“They jerked us. I think he deserved to make it. No bias s—. I think he really put the work in and really deserved to be a McDonald’s All-American because of his journey and because of his trajectory and how his development went,” said Carmelo Anthony back in March in defense of his son, Kiyan. Just like the children of many NBA greats, the former New York Knicks player’s son also decided to pursue basketball professionally and found some memorable success. Therefore, it came as a surprise to many, including Carmelo Anthony, when Kiyan did not make the 2025 McDonald’s All-American roster. While everyone got to hear from the former NBA player, Kiyan himself did not choose to go into too much detail about his snub. Until now.Kiyan Anthony, along with another second-generation basketball player, Dylan Harper, was a guest on Carmelo’s long-running ‘7PM in Brooklyn’ show. As the conversation progressed, Melo’s co-host, Kazeem Famuyide, highlighted his desire to know more about the 10x NBA All-Star’s reaction to the news. After all, Carmelo Anthony himself was named to the McDonald’s All-American team back in 2002. Therefore, he would have liked nothing more for his son to have also received the honor. And when Kiyan broke the news?“Oh yeah, I told him I was like ‘I ain’t make it.’ Cuz I seen it. I seen the roster before it got…. before it got announced. So I was like ‘I ain’t make it.’ He thought I was lying, he thought, you know, he was like ‘No way’,” Kiyan recalled. Once it became clear that it wasn’t a joke, Carmelo Anthony went straight into father mode.“He seen it, and it was really nothing to say. It was just like ‘Got to keep working’,” Kiyan revealed. “And, you know, I knew it was other games, so I knew I was going to go into the other games with a different type of energy”.The snub was certainly an unexpected moment. Even Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade commented on it, during an appearance on the ‘7PM in Brooklyn’ show, saying, “Man, Melo was so hot, he ain’t even text me back when I asked him!”Carmelo Anthony confirmed this by saying, “The kid ain’t lose in high school yet, in his senior year yet. They’re the number three in the country. What are we sitting here talking about? How? That’s my perspective on it.”Even former NBA player and Carmelo Anthony’s on-court rival, Gilbert Arenas, said, “What you think would have happened if Kiyan was in the actual game? Nobody was going to watch the Knicks if the king was playing. Come on!”Not every basketball player is born with the athleticism and body build needed to make a mark. Kiyan Anthony knew this from the start. During an interview with ‘Interview Magazine’, he said, “I’m just most proud of staying down and working. Some people had it from the beginning. They were number one, they were number two, number three from the beginning. But I just kept working, I stayed down”. After facing failure, what else could Carmelo Anthony have said, except that the player needs to further work on improving himself?Improve himself, Kiyan Anthony surely did. Whether it was the talk with Carmelo Anthony or his inner feelings, Kiyan set out on a mission to make a mark, and he did it.Kiyan Anthony’s motivation allowed success in the Jordan Brand Classic after All-American SnubDuring the interview, Kazeem Famuyide recalled being in Brooklyn for the McDonald’s All-American game, with the buzz being quite dim. “Yo, where’s Kiyan at?” was the question asked by many. When asked about that snub, Kiyan highlighted how he had initially been absent for 14 games during his last high-school season. When he came back from recovering from his injury, his team went on a 17-game winning streak. This made him confident about his chances of making the All-American game. Even people around him highlighted that he had “nothing to worry about”. When the snub finally came, it hurt. However, instead of sulking for long, Kiyan used that motivation to prepare for the later tournaments.“I thought I should be in there, but it was cool,” said Kiyan. “I just kept working. I was healthy at that point, um, and then my mindset going into everything else was just like…. I knew everybody that was in the McDonald’s game was going to be at the Jordan game. So, just going in there, you know, proving myself, and I did that and then, you know, going into Iverson, going into Hoop Summit, just knowing I’m going be seeing these players every day. And um, just got to keep making a stand for myself, improving myself, and I did a good job with that closing, you know, the playoffs out, the postseason into, you know, the All-Star games”.Kiyan wasn’t too effective at the 2025 Hoop Summit. The 9 minutes of playtime allowed him to score only 1 point, along with 2 rebounds. However, when the time came to play at the Jordan Brand Classic event in Washington, DC, Kiyan Anthony did more than just ‘play well’. He, along with Oklahoma commit Aaliyah Chavez, was voted the two games’ MVP. This happened after scoring 26 points to lead his team to a win. The 11-15 field goals, including a 3-5 shots from the 3-point range, played a major role in Team Air defeating Team Flight 141-124. For anyone believing that the player wasn’t good enough to make the McDonald’s All-American game roster, the 18-year-old proved them wrong on that day in Washington, DC.Carmelo Anthony and his son, Kiyan, watch the Don Bosco Prep Ironmen compete against the McEachern Indians in a game during the 50th annual City of Palms Classic at Suncoast Credit Union Arena in Fort Myers on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. Kiyan Anthony and the Long Island Luthern Crusaders defeated Westminster Academy earlier in the day.It was good that Kiyan Anthony was able to have his moment of redemption. He might not have had it had his father not given him the message of not giving up. With any luck, that shouldn’t be the end of things. Currently committed to play at Syracuse, his dad’s alma mater, the 18-year-old will have a chance to continue avenging the snub during the collegiate season. How he fares there is something that remains to be seen.The post Kiyan Anthony Reveals Private Chat With Angry Carmelo Anthony After Facing Major Snub appeared first on EssentiallySports.