For Carmelo Anthony, it’s not just about putting his name on a tournament. He knows that Baltimore expects him to show up, too.

On Saturday, a crowd of more than 2,300 gathered at A Very Melo Classic, and the retired 40-year-old former All-Star sat in the center, courtside. He took breaks from watching five high-level prep basketball games to shake hands and take photos with a seemingly endless trickle of fans.

Melo may largely reside in his native New York (his podcast “7 p.m. in Brooklyn” attests to his roots there), but in Maryland, Baltimoreans still see him as one of their own. Some of the most excited fans were the 7- and 8-year-old members of Team Melo, his sponsored youth basketball program, all wearing matching jerseys as they leaned in toward him for a group picture.

“You see the energy that we are creating, how Team Melo is actually out here in the city and the community,” Anthony told me. “It’s just about just kind of revitalizing our city.”

The only piece of the scene that felt odd was that Anthony, the fans, and the tournament were not in Baltimore at all.

The third iteration of the annual high school showcase migrated further north — from Towson University last year to Harford Community College this year. Perhaps the jammed parking lot attested that the distance didn’t deter too many folks, but the outside-the-Beltway locale isn’t exactly convenient for city-dwelling basketball-lovers and aspiring hoopers to make the long trek.

There are logistical challenges to bring the showcase within Baltimore’s borders. Every local college had a home game this past Saturday, the weekend before the Super Bowl, when the Melo Classic organizers are trying to establish an annual spot on the calendar. No one seems more aware of this than Anthony himself. As much as he appreciated Harford County hosting the event this past weekend, it’s his prerogative to bring hoops closer to the city where he became a budding star.

“Baltimore — they don’t have nothing like this,” said Anthony, who played for Towson Catholic. “Baltimore used to be known for having a Super 50 tournament, Baltimore City Classic — like all of those kind of nostalgic things. This is what I’m trying to bring it back to.”

It’s a challenge. High-level basketball is harder to come by than it used to be here. The now-named Super 60 Tournament is hosted in Ellicott City, for example.

CFG Bank Arena is the annual host to the Division II CIAA Tournament, whose closest team is Bowie State, and last year it hosted a one-night, two-game event with Villanova, Virginia, Penn State and Virginia Tech. But outside of those two showcases, there’s little outside of regular local college and high school games. It has been more than a decade since the Washington Wizards played a preseason game in the city, and the Terps men haven’t played a neutral court game in Baltimore in a while, either.

When I talked to Mayor Brandon Scott a year ago about the state of basketball in Baltimore, he told me without hesitation: “Baltimore is a basketball town above everything else.”

If that’s true, its residents should surely get a little more than they’ve gotten in recent years.

Even though it’s high school, the Classic featured traditional DMV boy’s basketball powerhouses like Gonzaga and Oak Hill Academy as well as local favorites like Mount St. Joe and St. Frances. Couldn’t the Classic be played at CFG, giving city residents a close gathering place for their hoops?

In 2023, folks packed into Coppin State to see Angel Reese in her final campaign with LSU — the hunger is definitely there. And Anthony and his team pointed to the audience who trekked out to Harford County as even more evidence that the appetite exists. Anthony would like Baltimore to be seen as the basketball hotbed that he remembers from his youth.

“I would love to see more preseason games here in Baltimore, I would love to see a WNBA team here in Baltimore,” Anthony said “We need it. We want to build it up from the top down and the bottom up.”

To that effect, Anthony has lent some of his marketing weight behind The Sanctuary Collective, a recreational facility built inside a refurbished Mount Vernon church that is expected to open in March. The facility will have a ground-level basketball court (of course) but also feature turf surfaces, a weight room and nutritional and mindfulness advice to kids who come to work out. The inspiration, Anthony said, was the rec centers where he developed as a player, but he hopes the Sanctuary will be a more holistic experience.

Anthony has gotten a taste of youth basketball these days through his own son, Kiyan, who will follow in his father’s footsteps at Syracuse next fall. Kiyan’s Long Island Lutheran won the final game of Saturday’s showcase, and Kiyan was the game’s MVP.

Anthony retired officially in 2023, and while his friend and former teammate LeBron James shares the Lakers bench with his own son, Bronny, Anthony said he harbors no illusions about trying to make a comeback for a pro shot with his own kid: “Nah, nah, I’m good on this side,” he said.

While his and Rudy Gay’s retiring feels like the end of an era of Baltimore stars, Anthony insisted it’s far from barren. Immanuel Quickley, Cam Whitmore and Bub Carrington are some of the locals who have made the NBA leap. Anthony shouted out Reese with the Chicago Sky, and Derik Queen at Maryland.

“There’s a lot of ‘em,” he said, “they’re just scattered.”

“Scattered” might be the state of Baltimore hoops in a nutshell. Hopefully Anthony, and others like him, help bring more basketball closer to home.