Carmelo Anthony's son Kiyan Anthony talks about one of the "first coaches" to believe in him when he wasn't a highly-ranked player

High school basketball star Kiyan Anthony may be the son of basketball legend Carmelo Anthony, but he had to work hard to become a ranked player. He spoke with Tyler Glazier on the Pro Insight YouTube channel during the USA Basketball junior minicamp in Colorado earlier in October and opened up about the people who believed in him while he was still starting out and his future in college.

Kiyan Anthony, the No. 34 overall ranked player from the Class of 2025, started out playing baseball but eventually got better with basketball. Glazier asked how he was working with the schools from his final three, which are Auburn, Syracuse and USC.

"I'll start with Auburn, you know, Bruce Pearl he has a a track record of getting players like me to the league." Kiyan told Glazier. "You know, Jabari Smith, a bunch of players. A lot of my friends go to Auburn now, like Jakai Howard, they tell me a lot of good things about Coach Bruce and I talk Coach Bowman every day."

Kiyan talked about USC head coach Eric Musselman and his program. He said that when he was still unranked, it was Musselman who believed in him.

"As far as USC, Coach Mus (Musselman), when he was at Arkansas, he started recruiting me. He was one of the first coaches to really believe in me when I wasn't, you know, a high-ranked player or nothing like that," said Anthony.

"So then when he went to USC, he just kept it going and I feel like USC is just great weather in California. They have a good team, you know."

Kiyan Anthony was also all praise for his father's alma mater Syracuse and coach Adrian Autry.

"And then Syracuse, obviously like assistant coach has been on me and then they have a new head coach in Coach Autry, but even when he was the assistant he was still reaching out to me and then going to see them practice and going to see them play, I feel like that's just that's my game," he said.

Syracuse still the favorite to get Kiyan Anthony

With the Long Island Lutheran shooting guard down to his final three, many predict he would choose Syracuse over USC or Auburn, citing Carmelo Anthony's relationship with the school, which won the NCAA title in 2003. According to On3, the younger Anthony is 84.2% likely to join the Orange.

However, Kiyan has previously said during a vlog that his dad is not pressuring him or pushing him to go to Syracuse and is instead letting him choose his own path.