Carmelo Anthony’s time with the Houston Rockets was short-lived. Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
Maybe it all would have turned out differently for Carmelo Anthony, produced a narrative arc with more illustrious inflection points, had Joe Dumars done Anthony and the Detroit Pistons the pleasure of drafting him with the second pick of the celebrated 2003 N.B.A. draft.
Fate can be forbidding. A team’s general manager can be foolish. Dumars followed Cleveland’s no-brainer selection of LeBron James by going big for Darko Milicic, the 7-footer from Serbia who seldom escaped Coach Larry Brown’s bench and doghouse as the already formidable Pistons rolled to a championship the following June.