Being teammates in the NBA can eventually turn into a love/hate relationship, as you live and share your locker room every day with fierce competitors that not only want the best for their team, but also individually. Carmelo Anthony recently shed some light on the complexity of fighting for the same jersey, when he named his favourite teammates of all time.
We are not saying this is the case between the former All-Star and LeBron James, but we can only speculate this after Melo snubbed the Lakers forward off his list. This surprising omission has sparked controversy over the nuances of their relationship.
It all started on the latest episode of his podcast 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & The Kid Mero. “I think out of all the teammates, it would have to be, I would say, it would have to be J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin because that’s who was on my team for the longest of all of our years.
Lakers News: Carmelo Anthony’s Surprising Snub of LeBron James Stirs NBA Team Dynamics Debate https://t.co/cfbJAeEyoo
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“We was in Denver. We was here in New York,” Melo shared. “We spent a lot of time together to the point where it’s like, I don’t even have to look at you, and you know what type of mode I’m in. You know what I’m about to do. You know, you see it ahead of time.”
Even though Anthony has always praised LeBron as one of the best to ever play basketball, he’s recently been more vocal about his deep respect for Kevin Durant’s game, who he believes deserves to be part of the GOAT conversation.
After Kevin Durant almost singlehandedly beat the Bulls at the start of the year with his 40-point performance, Carmelo appeared this year on an edition of the 7PM in Brooklyn show and shared his thoughts.
“Kevin Durant was recently interviewed, and he said, ‘despite all the accolades I got, I did everything that a GOAT is supposed to do but I ain’t in the GOAT conversation, what’s up with that?’…So at the end of the day when it’s all said and done, does KD deserve to be in the GOAT conversation?” he was asked.
Anthony has described Kevin Durant as one of the GOATs many times before, praise he’s also shared for James but in a different manner
Especially in recent years, Melo has given more props to KD as the GOAT, than he has to LeBron. “…Absolutely! I hate the GOAT talk…he will go down as arguably the most purest scorer that this league has ever seen. He’s a five level scorer. There’s nowhere he can’t score on the court. He’s a champion…He’s seven feet. He changed the game,” he said earlier this year.
Melo then explained why he’s already one of the greatest. “How [are] you not going to say he’s not in the conversation with the GOAT?…If we talking ring culture, Michael Jordan is not the GOAT, Bill Russell is…But people gonna say Michael Jordan is the GOAT…to answer the question, yeah, that man is in the GOAT talk. He is a GOAT,” he assured.
There’s no doubt that the Phoenix superstar is one of the purest and most clutch scorers the NBA has ever seen, but is his legacy greater than we think? In a conversation this year with the press, he suggested that there’s only one reason why he isn’t in the GOAT conversation.
“Because I went to the Warriors,” Durant first said, as his decision to join Golden State was among the most controversial free-agent choices ever. “Why shouldn’t I be in that? That’s the question you should ask. Why not? What haven’t I done?”
