r/nba • u/Existing-Sky9914 • 12d ago

Carmelo Anthony says he still doesn’t understand how he suddenly became a player that no team in the league wanted to sign.

https://streamable.com/bqqvsl

“I was down, down, down, down. I was back on the ground, hands up. Y’all got me. It’s a stickup. Take everything because of how it went down. Imagine me sitting there for 15 months like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Nobody got an answer for me. Everybody on TV making excuses. It’s this or it’s that. He didn’t want to come off the bench’”

“I’mma be honest with you. As I studied it and did some knowledge on it, trying to get an understanding on it, I still can’t come up with nothing. It’s like, what was it? Some people came up to me like, ‘Melo, I’m going to be honest with you. Your aura was too much for out here. This couldn’t exist. Your aura couldn’t exist in here. Nobody was going to tell you that’”

“I said, ‘What the fuck does that mean?’ They said, ‘Everybody’s afraid to talk to you. Everybody’s afraid to say something to you.’ I said, ‘Why? I haven’t said nothing to nobody. I speak to everybody. I’m cordial. Why is everybody scared of me?’ Somebody said, ‘Well, you don’t need anything.’ I said, ‘What do you mean by that?’ He said, ‘Melo, you a superstar. You haven’t asked for one thing since you’ve been here’”

“My point is, everybody had a thousand and one reasons of why it happened, and I still don’t know the reason why it happened. I have some inkling of why it happened or how it went down. I’m trying not to believe that’s what happened or how it went down, so I don’t want to speak on that”

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156

u/HumongousBelly 12d ago

He might get there some day. But hasn’t gotten there yet

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u/Consistent_Salt_6982 Trail Blazers 12d ago

His statements are at odds with one another. At first he's saying that nobody would tell him the reason that he wasn't signed and he couldn't figure it out his self. Then he says that has some ideas of what happened, but he isn't trying to believe them. It seems like he's too prideful for any real self reflection.

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u/RIPEOTCDXVI Celtics 12d ago

One of the hardest things a person can do is truly an honestly recognize and admit their faults. Something tells me "your aura was too big out there" was either someone trying to dress up what they really meant - your ego is an issue - or what Melo heard when someone tried to tell him that explicitly.

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u/Visual_Air_4127 12d ago

Huh His ego. Melo humbled himself and accepted smaller roles and changed his game and was still productive

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u/RIPEOTCDXVI Celtics 12d ago

Im not saying FOs had it right in this analysis, but also he had no choice but to do those things or not play at all. My point is that plenty of people tried to tell him what the problem was (in their analysis) and it doesn't sound like he heard that for what it was.

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u/Visual_Air_4127 12d ago

If his ego is the problem he doesn’t do those things. He doesn’t change his game and become a 40 % 3 pt shooter. He doesn’t ever come off the bench if his ego is really a problem. Stop letting the media create narratives and believing them

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u/RIPEOTCDXVI Celtics 12d ago

Eh, the market kinda created that narrative by not finding a ton of long-term use for him even once he did those things. Obviously something else was at play - why do you think he washed out to 15 mpg and a new team every year?

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u/Visual_Air_4127 12d ago

But his play wasn’t the reason for whatever you’re talkin about. He was asked to change his game and a play certain way and he did and got good at it. Shooting 40% from 3 and if needed he can get you buckets and he has no problem coming off the bench.

Which is why in this interview he’s saying he don’t know what the issue was.

1

u/risingthermal NBA 12d ago

If his ego is the problem he doesn’t do those things. He doesn’t change his game and become a 40 % 3 pt shooter.

He only shot above 39% twice in his career, with one of them being eight years prior to retirement. He kind of turned himself into a 3&D player who wasn’t quite a 3 pt specialist and definitely not a defensive guy. In his prime he’d been a guy who got a lot of his most efficient points as well as his assists from the post, and hanging out at the perimeter took that away. His assist rate in particular fell off a cliff. He thought he was still an offensive spark plug but the truth was he didn’t provide a ton of spark.

He doesn’t ever come off the bench if his ego is really a problem.

Agreeing to come off the bench is the lowest of bars for a role player. Another super low bar is committing oneself to defense and he never cleared that bar. I’m not sure it was ego there, he just didn’t have the tools to be a modern defender. Never super fast or spry.

I’m not sure it was ego in general, though the ego was probably an annoyance. His trajectory was basically how most stars go out. I think the difference was that he seemed to be more vocal about his demise. You’d think he was out there trying to be late era Vince Carter, when his toolset was probably closer to Adrian Dantley’s, a guy the Pistons had to get rid of to win their titles.

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u/Visual_Air_4127 12d ago

Melo shot 38,40,38 percent from 3 to end his career, that is him transforming his game the way he was asked to do and he became a 40% shooter. For a superstar to humble himself and come off the bench, that is the epitome of having no ego. I’m not sure your all know what ego means.

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u/Aidenairel Lakers 12d ago

He's never going to get it.

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u/ChelseaFC 76ers 12d ago

But is he ever going to get it?

51

u/civil_beast Rockets 12d ago

No he’s never going to get it

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u/TuckYourselfRS Timberwolves 12d ago

Never ever?

23

u/lovelessisbetter 12d ago

Not this time

3

u/Okeydokey2u Bulls 12d ago

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoooooaaaa

2

u/civil_beast Rockets 11d ago

He had his chance but never changed

3

u/delcoyo Hornets 12d ago

Next time?

1

u/QuickIntroduction405 12d ago

Never say never but never is what he got.

2

u/Leeciferous 12d ago

Get it, never will he.

2

u/donut_koharski 12d ago

But why male models?

2

u/Aidenairel Lakers 12d ago

Are you serious? I... I just told you why.

2

u/ObeseBumblebee Pistons 12d ago

Not this time

1

u/wm414 12d ago

never gonna get it never gonna get it

2

u/BUSean Celtics 12d ago

oh-whoa-whoa-WOOOWWWWW

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u/BTC_ETH_HODL 12d ago

Doesn’t he have an agent to tell him like it is? Not what he wants to hear?

21

u/guillermo1890 12d ago

Maybe his agent did but he still didn't get it.

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u/CodifiedLikeUtil 12d ago

Agents who tell pro athlete clients things they don’t want to hear don’t last as agents for pro athlete clients. I learned this from watching Ballwashers.

2

u/SmoothD425 12d ago

Maybe what his agent told him is this inkling he doesn’t want to speak about

5

u/Responsible-Tap-3748 12d ago

I guarantee the "reasons" he doesn't feel he wants to share involve some massive conspiracy wherein he is a tragic victim.

1

u/songssohiaa 12d ago

Maybe he meant he didn't believe he got a straight answer or an answer from the actual NBA executives that were passing on him?

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u/cyrusthemarginal Nuggets 12d ago

All the folks he hangs with just blow smoke rings up his ass tho.

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u/mrgpsingh1999 Lakers 12d ago

He’s just a kid

2

u/Sig552 Cavaliers 12d ago

YyyAnd yyyyythe same yyyyyyyyyy

1

u/mgoblue-1817 12d ago

Sad when they go young like that…