Carmelo Anthony: 'I wasn't ready to team up with nobody because I was building my own thing in Denver'

Carmelo Anthony: “I remember when I first came back in the league after Houston. I go in the locker room, and I’m like, ‘For the game, I’m locked in, getting ready for the game.’ They’re on phones. All right, cool, halftime comes, they’re on their phones. I look at Dame, and he’s like, ‘Man, it’s different now.’ I want to go at them, but Dame says, ‘Don’t even bother. Leave them alone.’ It was hard to adjust to that. I come from an old-school mentality where we didn’t have any of that.” -via YouTube / July 25, 2024

Carmelo Anthony: “In my situation when I was in Denver, we was in the playoffs every year. We was 50 plus wins. Like we was building something in Denver, so I didn’t want to leave. So why take a three-year deal? No, I’m locked into this five-year deal. And it was like five years, like 85 million or something like that. And I got ridiculed for taking a five-year deal. Like, what? You know where I come from? I’m not leaving no money on the table.” -via YouTube / July 25, 2024

Carmelo Anthony: “I’m over here like, whatever y’all going to do, y’all going to do. So I get the call and they say, yo, it’s a lockout coming. Yo, we taking a three-year deal. Right? So let me think about that. Call my agent at the time, which was, I think I was with Bill Duffy at the time and Calvin Andrews, and I’m like, three-year deal? Yo bro, it’s no conversation. I’m staying. I’m taking the 85 million for five years. I’m staying in Denver. I’m happy.” -via YouTube / July 25, 2024