Carmelo Anthony has proven to be a prideful individual during his tenure in the NBA, and that showed when he was forced into a third scoring option with the Oklahoma City Thunder after 14 seasons of averaging 20-plus points in the league.
Yet that pride extended to refusing to come off the bench and even considering a buyout, remembering the stigma that often came with it.
“To get bought out, to get waived, you were looked at like, you’re done,” said Anthony, who was in Washington, D.C., to attend a private Nike event Wednesday night, according to ESPN’s Jemele Hill. “Now, it’s just almost like the norm. If something doesn’t work, go ahead and get a buyout or go ahead and get traded. That’s the new norm in our society in basketball. I had to get over that.”
The former scoring champion had a talk with his family after the offseason, considering that the massive dip in performance during the 2017-18 season was the direct result of a poor fit.
“I had a conversation with my wife and family. I said to them, I’m not taking no buyout. I’m not getting waived,” said Anthony. “And they said, at the end of the day, nobody is going to know that. You have to do what you have to do. It’s going to be a blip on your radar. It’s on to the next chapter. It took me a while to get to that point where I’m like, OK, I’m going to accept it.”
Anthony is now momentarily a member of the Atlanta Hawks, but he’s expected to get waived and consequently find his next team — a race which the Houston Rockets leads by a mile.
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