Carmelo Anthony Addresses NBA Rumors In Raw Interview

Carmelo Anthony has not played in an NBA game in almost nine months and the first month of free agency has come and gone without him having signed for a new team. The New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets have all rejected him in the past two years. To many players, this would be a signal to retire.

But in a recent interview, Anthony fought back. He revealed that he wants to keep playing in the NBA, saying “I love the game too much to get away from it. I’ve never even thought about a farewell tour.”

“I’ve thought about this being my last year, but that was at the time I was really emotionally vulnerable at that point in time. Now I feel like I still could play, I know I still could play, my peers know I still could play.”

“I felt like the game didn’t love me back at that point. … Now, I love the game too much to be away from it.”

–Carmelo Anthony on his free agency

(via @FirstTake) pic.twitter.com/rCXr0ZBu5z

— ESPN (@espn) August 2, 2019

While he didn’t say it so explicitly, the implication was that Anthony feels he deserves more than a send-off. He said he believes he can still help an NBA team in the next few years. He is even willing to accept a lesser role if that’s what it takes to do so.

“I don’t think it’s about basketball anymore.” Anthony said, “I think it’s about me as a person willing to accept certain roles on a basketball team. Am I willing to accept a certain role on a basketball team? Yes. I’d gotten to a point in Houston where I had to accept that role, and I was just getting into accepting that role.”

He wasn’t prepared for that sort of change in Oklahoma City.

“I had to accept a role I wasn’t willing to accept at that point and time,” he said. His Rockets stint, according to him, was marred by poor communication.

“I wasn’t willing to accept that role of coming off the bench in Houston because that never was relayed to me. It was ‘you are the piece that we need to get us over the hump and win a championship.’ I went in with that mentality. ‘We need Melo to come in here and get us over this.’ I watched the previous year. I saw where I can plug myself in there, and I really believed that we were gonna do that. But when I get there, it was something totally different. The dialogue started getting less and less. There was no more conversation. It was just doing it, and then I got to react to the things that are being done.”

Carmelo tells @stephenasmith about his conversation with Chris Paul and James Harden after his time in Houston. (via @FirstTake) pic.twitter.com/tFes8csREc

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) August 2, 2019

“I didn’t like how that went down.”

—Carmelo Anthony talks about getting released from the Rockets. pic.twitter.com/OxwyUBl2wd

— First Take (@FirstTake) August 2, 2019

Anthony may not have adjusted flawlessly to that new reality and his performance was below-average in both seasons, but he at least tried to fit in with better teams.

“There’s too many people speaking on my name, and I don’t like that.”

–Carmelo Anthony on people saying he’s not willing to play off the bench pic.twitter.com/VALEQXW0sK

— First Take (@FirstTake) August 2, 2019

“The ultimate goal is to win a championship,” Anthony revealed, claiming it to be the reason he landed with the Thunder and Rockets. “It’s the only thing left for me to do is win a championship.”

Anthony’s representatives had reached out to contending teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers and there were also reports stating the Knicks considered bringing him back to New York at one point during the offseason.

“I want to play and I want to go and win a championship, but I also want to play. I want to get back out there on the court. I miss the game. I was away from the game for damn near a whole season. I got the opportunity to step back and grow as a person, and I deserve another shot,” he says.

The only thing that matters is that Carmelo Anthony wants to keep playing. He wants to do everything in his power to prove that he still belongs in the NBA and only time will tell if any team was willing to give him a chance.