Category: Banana Boat Squad

Carmelo Anthony says ‘let’s talk bro’ to LeBron about buying Atlanta Dream

Fellow 2003 draftee and Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony wants to join LeBron in pursuit of buying the Atlanta Dream.

One of the most interesting reactions to the results of the recent Georgia runoff elections for the United States Senate was the one from LeBron James in which he called his shot to eventually buy the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, which is currently owned by outgoing Senator Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler publicly questioned why her players should have statements in support of ‘Black Lives Matter,’ among other allegations thrown Loeffler’s way.

The Dream’s demonstration in the WNBA Bubble of wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts in warmups is seen by many as a turning point in Loeffler’s defeat. Following her loss, James tweeted about buying the Dream, turning out many responses from others looking to join him. That list now includes LeBron’s fellow 2003 draftee and Banana Boat friend Carmelo Anthony.

It remains to be seen what ultimately will become of Loeffler’s ownership and what the WNBA can do. The league has yet to take any action on her and while the NBA is a part of the WNBA, the WNBA has worked to become more independent in recent years. However, if LeBron is the potential majority owner, that will definitely change the conversation.

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LeBron James congratulates Carmelo Anthony for passing Tim Duncan in scoring

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James saluted his friend Carmelo Anthony for passing Tim Duncan on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list.

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James had a pretty great start to the New Year on Friday. His Lakers started the New Year with a tight victory over the San Antonio Spurs to earn their second straight road win and then LeBron’s favorite college football team, the Ohio State Buckeyes, rolled to a blowout win over the Clemson Tigers in their College Football Playoff semifinal.

Saturday was also a great night for those in LeBron’s famous Banana Boat crew, especially Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony. Although Anthony was unable to play in a match-up earlier this week against LeBron and the Lakers, Anthony scored 18 points on Friday night to move past Tim Duncan into 14th place on the NBA’s All-Time scoring list. James celebrated the milestone for his friend Anthony on Instagram on Friday night.

Via @KingJames on Instagram

Carmelo wasn’t the only fellow Banana Boater to have a great start to the year. Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns moved to 5-1 after beating the Denver Nuggets on Friday night as well.

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LeBron says to ‘put respect’ on Chris Paul’s name after epic Game 6 win

LeBron James was hyped to see his friend Chris Paul deliver an epic playoff performance facing elimination.

LeBron James had plenty of reason to celebrate while watching his friend Chris Paul put together an All-Time 4th quarter to help the Oklahoma City Thunder stave off elimination on Monday night. For one, Paul’s performance gave the Lakers another few days of rest as his 28 points, including 15 in the 4th quarter, forced a Game 7 between the Thunder and the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. But it also gave LeBron an opportunity to celebrate one of his best and longest friends in the league having a big night, even though many wrote the Paul and the Thunder off before the season began.

In addition to his amazing play on Monday night, Paul has been extremely busy off the court, even more so over the past week, as the President of the NBPA. With Paul and the Thunder forcing a Game 7 on Wednesday, the winner of that game will start their second-round series against the Lakers on Friday night.

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LeBron James on playing Carmelo Anthony: ‘Never taking these moments for granted’

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James tweeted his appreciation for playing against Carmelo Anthony in the playoffs again.

The Los Angeles Lakers advanced to the second round this weekend, closing out the Blazers in Saturday night’s Game 5. But with the end of the series also came the end of the road for this year’s matchups between LeBron James and his old friend Carmelo Anthony.

After finding himself out of the league Anthony appeared to find a home in Portland, being an instrumental part of them making it to the postseason. That gave the two old friends and 2003 draftees the opportunity to play each other twice in the regular season and five more times in the playoffs, something that LeBron James said after the series is something he doesn’t want to take for granted.

LeBron wasn’t the only Laker to pay homage to Melo after the series was over. Kyle Kuzma, who has been on the record many times as a Melo Believer, also showed love to Anthony on social media over the weekend.

View this post on Instagram

All love champ!

A post shared by Kyle Kuzma (@kuz) on

The Lakers now await their next opponent, which will either be the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Houston Rockets. The Rockets lead that series 3-2 going into this evening’s Game 6.

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Carmelo Anthony on Lakers leading Blazers 2-1: ‘We have a series’

Carmelo Anthony of the Portland Trail Blazers says his team is “not concerned” by being down 2-1 vs. the Lakers just yet.

LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers answered their Game 1 loss with two monster performances from their stars in the last two games to regain the upper hand in their 1-8 matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers. Meanwhile, many are wondering if the Blazers have simply run out of gas. The Blazers had to go hard for nine straight games in the bubble just to get into their series against the Lakers. But Portland’s most experienced player in the playoffs believes this is just the ebb and flow of what the postseason is all about.

“Oh, we good,” Anthony said after the game. “We good. It’s only 2-1. We have series. We have to make adjustments. Game 4 we know the implications of what that means and we gave ourselves a fighting chance and come back for Game 4. We are sitting in a good situation. We not concerned.”

Game 4 between the Lakers and Blazers, in which the Lakers will wear jerseys to honor Kobe and Gigi Bryant, is Monday night at 6 p.m. pacific.

