Carmelo Anthony has pretty much done it all in basketball. Ten-time All-Star. Scoring champion. Olympic gold medalist. Hall of Fame lock. But there’s one thing he has no interest in adding to the résumé: being an NBA head coach.
Anthony made that crystal clear on his podcast, 7 PM in Brooklyn, during a conversation with projected No. 1 NBA draft pick AJ Dybantsa. The topic came up naturally, and Anthony didn’t mince words.
“I don’t want to be a coach,” he said. “I’d rather develop.”
By develop, he means working with younger players on their games, not drawing up out-of-bounds plays or managing rotations for 82 games. Dybantsa, now with the Washington Wizards, jumped in with a line that got laughs but made the point even clearer.
“Why am I drawing something up?” Dybantsa said. “Just go get the bucket… Now I gotta draw up a play… I’ll be a horrible coach.”
The clip spread fast on social media, and honestly, it resonates with a lot of people. There’s this assumption that if you were great on the court, you’ll be great on the sideline. History says that’s often wrong. Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell — all all-time players, all mediocre to bad as coaches. Turns out seeing the floor doesn’t automatically mean you can manage a bench, a clock, and 15 egos.
Coaching Would Be a Different Kind of Grind
Anthony knows what he’d be signing up for. More scrutiny than he faced as a player. Longer hours. The grind of an 82-game season. The constant pressure to delegate to assistants, which for a guy who carried offenses for two decades might not come easy. He’s not interested in that life.
Instead, he’s focused on his business and media ventures. He’s got his own wine label, a production company, and a podcast that regularly pulls in big guests. That’s where his energy goes now.
But that doesn’t mean Anthony has walked away from basketball entirely. He coaches his 19-year-old son, Kiyan, who’s building his own recruiting profile. He also serves as co-general manager of basketball operations at Oak Hill Academy, his former high school. That gig lets him shape how young players develop without being the guy whose job is on the line every night.
The NBA coaching carousel keeps spinning, and every offseason brings rumors about former stars who might take the leap. Anthony won’t be one of them. He’d rather stay in the background, helping the next generation get ready for the spotlight without having to live in it himself.
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