Lakers: Carmelo Anthony Launches New Venture That's Been Years in the Making

Lakers forward Carmelo Anthony is releasing his first ever wine.

Carmelo Anthony has made plenty of bucks during his 19-year NBA career. The six-time All NBA forward has earned more than $260M in his Hall-of-Fame worthy career. On Friday, Carmelo announced that some of that cash has gone to creating something near and dear to the ten-time All-Star: his first wine release.

In a recent article by HuateLiving.com, Carmelo discussed the release of his 2017 "Oath of Fidelity" which is a blend of 13 different grapes that "combined the taste of bright fruit with savory earthy characteristics".

We'll spare you the tasting notes, but Carmelo joked how many cautioned him to stay out of the hyper-competitive wine business. 

“Most people told me not to get in the business, that I’d be wasting my money. But I was like, ‘I’m already wasting my money — I’m drinking the wine!’” That said, he took constructive advice to heart, silencing the naysayers and going about his business decisively and deliberately."

Carmelo's label, "VIIN", is a subtle twist on his most famous number seven jersey and the word "vin". Anthony talked about why he didn't just want to slap his name on the label:

“We didn’t want to use the Carmelo Anthony Estate, or the singular seven. We did extensive research and came up with the name VIIN, that is another way of saying ‘wine’. And then we have the Roman numerals that equate to seven, which all ties back to the old world meets new world vibe we’re going for. That’s actually the concept of this project, and what I’m trying to accomplish here."

The 38-year-old noted how VIIN is a "legacy project" and something he can hope to build for years to come. 

Carmelo is set to become a free agent this summer and at the moment, it's unclear whether or not he's interested in running it back in LA.

At the very least, perhaps he can ship fellow wine lover LeBron James a bottle or two of his first release.