Carmelo Anthony Was “Ready To Walk Away” From The NBA

By Nicholas Williams

Carmelo Anthony opened up about his journey back into the NBA in a recent ESPN interview on Tuesday, about how he was close to retiring before the Blazers signed him.

“I was ready to walk away, yes,” Anthony said in the interview. “I mean cause It’s hard waking up every morning not knowing what to expect, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to work on, you know wanting to give up hope, wanting to give up faith.”

Anthony, 35, was preparing to make a come back to the NBA as videos surfaced on the internet of him practicing in gyms working on his game. He also revealed that he was also preparing himself for if the right situation didn’t come to him, to walk away from the game of basketball. 

“I started taking walks to kind of clear my mind and breathe a little bit and relax and kind of just stay in my moment,” Anthony continued.

With signing with the Blazers, Anthony believes that his stint won’t be a farewell tour and that he still has more game left in the tank to play at a high level.

“A professional and a Hall of Fame guy like him, who I think its been obvious he planned on still being in the NBA, you know he wasn’t at home on the couch waiting for a job,” Blazers teammate Damian Lillard said. “You know he was preparing himself for when the opportunity came, he can come in and show it.”

The 10x All-Star had not played in an NBA game since November 8, 2018. Anthony jumped around different teams after he was traded from the New York Knicks back in 2017.

Anthony played for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2017-2018 season before being shipped to the Atlanta Hawks, where he would be waived and become a free agent. Anthony would then sign with the Houston Rockets and would only play in 10 games in the 2018-2019 season before the Rockets would trade him to the Chicago Bulls, where he would then be waived and not signed for the rest of the season.

“I can’t blame Houston, I can’t blame OKC, It’s a business at the end of the day,” Anthony said. “I think once you know that, everything else kind of falls by the wayside. After a while, I was just like you know what I gotta let it go, right, I just got to let this go and kind of just continue on with who I am as a person more so than a basketball player. That was important to me.”

Anthony signed with the Blazers on a one-year deal on November 15. Currently, he is averaging 16.9 points, and 5.9 rebounds on 44.8% field goal shooting and 38.7% from the three. 

On Monday, Anthony was awarded the Western Conference Player of the Week after helping the Blazers defeat the Chicago Bulls twice and the Oklahoma City Thunder last week as well as averaging 22.3 points and 7.7 rebounds for those three games.