Carmelo Anthony didn’t grab a rebound in a playoff game for the first time ever

Last night was the first time in 74 playoff games that Portland’s Carmelo Anthony didn’t grab a rebound.

Last night was a historic night for the Banana Boat Crew and the two Class of 2003 players who played against each other last night. While LeBron James made some positive history in winning a playoff game with his lowest scoring total ever, his ’03 counterpart Carmelo Anthony also had a historic feat for his playoff career.

Last night’s Game 2 loss was the first time in 74 playoff games that Carmelo Anthony failed to grab a rebound. Anthony had previously had one other playoff game in which he had grabbed just one rebound, which was in a blowout win with the New York Knicks over the Boston Celtics in the 2013 playoffs.

The Lakers have held the rebounding advantage in each of the first two games, but they were even more dominant on the glass in Game 2. The Lakers were a +5 in rebounds in Game 1 and followed that up with a +9 rebounding advantage in last night’s Game 2.

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LeBron James discusses time he ‘saved’ Carmelo Anthony’s life

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony have a relationship deeper than basketball.

It seems like ages ago now that the NBA is back, but when the league was on a hiatus, Carmelo Anthony revealed to people during an Instagram Live with Dwyane Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union, that during the famous Banana Boat trip to the Bahamas, Anthony was saved by some heroics from LeBron James. On the eve of only their second playoff series against each other, James was asked about the incident, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

“I just knew that he was not back in the boat with the rest of us, so I went out looking for him,” James said Monday on a video conference call. “And through the grace of God and through strength and not being afraid of the water, I was able to help him back to the boat. It was the only thing that was on my mind at that point and time, was getting my brother back to the boat.”

As Anthony recalled it, LeBron came in ‘like McGuyver’ to save him. And only a few years later, they are facing each other in the playoffs.

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Zaire Wade to go to Brewster Academy for post-grad year

The oldest son of Dwyane Wade will pursue his hoop dreams at the lauded Brewster Academy in New Hampshire.

The oldest son of Dwyane Wade, Zaire Wade, who transferred to Sierra Canyon for his senior season to play with Bronny James, as well as other high-ranked prospects like Stanford’s Ziaire Williams, has decided to take a different path in following his hoop dreams than going straight to college.

Wade will be taking a post-grad year and continuing the pursuit of his hoop dreams at the well-regarded Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. Several NBA players, including Isaiah Thomas, Denver’s Will Barton, Charlotte’s Devonte’ Graham, and Indiana’s TJ Warren, all spent some time at Brewster during their youth. Wade announced his decision on Instagram on Tuesday.

LeBron James shared his best wishes to Wade: “Good luck nephew! Go get it! 🙏🏾💪🏾❤️”

According to recruiting analyst Jake Weingarten, Wade has a couple of Division I offers but is deciding to take another year to develop.

Wade dealt with injuries for the first part of the season with Sierra Canyon, while his father Dwyane wasn’t shy to publicly air his displeasure with Sierra Canyon’s coach Andre Chevalier for not giving Zaire enough playing time down the final stretch of the season. Hopefully, for the Wades, the fresh start and the extra year of development will help Zaire have a better runway into his college career.

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Carmelo Anthony says LeBron James saved his life ‘like MacGyver’ in Bahamas

We have a little bit more context to the legendary trip of the Banana Boat crew to the Bahamas back in 2015.

As Instagram Live continues to be one of the only bastions of fresh content these days as it relates to the NBA, Portland Trail Blazers forward and 10-time NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony helped give people more context to the iconic Banana Boat crew vacation to the Bahamas back in 2015 during a live session he did on Friday night with Dwyane Wade. It also may explain why Carmelo was not actually in the iconic Banana Boat photo with Wade, Chris Paul, LeBron James and Wade’s wife Gabrielle Union riding on the boat.

According to Anthony, during the vacation, LeBron James basically saved his life as the current had overtaken him during a swimming expedition to a hidden cove. As Melo was floating away from everyone else, LeBron lept off the boat, “like MacGyver,” to save him.

It’s hard to blame Anthony after such a situation to then elect not to jump on the Banana Boat. We can all understand that it was going to be a much better time for Melo to chill and watch everyone else ride the boat while drinking a glass of wine.

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Chris Paul says he had a chance to team with LeBron and D-Wade

Oklahoma City Thunder star and Banana Boat member Chris Paul says a Banana Boat squad in the NBA was close to happening.

What if the Banana Boat squad had gotten together on an NBA team? One of the greatest what if’s in recent NBA history, whether the four friends who came to define a generation in the NBA, had teamed up together. This question, about whether Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade could have ever joined a team together, got a little bit more interesting on Wednesday afternoon.

Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks interviewed Chris Paul on the latest episode of her shot “Take It There,” where the subject of the Banana Boat squad came up. Although Paul was coy with details, Rooks did get him to admit that a team-up with LeBron, Paul and Wade was close during the course of their Hall of Fame careers.

Paul wouldn’t tell which year it could have been and it would have been hard for all of them to make it happen considering the amount of money all of those players individually made during their career.

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