Carmelo Anthony: Everything Comes Full Circle

When LeBron James wants to play with you, you answer the call. That’s what Carmelo Anthony did when he agreed to join the Lakers.

Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James have had widely different career trajectories since being drafted 1st and 3rd in 2003.

37-year-old Carmelo Anthony still doesn’t have a Finals appearance to his name. Meanwhile, 36-year-old LeBron has enjoyed a glittering career. 

“Bron just came to me one time and said, ‘Yo, the time is now. I want you. We got to make this happen,” Anthony said.

“And I just felt like for right now, this is the best time.”

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“Most people would say we should’ve gotten together years ago early in our careers, but we were in two different lanes, we were on two different paths. And everything comes full circle, I’ll say.”

Speaking of coming full circle, the Lakers roster that faltered last season is now full of veterans with something to prove. Anthony joins Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza and Marc Gasol, as well as James, in an experienced team.

The question is whether their bodies can keep up with an increasingly young, athletic league.

“We don’t care,” Anthony said. “We don’t care. We make our own narrative.

“I like when people talk about the age. It gives a better story. I think it gives a better story. I think people forget, at the end of the day, it’s about basketball. You got to know how to play basketball. You got to have that experience. I think that’s what we bring at this point and time. Our talent, our skill, but also our experience.”

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“It seems just throughout my whole career, I’ve always been connected to the Lakers some way, somehow,” he said. “Whether it was through my brother Kobe, regardless of what it is, I’ve always been connected to it some way, somehow. It wasn’t really no pitch this time. I think it was really just more of an understanding. Like, ‘OK, the time is now. The time is now for both parties to merge, for both parties to agree to come together, and let’s put this thing together.'”