Remaining a student has led Carmelo Anthony into various industries.
The former NBA player, who retired in 2023 and is a first-ballot Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, reflects on his evolution from the 19-year-old drafted in 2003 to a businessman who is now a serial investor and founder in the wine and cannabis sectors. One of Anthony’s biggest takeaways: He is no longer operating in fear.
“A top lesson that I’ve learned was ‘stop being afraid,'” he recalled in an interview with AFROTECH™. “A lot of times when you’re younger and you in these powerful roles and there’s people who are making decisions and there are people writing checks, it’s like ‘You too young to understand it,’ until you grow and until you get older, you go through it and you understand what you truly want to do.”
He continued, “At 19, 20, 21, I didn’t have any type of sense of business. I knew street business, I knew street knowledge. I have foundational ethics and morals that could carry over from the streets to the boardrooms or the conference room. Walking into those rooms, I always operated off of that, always observed, always listened and until now, I can take all that information and those experiences [and ] say, ‘I’m gonna tap into this lane… Everything that I try to do, it does stem from the 19, 20-year-old kid.”
STAYME7O
Among Anthony’s current pursuits is the launch of his own cannabis brand. According to a press release, STAYME7O has launched in New York in partnership with Grand National, a cannabis agency co-owned by Anthony, cannabis entrepreneur Jesce Horton, and award-winning creative director Brandon Drew Jordan Pierce (“Beedy”).
The brand, which can be shopped at select retailers across the state, will feature premium strains all selected and named by Anthony and created with the assistance of geneticists, cultivators at Flowerhouse, and vaporizer brand HOLIDAY. Included strains:
- Pressure Pack (Sativa)
- Hall of Flame (Hybrid)
- Garden Grape (Indica)
Through STAYME7O — and also his wine brand, VII(N) The Seventh Estate — Anthony has a chance to break existing stigmas and encourage the responsible use of cannabis among communities and athletes.
“You hear so many negative stories when it comes to athletes or money and what they do with money and just business,” he mentioned. “Sometimes you fall victim to that, because that’s the only thing you hear. For me, the term was really understanding these different industries that I wanted to attack, and it’s because I know the information, I know the data. I knew these industries that people didn’t want to go to. People were afraid to go to the wine industry, especially as an athlete. Cannabis as an athlete was a no, to even talk about that or even to be around it. So, I wanted to tap into those industries that we couldn’t get into years ago.”
Portion Of Proceeds Go To Nonprofits
For Anthony, beyond establishing his footprint, STAYME7O will also be another avenue to pour back into the community. This will be done through the brand’s social equity mission with a portion of profits being donated to NuProject, a nonprofit supporting diverse entrepreneurs in wealth building through funding, coaching, and networking, as well as the Last Prisoner Project, another nonprofit that is aimed at cannabis criminal justice reform.
“To every company or brand that I’m associated with, it will always be a part of some type of community impact or social equity,” Anthony expressed.
Full-Circle Moment
Bringing the venture to New York is a full-circle moment for the Brooklyn native, who spent seven seasons proudly wearing a New York Knicks jersey. He now has the opportunity to deepen his impact and further demonstrate his love for the state and its people.
“New York is my community. I’m a part of a greater community who have a sense of passion and have a sense of pride, but also from a business side, if you get it right here in New York, you get it right… I wanted to show people that I’m going to do it right. I wanted to show people, I’m giving back to my community. We’ll be creating jobs here in my community. So it’s not just about the flower. When I put New York on it, it represents something that’s deeper,” he said.
