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Melo: Players shouldn't be defined by championships

Shannon Stapleton / REUTERS

Carmelo Anthony will be in the house Tuesday night for another painful reminder of one of the only holes on his impressive NBA resume.

Anthony and his New York Knicks will let the Cleveland Cavaliers receive their championship rings ahead of the first game of the 2016-17 NBA season. They won't watch - head coach Jeff Hornacek says the Knicks will return to the locker room during the ceremony - but Anthony still wishes they could've avoided the whole thing.

"I wish the NBA would let them get their rings the day before, you know what I'm saying?" Anthony told Esquire's Jack Holmes in an interview published Tuesday. "Like I don't know who came up with that rule that you get your rings at the first game."

Anthony, of course, remains without a ring, but has accomplished nearly everything else in his 13-year career. Nine-time All-Star, six-time All-NBAer, three-time Olympic gold medalist, scoring champ. But he knows that for many people, unless he wins a championship, his legacy will be colored by disappointment.

"I don't think you should be defined - I don't think that should be who you are, whether you win or lose (a championship), even off the court," he said. "Just because you don't win a championship, that shouldn't be turned into how you think about me all the way through, you know what I mean? But in sports, somebody's got to win and somebody's got to lose. That's just what it's about. It's competitive - I want to beat you and you want to beat me."

Anthony knows he's closer to the end of his career than to the beginning, and his hopes of winning a ring are dwindling all the time. As he's said in the past, he'll still be proud of his career even if he retires with no jewelry to show for it. But he also admits he'll feel a bit empty.

"I wouldn't be satisfied," he told Holmes, "but what can I do at that point? I'm not going to be depressed that I didn't win if I didn't at that time. I'm not going to be depressed or down inside. But yeah, I wouldn't be satisfied because that's what we play for. We play to be at the highest level. So there's no way I would be satisfied."

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