After years of chasing him, the Los Angeles Lakers were finally able to sign Carmelo Anthony in free agency this summer.
Anthony spent the previous two seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers but now comes to the Lakers, where he is only thinking about winning his first NBA championship. Not only does he have his best opportunity to win a ring, but he also gets to finally team up with one of his best friends in LeBron James.
The former superstar revealed that he and James both thought that the timing to join forces was finally right. “I think timing is everything,” Anthony explained. “For years, we’ve always laughed about it and spoke about it. What it would be like. We had a little bit of experience with USA basketball and playing together, but that’s totally different in a situation like this.
“We’ve always talked about it, laughed and joked about it. I thought and he thought at this moment now everything comes back full circle for us. I think the time is now for us to be on the same team. It couldn’t have come at a better time.”
When Anthony was on the market a couple of years ago, it seemed like a foregone conclusion he would come to L.A. and play alongside James, but that obviously never materialized. However, the franchise now needs someone like Anthony, who brings a wealth of basketball knowledge and outside shooting to complement a roster that is all-in on winning a title this year.
Seeing Anthony in Purple and Gold will be a sight to see, especially in lineups when he is next to James.
Anthony discusses relationship with Lakers
It is no secret that the Lakers have tried to lure Anthony to Los Angeles for years, and the forward discussed his relationship with the NBA’s storied franchise. “Well I mean every year, as you know, there’s so much movement in the NBA,” Anthony said. “Nobody knows what’s gonna happen, one player is always connected with one organization somewhere whether they’re there or not. And it seems like just throughout my whole career, I’ve always been connected with the Lakers someway, somehow. Whether it was through my brother Kobe, regardless of what it is, I’ve always been connected to them someway, somehow.
“So it wasn’t really no pitch this time, I think it was just more of an understanding like Ok, the time is now. The time is now for both parties to emerge and both parties to come together and let’s put this thing together. There’s a lot of understanding on my behalf, there’s a lot of understanding on the Lakers’ behalf and the organization, transparency is key for me, honesty, communication is major for me. So once they reached out, I was with Bron a couple times and I’m sure everybody thought we were talking about it but we never had no conversations about it. Bron came to me one time and said the time is now, we got to make this happen. I took that information and took that dialogue and took my time with it and weighed all the options that I was weighing at that time and I just felt like for right now, this was the best time for us. I think most people would say we should’ve got together years ago or earlier in our careers but we was in two different lanes, we was in two different paths. Everything comes full circle, I’ll say.”
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