Despite his individual success in the NBA, Carmelo Anthony hasn't found much team success in his thirteen-year career. He advanced deep in the postseason once with the Denver Nuggets, making the conference finals in 2009, but since getting traded to the Knicks, Anthony has never gotten past the second round.

It's a tough pill to swallow for any superstar player, if you indeed want to put Melo in that class, which many would. No championships. Not even a Finals appearance. Surely Anthony would harbor some regret if his NBA career were to end without a ring, but perhaps not as much as you'd expect -- largely because of the success Melo has had at the international level, to say nothing of his high school and college careers.

From ESPN's Marc Stein:

"Most athletes don't have an opportunity to say that they won a gold medal, better yet three gold medals," Anthony said.. "I would be very happy walking away from the game knowing that I've given the game everything I have (and) knowing I played on a high level at every level: High school, college, won (a championship) in college (at Syracuse) and possibly three gold medals.

"I can look back on it when my career is over -- if I don't have an NBA championship ring -- and say I had a great career."

...

"Of course because we play in the NBA that's always the goal: To win an NBA championship," Anthony said. "But every year (there's) a new champion, so you have an opportunity to compete for a championship every year. This is every four years."

Anthony, the all-time leading Olympic scorer in USA Basketball history, is perhaps one of the best international players of all-time, and if Team USA wins gold in the 2016 Summer Olympics, Melo will become the first player to win three gold medals.

Anthony, of course, also won a championship in his lone year at Syracuse, and you can't say he hasn't been able to translate his success internationally and in college to the NBA as he's a nine-time All-Star and has had multiple second- and third-team All-NBA selections.

It should be noted that Anthony isn't saying his success in the Olympics and college trump an NBA championship. He wants that ultimate NBA prize, but if he can't get it, it won't haunt him. He won't consider his career in any way a failure, as he shouldn't. He is a slam-dunk Hall of Famer. That doesn't mean critics will go easy on him.

As a side note, I wonder how the Knicks feel about this contentment?