Future Hall of Fame Ex-Laker Snubs LeBron James in List of Favorite Teammates

Although his explanation makes plenty of sense.

Apr 25, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts during the first half in game three of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Carmelo Anthony is certainly not going to be remembered for his tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The 6-foot-7 combo forward, who officially announced his retirement last summer after sitting out the 2022-23 NBA season, is surely a first-ballot Hall of Famer. A ten-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA honoree, the three-level scorer was one of the most lethal offensive weapons during his prime years with the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks, though he sadly never made an NBA Finals in his prime or as a floor-spacing bench threat during his journeyman seasons, in part due to roster construction issues and in part due to his limitations on defense.

New York traded Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he would serve as a stabilizing veteran presence for fellow future Hall of Famers Paul George and Russell Westbrook, in 2017, and thus his role player era began in earnest. The Billy Donovan-coached club finished with a 48-34 record and the Western Conference's fourth seed, but fell to Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and the rest of the Utah Jazz in a six-game first round upset.

From there, it became apparently that Anthony had moved into a new phase of his career. He spent just ten games with the Houston Rockets in 2018-19 before being waived, and was humbled into a role player gig with the Portland Trail Blazers from 2019-21. He was moved to the bench during his second season with Portland, which to his credit he eventually embraced.

Anthony logged what wound up being his final NBA season in lottery-bound misery, while reuniting with Westbrook on a doomed 2021-22 Lakers squad that finished 33-49 and missed the playoffs. That would mark the only season he would be an NBA teammate with L.A. All-Star LeBron James. Both forwards were selected in a memorable 2003 NBA Draft, which also featured future Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Despite Anthony's long friendship with James, and their stints together on three Olympic teams (in 2004, 2008 and 2012), he went in a different direction during a recent chat about his favorite on-court colleagues.

In a new episode of his podcast "7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & The Kid Mero," Anthony opted to overlook James when unpacking his favorite-ever NBA teammates.

“I think out of all the teammates, it would have to be, I would say, it would have to be J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin because that’s who was on my team for the longest of all of our years. We was in Denver. We was here in New York,” Anthony said. “We spent a lot of time together to the point where it’s like, I don’t even have to look at you, and you know what type of mode I’m in. You know what I’m about to do. You know, you see it ahead of time.”

Smith, incidentally, would wrap up his career winning his second title as a deep-bench shooting guard for James' 2020 Lakers.

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