Carmelo Anthony was not only one of the greatest scorers the NBA has ever seen, but also one of the most likable guys — on and off the court.
And that’s why what went down in Houston last season didn’t really seem appropriate for a player of his stature, especially near the end of his NBA career, when other players in his era such as Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade had their farewell tours.
Melo played in only 10 games for the Rockets, until the team elected to waive him in mid-November, just a few weeks into the season. It was a bizarre turn of events, and is hard to fathom why the team even signed him in the first place.
Anthony has remained quiet about how it all went down, though — until Friday, that is, when he appeared on “First Take” to set the story straight, and share how he felt about it.
“I was surprised by it big time,” Anthony said, as transcribed by the Houston Chronicle. “It went from, ‘Oh, this is a piece we want, this is a piece we need.’ Mind you, we’ve been talking for three years, four years, they were trying to get me to come to the Houston Rockets, and I finally went there. I get there, I’m thinking everything is good. I’m doing everything I’ve got to do – never miss a practice, did all my work, I was real professional with everybody there. I don’t think there’s one person there who can say I wasn’t a professional there. I did what I had to do. I did my work. Then the 10th game came and I just didn’t understand where that came from. I actually reached out to Daryl first, and said, ‘Can we talk about how can we make this better? What can we do to fix this? What can I do to fix this?’ But he already had in his mind that he wanted to come talk to me about releasing me and letting me go, so I didn’t like how that went down.”
https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1157293818762420230
We totally side with Melo here. He did indeed handle it professionally, and the Rockets should’ve had a better idea of what they were getting into before signing him. A veteran of his stature should’ve been treated better, and we hope this wasn’t his final stint in the league. He deserves better.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
