Getty Carmelo Anthony gets smothered by the defense.
Carmelo Anthony has not played NBA basketball in a while.
The third overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, Anthony’s last appearance with the Houston Rockets came in a blowout loss to Oklahoma City on Nov. 8 when he had two points and five rebounds.
“I have a feeling Melo will turn it around,” Blake Griffin told Basketball Society Online’s Landon Buford.
“Melo is a Hall of Famer and I think it is funny how fickle today’s world with social media and everything. It has become ‘what have you done for me lately?'”
A 10-time NBA All-Star, Anthony signed with the Houston Rockets this summer after clearing waivers in a trade that shipped him from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks.
GettyCarmelo Anthony
What’s next for Carmelo Anthony?
“When the time is right he will speak out,” a source close to Carmelo Anthony shared with me via e-mail recently.
In an interview with Taryn Finley of the Huffington Post recently, Melo suggested he is at peace with the fact he may not play much longer:
“I’m sure [retirement is] coming soon. I’d be sitting lying to you if I said it’s not coming soon. I think I want it to come soon. I don’t think I want to do this forever, but because you love it so much, it’s hard to give it up. At the end of the day, at anything you do, when it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go. But as long as you feel good with that.”
Portland Trail Blazers guard, Rodney Hood believes that Melo is still the man.
“He is a legend,” he told Landon Buford on Thursday.
“He is one of my favorite players to ever play and it is tough to see him go through what he is going through in the media. I think he can definitely help a team especially when playoff time comes when things start to stagnate. He is a veteran, so I hope he lands on his feet.”
Griffin leans along that line too. In fact, Griffin, a Jordan Brand athlete, just like Melo believes that Melo’s game does translate into today’s NBA game.
GettyPistons Power Forward Blake Griffin
“I don’t know if they remember how good of a player he was and still is,” Griffin told Landon Buford.
“Sometimes it’s the situation. It sucks to see as a basketball player to see people act [as if] he is something [that] he is not.”
The Lakers had been leaning toward signing Anthony for the rest of the season — until a mound of losses occured that make it seem that there’s less of a chance the Lakers will make the NBA Playoffs this season.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
“The Los Angeles Lakers and free agent Carmelo Anthony are pausing talks on a possible contract agreement unless the franchise makes a turn back toward pursuit of Western Conference playoffs contention.”