Last month, a blockbuster trade landed Denver Nuggets superstar Carmelo Anthony with the Carmelo Anthony Knicks, sparking a media frenzy and hopes for the team’s first NBA championship since 1973. The renewed optimism for Gotham hoops comes as Melo joins former Phoenix Suns sensation Amar’e Stoudemire, who this season inked a five-year deal worth nearly $100 million in the Knicks’ aggressive push for a title — and relevancy.
“The Knicks are a classic franchise, so it’s nice to see them having a moment,” says GQ senior editor Will Welch.
Off the hardwood, both athletes are known as much for their style swagger as they are for their stutter step.
Stoudemire — who threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Yankees-Tampa Bay game in September — has cemented his sartorial standing by wrangling Anna Wintour to Madison Square Garden for a Knicks game.
Meanwhile, Anthony has been a tabloid fixture since Stoudemire threw a star-studded dinner at the West Village’s Spotted Pig to welcome his newest teammate and longtime friend.
The dapper dandies certainly know how to make a Big Apple entrance — pocket square and all. “Amar’e feels like an old soul, in a way,” says Welch.
“He’s got the whole prep thing going on. You see Amar’e in bow ties, chunky-framed glasses and cardigans.”
In 2009, the Brooklyn-born, Baltimore-raised Anthony began working with celebrity stylist Khalilah Williams-Webb, who refined his aesthetic.
Much to her delight, he shaved his trademark braids without nagging.
“My first question for him was, ‘Are you going to shave your braids?’ And he said no. [But] I went to Denver one day, and they were gone. I was so excited,” says Williams-Webb, who recently picked up varsity letterman jackets and crew-neck sweatshirts for the newly minted Knick.
She put him in custom suits with pops of color and tossed the baggy jackets out with his untucked, oversize shirts.
Stoudemire and Anthony, who stand at 6-foot-10 and 6-foot-8, respectively, both have pulled off style coups for men of their height.
The stars — who entered the NBA while in their teens — are devotees of LA-based tailor Waraire Boswell. At 6-foot-7, Boswell is an expert at fitting a taller, more athletic frame.
“Despite all of the money at their disposal, they can’t just walk into Barneys and Bergdorf and buy off the rack,” says Welch. “They have to have their stuff made for them.”
Knicks fans, however, love them best in blue and orange mesh.
Stoudemire, who only started playing organized ball at 14, was drafted into the NBA right out of high school, while Anthony played a year at Syracuse, won a national championship and entered the pros with just one year of college under his belt.