealed that it takes about an hour to get his hair done after I’ve messed it up…predicts the Ravens will go 10-6 this year…named Carlos Boozer as the funniest TEAM USA teammate…said he “didn’t want to take” off his gold medal…naps before games…predicts Greg Oden as the rookie of the year and would be “making movies” if he wasn’t shooting hoops. For the entire chat session check out Espn.Go.com.

In a perfect world, I could sit here all day, everyday, (except on Formula One race days) and blog about each and every good deed done by Melo. I would dissect each tattoo and explain the beauty of his ink, I would give painstaking details of each smile on the faces of kids as Melo enters the room, and do I daresay that I would insist on a video of Sweet Melon sleeping ala David Beckham years ago? Until then…I’ll just have to settle for the good peeps at Maroon PR to keep this girl in the Melo-loop.

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As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo
delinda@athlebrities.com