It was a very short chapter for Carmelo Anthony in Oklahoma City with Russell Westbrook and Paul George. It seemed like ‘Melo never got acclimated with the Thunder and was the odd man out at times, in terms of their failures last season and his role with the team throughout the year.
In a talk with The Undefeated, Anthony told Jemele Hill about how he felt about his tenure in OKC and why everything seemed so last minute:
“At the end of the day, it wasn’t a good fit. I think last year—and I haven’t talked about this before—everything was just so rushed, going to the team for media day and the day before training camp. Them guys already had something in place, and then I come along in the 25th hour like, ‘Oh shit, Melo just come on and join us. Like, you can figure it out since you’ve been around the game for a long time.’
That’s why it was so inconsistent. At times, I had to figure it out on my own rather than somebody over there or people over there helping me.”
At the end of the day, he had to move on from that situation and do what’s best for himself. Which is why he agreed to be traded to the Atlanta Hawks so they could buy him out. This could pave the way for him to join the Houston Rockets next season and contend in the Western Conference.
But even that last part had a certain stigma he had to get over:
“To get bought out, to get waived, you were looked at like, you’re done. Now, it’s just almost like the norm. If something doesn’t work, go ahead and get a buyout or go ahead and get traded. That’s the new norm in our society in basketball. I had to get over that. I had a conversation with my wife and family. I said to them, I’m not taking no buyout. I’m not getting waived. And they said, at the end of the day, nobody is going to know that. You have to do what you have to do. It’s going to be a blip on your radar. It’s on to the next chapter. It took me a while to get to that point where I’m like, OK, I’m going to accept it.”
You can read the whole article over at ESPN.
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