Carmelo Anthony Shouts Out Lakers After Announcing Retirement From NBA

The future Hall of Famer is hanging up his sneakers after 19 seasons.

When future Hall of Fame combo forward Carmelo Anthony, a 10-time All-Star who last played with your Los Angeles Lakers during the 2021-22 season, announced his retirement this morning, LA quickly tweeted out a message of congratulations on a stellar 19-year NBA career.

Anthony responded in kind, posting an appreciative message to Los Angeles:

Much love and gratitude to my @Lakers family 🙏🏾 https://t.co/C8Zggxz7Q8

— Carmelo Anthony (@carmeloanthony) May 22, 2023

Melo was one of the lone bright spots (the other two being the emergence of undrafted rookie Austin Reaves and springy reserve forward/center Wenyen Gabriel) during an otherwise miserable 33-49 season for LA.

The Lakers could certainly use his shooting acumen right now, having seen so many of their role players lose their shooting touch in their ongoing series against the Denver Nuggets.

Anthony's retirement means that Lakers small forward LeBron James, who was named an All-Star and an All-NBA Third Teamer in his 20th season this year, is the last remaining player from the mighty NBA draft class of 2003. Anthony never latched on with another club during the 2022-23 season despite being an unrestricted free agent who put up productive numbers off the bench. 

The retirements this season of Anthony, the Miami Heat's Udonis Haslem (whose team is one win away from yet another NBA Finals trip, though he is essentially a deep-bench player/coach), and the Golden State Warriors' Andre Iguodala mean that James will be the oldest player in the league next season (he turns 39 in December), barring some surprise un-retirement/comeback.

Across 69 games with LA, Anthony posted averages of 13.3 points on .441/.375/.830 shooting splits, 4.2 rebounds and one assist, in 26 minutes per, off the bench.

Beyond James and Anthony, their fellow future Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh also were selected from among the top five of that draft class. Several other eventual All-Stars, including power forward David West (the No. 18 pick out of Xavier), sharpshooting swingman Kyle Korver (the No. 56 pick out of Creighton), center Chris Kaman (the sixth pick out of Central Michigan), injury-prone wing Josh Howard (the No. 29 pick out of Wake Forest), and yet another eventual LeBron James teammate, Mo Williams (the No. 47 pick out of Alabama) number among the best selections during that fateful summer.

Yours truly is very excited to watch the NBA TV documentary on this draft class whenever it happens.

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