Drive, He Said: Anthony Invests in Auto Racing
March, 19 2006
If the rookie Indy Car driver P. J. Chesson can accelerate as fast as his new car's namesake (the Honda-Dallara will be called the Car-Melo), then one of the stranger sports crossovers in recent years will be a success.
Carmelo Anthony, the third-year Denver Nuggets star, bought into the Indy Racing League team Hemelgarn last week, a deal brokered by the Kiss guitarist Gene Simmons, whose marketing company is promoting the I.R.L. this season.
"When you see a group of three people like that, you know something special is going to happen," Anthony said Friday in a telephone interview.
Though he will neither drive nor paint his face like Simmons, Anthony, 21, will try to promote interest among African-Americans in open-wheel racing.
"I think it will work, I've been getting good feedback already," said Anthony, who announced the deal at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday before hitting the winning shot against the Pacers that night. "It's different, it's another world people get to see me in."
Anthony's face is on the car along with the Nuggets' colors — baby blue and white. Even when not speeding 230 miles an hour, his image is sleek. He has recovered from his part in the bronze-medal embarrassment at the 2004 Olympics and from the vilification over his appearance in the "Stop Snitching" DVD in Baltimore.
"At first, I was too worried about what people were saying about me because it hurt me," Anthony said Monday in New York. "I would do anything in my power to get people to understand who I am as a person. People weren't trying to hear that. But now, as you can see, people are."
Winning is the ultimate image-changer. Anthony has hit six game-winning or game-tying shots since Jan. 6 in lifting the Nuggets to 37-30 (through Friday) from 14-17 since the start of 2006.
"In January, he put this team on his back and saved the season," Nuggets Coach George Karl said. "When we had every excuse to give in to injuries, to give in to the schedule, we won games we weren't supposed to win."
Anthony had led the Nuggets to four victories in six games on the road and had surged to seventh on the league's scoring list (24.6 points).
His invitation to the United States national team has validated his maturity. "It's like a second chance for me," Anthony said. "I'm born again. That's what I feel like right now, for people to throw out what happened last year or at the Olympics."
Intense summer workouts in Denver helped propel him to this point. "I wanted to get used to the altitude; it takes three years to get used to it," Anthony said.
Now opponents are getting used to him at altitude.
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