After the Los Angeles Lakers lost Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals to the Denver Nuggets, LeBron James was asked to talk about Carmelo Anthony, who retired from the NBA earlier in the day.
James and Anthony are very close friends. They were in the same draft class back in 2003 and are basically brothers.
“Well, I kind of knew the announcement was going to happen because I shot the video a week ago [laughter] that you guys seen today,” James said. “So, people probably think I’m lying about that, too, huh? I shot that video like a week ago, so I already knew the announcement was coming, just didn’t know which day, but it happened today.”
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
Anthony played for the Nuggets, New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers and Lakers during his career. He averaged 22.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.7 assists while making 10 All-Star teams and six All-NBA teams.
“Still bittersweet, honestly,” James said. “That’s one of my best friends when I got into this league, even before I got into this league. We had so many moments when we were in high school from competing against each other to sitting outside of a hotel room at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning on the steps of a hotel and just talking about our journey up until where we were 17, I was 16, he was 17, and what we could possibly do going forward, what we could possibly do for our mothers, what we could possibly do for our families if we just continued to stay focused. I believe we was a driving force for one another. We were locked at the hip since high school.”
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony & Los Angeles Lakers Updates
Anthony will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer one day. He’s ninth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 28,289 points.
“So definitely just a bittersweet moment today to see one of my great friends, I never say call it quits, just to say that, you know, it’s an amazing run,” James said. “An amazing accomplishment. An amazing career. And you know we just we’ll always be joined at the hip no matter what.”
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