Getty Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs. (Getty)
Carmelo Anthony has been trending on Twitter for a few hours after the report of informal workouts that he’s had with the Brooklyn Nets.
Here’s something comical. Someone thought that Carmelo Anthony was Tim Duncan on Jeopardy.
I’m not lying!
See for yourself:
Spurs! Tim Duncan!
CC: @Jeopardy
There’s a distinction between Tim Duncan and Carmelo Anthony.
A 15-time NBA All Star, Duncan stuck with one team and had one head coach during his time in the league.
Arguably the best power forward to played in the NBA, Duncan won five NBA championships, was NBA Finals MVP three times and voted the NBA’s regular season MVP awards twice. The 7-footer was also was an All-NBA First Team selection ten times.
“Yeah when you start doing all time players and start picking your top five, your top ten or your top fifteen whatever Tim Duncan needs to show up in that conversation,” NBA Hall of Famer Julius Erving once told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast
Tim Duncan gripped the baton after Michael Jordan’s second and third retirements. Yet, his talents are sometimes overlooked because of his quiet demeanor in an era that had larger than life personalities like Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Karl Malone and more.
“Tim Duncan played his ass off,” Kenyon Martin told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast when I asked him what it was like going toe to toe with him in the 2003 NBA Finals.
“He made plays, he blocked; that is why he was the Finals MVP. He played his ass off. I have to take my hat off to him, he played well. He put them on his back and they followed him. Guys made open shots when they had to and Stephen Jackson made threes in game six. It was a collective effort, but Tim [Duncan] definitely led them. But we definitely had an opportunity to win that.”
Carmelo Anthony hasn’t played NBA basketball since November 8, 2018, in a game against his former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
GettyCarmelo Anthony #7 of the New York Knicks falls into the crowd as he goes after a ball in the first quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers at Madison Square Garden on April 12, 2017.
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 Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks.
The Lakers and Anthony had mutual interests toward the end of last season — until a mound of LA losses occurred.
The Lakers had quite a busy offseason. Six players returned from last season.
That list includes: LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma, JaVale McGee, Rajon Rondo, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso.
Lakers newcomers include: Anthony Davis, DeMarcus Cousins, Danny Green, Avery Bradley, Jared Dudley, Quinn Cook, Troy Daniels and rookie Talen Horton-Tucker.
The Lakers also have a new head coach in Frank Vogel and assistant coach in Jason Kidd.
Could Carmelo Anthony be the missing piece? “I think next season a team will possibly bring him in,” NBA Hall of Famer, Grant Hill told me.
The Lakers do have one final roster spot and many believe that Carmelo Anthony still has some game left in the tank to compete against many of the NBA’s elite.
“His first year in the league, he took a 17-win Nuggets team to the Playoffs in the West as a rookie,” said Fox Sports’ Chris Broussard.
“He is one of the best 300 players in the world that’s not playing,” TNT’s Kenny Smith told me in April.
“You can’t say he’s not one of the best 300 players.”
“I don’t know if they remember how good of a player he was and still is,” Blake Griffin told Landon Buford last season.
“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.”
While he’s been away from the game, he’s been spending a ton of time going to his son, Kiyan’s basketball games.
“He’s a great player,” New York Knick, Lance Thomas told me in December.
“He’s a great teammate, most importantly he’s a great human being and he’s always been a great advocate for the NBA as a brand. So I just want him to get back on a team and play the sport he loves that’s paved a way for him and his family, and he just loves to play basketball, so I really want him back on a team.”
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Spurs’ Tim Duncan Mistaken for Carmelo Anthony on Alex Trebek’s Jeopardy