One day during the 2018 offseason, then-Oklahoma City Thunder player Carmelo Anthony started receiving messages from people asking if he was in the city.
Apparently, there was a Thunder event taking place. He had not been notified.
Anthony recalled this frustrating moment when he appeared on J.J. Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast Thursday.
“I’m like, ‘What about me?'” he said, then added with a laugh, “Am I off the team already?”
He, Russell Westbrook and Paul George only played one season together. Anthony was traded that offseason in a cap-clearing move that netted the Thunder guard Dennis Schroder. In trading Anthony and his $27.9 million contract, Oklahoma City saved about $60 million in luxury tax payments.
While Anthony understood the financials, he said that he wanted to return to the Thunder. He told Reddick that he had been willing to rework his contract.
“For me personally, I actually really enjoyed my time in OKC. That team, I enjoyed it. Being around those guys, I enjoyed it. Granted, we didn’t do what we were supposed to do. The goal was to win with that team. We didn’t do it. We underachieved,” Anthony said.
“And in our minds we’re just like ‘Yo listen man, we’re coming back next year. We’re gonna be good. We got a year under our belt. This is new to everybody. Russ, this is your team, PG, you signed here … I’m coming off an All-Star year in New York, so I’m like, ‘Let’s put this all together, let’s just go and put it out there and we gonna see what happens.’ It didn’t work out. It all came down to money.”
It may not have all been due to money, though.
Anthony was in Paris for Fashion Week when he got a call from head coach Billy Donovan saying that the team was planning to move in a different direction.
Based on Anthony’s recollection:
“He’s like, ‘Yeah, you know, I don’t think it’s going to work.’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, woah, woah, woah, woah, what do you mean it’s not going to work? Where is this coming from?’ He’s like, ‘I just don’t think this it’s going to work.’
“But mind you, I know what’s going on. They want to implement PG more. I know the game, so you can’t run the game on me. So I said listen, I want to be here, I want to make this work. If we come back next year, we’re going to be fine.”
Donovan responded by asking Anthony if he minded coming off the bench.
“I’m like, ‘Where is this coming from? What would make you think that? I wasn’t coming from an arrogant standpoint, but it was just like, why would you just come to me and that’s the first thing you want? Why would you start that narrative?
“He was just like, ‘You three guys out there at the same time is not going to work. We want to play Jerami Grant out there with those guys. I’m like, I love Jerami Grant. Love him to death. But be honest with me … I would rather you tell me this is not going to work, and we don’t see this working out and happening. Let’s work together, get me somewhere where I want to go, and it’s cool. That didn’t happen.”
Anthony said he felt “belitted.”
“Is it me? Am I doing something wrong?” Anthony recalled himself thinking.
“I’m the one who really, really sacrificed on that team. And I was with it. I went to the coach and told him, ‘Let me know what you need me to do. I’m willing to do it to help the team.'”
Anthony averaged 16.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in 2017-18, shooting 40.4% from the field and 35.7% from 3 while starting all 78 games he appeared in.
What the Thunder wanted in the starting lineup was Grant, a more defensive-minded player who wouldn’t need the ball on offense as much as Anthony and could give George and Westbrook more control.
That money absolutely factored into it, too.
In the end, Anthony was traded to the Atlanta Hawks, where he was waived. He played 10 games for the Houston Rockets that season before being released and not signing with a team the rest of the 2018-19 season.
This past season, Anthony found a role with the Portland Trail Blazers.
“My time in OKC — it wasn’t bad,” he said. “I actually had a great time in OKC. I wish OKC would have worked out. Honestly.”
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