Carmelo Anthony reveals that he had the opportunity to join the Los Angeles Lakers during the off-season as Kobe Bryant personally invited him to join the team following the presentation of the Lakers’ offer to him at his home in Los Angeles.
He said he would have grabbed the offer because playing together with another superstar shows a lot or promise. That’s in addition to the alleged very juicy $34 million per year offer just to agree to move to LA.
But in the end, Carmelo and Kobe both asked themselves the question whether they really want their union to happen. Obviously the answer is no, because Anthony remained with the New York Knicks.
The revelation was disclosed in light of the upcoming match between the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks, which are now among the worst teams in the NBA’s current season.
The Knicks are the worst this season with a 9-38 win-loss record. The Lakers are doing slightly better with 13-34 win-loss card, a full four games ahead of the Knicks, details Yahoo! Sports.
What if they had the opportunity to play together
What if Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant did play together in the Los Angeles Lakers, would the team’s fortune change in this ongoing NBA season. Surely it would for the Lakers, but the Knicks would most likely be in an even worse rut in franchise history.
Adding Anthony to the Lakers lineup on the other hand would have given the Showtime franchise another offensive option other than the Black Mamba.
But Carmelo and Kobe practically play the same kind of game as well as offensive prowess in the court. Kobe is an off-guard that also plays the small forward position occasionally while Carmelo is a small forward that can also play the off-guard position.
So they would have most likely cancelled each other out in both offense and defense. And thus, Anthony eventually decided to stick with the New York Knicks.
With his team’s current standing, it is likely that Anthony is now thinking of the ‘what if’ which happened to him during the off-season.
Silver lining behind the dark clouds
If there’s any consolation to the two teams right now, it is the fact that in the midst of their current struggles, both are obviously in their rebuilding stages.
Knicks president Phil Jackson has cleared the team’s salary cap for the next season and all indications point to the fact that it would surely be a better year for the New York basketball squad. Anthony will still be the core of the team.
Kobe and his Lakers team are also rebuilding but with the Black Mamba already on the twilight of his basketball career, it looks as if he will eventually be part of the proverbial ‘changing of the guards’ in Los Angeles not likely next year but the year after.