Carmelo Anthony

During a time when the best high school basketball players were skipping college to go straight to the NBA, Carmelo Anthony announced his intent to play college basketball at Syracuse University before his senior year. In just one year at Syracuse, it would have been hard to accomplish more as a collegiate athlete. While leading the Orange to the school's first National Championship in 2003, he earned the tournament's most outstanding player and was the consensus freshman of the year.

In the most anticipated NBA draft in over a decade, Anthony was selected third overall by the Denver Nuggets and would quickly turn the franchise's fortunes around. Before arriving in Denver, the Nuggets owned the worst record in the NBA and including Carmelo's rookie season, they have been to the playoffs every year since. As a three-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA player, Carmelo has become the face of the Nuggets.

Carmelo was named to the US Olympic Basketball team in 2004, but the team hardly lived up to the great expectations that began with the 1992 NBA Dream Team; the first to feature professional players. For the first time since 1980 when the Olympic team boycotted the games, the US team failed to win Gold. Eager to reclaim their place as the world's greatest basketball team, Carmelo led the NBA's greatest players back to the Olympics in 2008 as co-captain of the Gold medal winning team that was affectionately dubbed "The Redeem Team."

Giving back to his hometown Baltimore as well as his new home of Denver, Carmelo has established charitable ties in both cities. Through an annual 3 on 3 basketball tournament in Baltimore, Anthony is helping to fund the revitalization of a local community center for local youth though "Melo's H.O.O.D." (Holding Your Own Destiny). Back in Denver, he is a spokesperson for the Family Resource Center and organizes an annual Christmas party, "A Very Melo Christmas," for less fortunate children.

Recognized as one of the top 10 most charitable celebrities in 2006, Carmelo goes beyond local efforts with major donations for sudden catastrophes like the 2004 Tsunami and the earthquake in Haiti. He has also donated a great deal to his alma mater to create a new basketball practice facility and becoming one of the largest individual donors by a current professional athlete to their school.

Carmelo and his fiancee, former MTV VJ La La Vasquez, will marry in the summer of 2010.