Q: Was it inevitable that Melo’s career is ending so ingloriously? Is this the ending he deserves? — Jonny Lucas

STEIN: I certainly can’t claim to have envisioned Carmelo Anthony generating so little interest as a 35-year-old. So inevitable isn’t the word I would use.

As worrisome for his future as Melo’s struggles in his lone trip to the playoffs with Oklahoma City proved to be — signs I’m guilty of ignoring — I never imagined that the Rockets would turn on him as quickly as they did last season. Melo definitely didn’t deserve to be scapegoated for all of the Rockets’ ills after just 10 games, but it’s also true that, as philosophers far smarter than me have noted for centuries, we don’t always get what we think we should in life.

But I, for one, applaud U.S.A. Basketball officials for resisting the recent calls to hand Melo a token invite onto the FIBA World Cup roster. Another stint with the national team would have done nothing to improve Melo’s N.B.A. prospects — and I’d argue that it would have detracted from the Olympic Melo legacy he built in four previous trips to the Summer Games.

Given how his N.B.A. career has panned out, with only two trips past the first round of the playoffs in 16 career seasons, Anthony will likely need his national-team brilliance to clinch his election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. It’s far better for Anthony that our last memories of him playing in red, white and blue stem from his starring role at the Rio Olympics in 2016 rather than some sympathy selection at the World Cup three years later.

I will never forget the Nets’ aggressive efforts to trade for Melo before training camp started leading into the 2010-11 season, because I was on my annual soccer vacation in Manchester, England, trying to cover the story from 3,500 miles away. The sappy romantic in me certainly won’t quibble now if the Nets, nearly a decade later, give in to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, who reportedly are lobbying to finally acquire the Brooklyn-born Anthony and give him an opportunity to resurrect his career.

Q: Regarding your recent amazement about the fact that there have only been 277 left-handers in the league’s 73-year history, don’t forget that, according to Wikipedia, roughly only 10 percent of the population is left-handed. Given that there have been roughly 3,100 N.B.A. players over the past 50 years, it’s not too far off that 10 percent-of-the-population standard. — Doug Temkin (San Jose, Calif.)