While the NBA is filled with star players all around there are some players who are often celebrated but have not won the Championship ever in their career. One such player is Carmelo Anthony, despite being one of the greatest scorers in NBA history the Portland Trailblazer man has mostly featured for middling teams who are more often than not fighting for playoff contention.
Melo was in the draft way back in 2003 along with Dwayne Wade and LeBron James and their friendship was right from the start of their career and they have always shown the immense respect that the trio has for each other opportunity came.
However, one instance had an impact on his life when an opportunity came his way to play alongside Dwayne Wade and LeBron James as he was tipped to join Miami Heat. They wanted to form a big three and thought that this trio could have achieved everything in the league.
But then Melo did not take that step and we never got to witness the trio in action. The 36-year old himself revealed during an interview with ESPN, “Well, it probably wouldn’t have panned it probably wouldn’t have come up like that.”
“It probably would have been me and LeBron somewhere. And D Wade and Bosh somewhere. Right? Like it was always in after that the talk was, were we going like, where can we go? Like, what can we partner up at? Where can we come up? You know, like, this is too good. We want this feeling forever,” he added.
“Like we want to experience playing with other great players like we want that. Where can we go? You know, it was an option. There were a lot of options out there. There were a lot of conversations out there,” Melo continued.
The 36-year-old who is currently plying his trade at Portland Trailblazers also revealed how he saw potential in the Denver Nuggets at that time. He stated, “I felt the most comfortable and the most confident in my situation in Denver. We were winning, we were having, you know, somewhat some success. And we would be building off of previous years.
“So it was like, No, I’m not. I didn’t want to sign a five year I mean, sign a three-year deal with an option. No, I want to be here long term like this is my team. This is my organization. This is my city. I want to be here long-term. And that was my thinking at that point in time.”
Melo admitted how he did not understand the business side of the whole scenario and how it works in the NBA. He admitted, “You know, I didn’t understand what really going into a lockout meant, that next year or, you know, getting to a team or signing a three-year deal as opposed to a four or five-year deal. Being a free agent. I didn’t understand that information. I didn’t fathom that.”
But even without Melo, Miami Heat formed the super trio with Chris Bosh joining LeBron and Dwayne Wade and won two out of three finals. It was a great team and the trio showed their prowess on the court. But some people still feel that the team could have achieved a lot more with Melo by their side and even the 36-year-old would win some rings now.
