Los Angeles Lakers newcomer Carmelo Anthony recently made it very clear that he never wanted to leave the Denver Nuggets.
“Contrary to what anyone believes, I never wanted to leave Denver,” Anthony said during an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast. “I never told people that, but I never wanted to leave Denver. But they put my back against the wall.
“You go to the Western Conference Finals in ’09, what are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to build on that. You’re supposed to add people.
“They got rid of Dahntay Jones. On that team, Dahntay was a key piece on that team. They’re like, we ain’t re-signing Chauncey [Billups]. We’re about to trade J.R. [Smith], K-Mart’s (Kenyon Martin) contract was up and the lockout’s coming? So, I’m not about to rebuild after we went to the Western Conference Finals.
“I don’t want to go, but if y’all going to rebuild, it’s time for me to go somewhere else.”
Anthony ultimately landed with the New York Knicks after his time with the Nuggets came to an end. He established an outstanding legacy for himself in New York and was one of the best players in the league during his time there.
For his career, Anthony is a 10-time All-Star and one-time scoring champion. He’s undeniably one of the greatest scorers of this generation. He has career averages of 23.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.
Anthony isn’t the player he used to be, but he’s going to be a big piece for the Lakers in the upcoming season. The 37-year-old is coming off of a solid campaign with the Portland Trail Blazers in which averaged 13.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.
The veteran is still searching for the first NBA title of his career, and he’s going to have a legitimate chance at capturing it with L.A.
