Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James had been teammates in the LA Lakers, but despite the hype around them at the time, the two-fourths of the Banana Boat Crew were not able to turn that hype into a successful run.
The 10-time NBA All-Star believed that the reason for it was that the team itself wasn’t willing to make it work. He pointed at the team’s lack of unity and willingness to defer to teammates, even from himself and LeBron.
Anthony raised his observations following the Lakers’ resurgence this season after they acquired Luka Doncic. Their seemingly instantaneous climb to the second spot in the heavily contested Western Conference has drawn the attention of basketball analysts all over the world. Melo’s take, however, comes from a rather interesting angle since he teamed with James in the Lakers in the recent past.
“I just think it’s very sustainable,” Carmelo Anthony said. “A lot of teams that Bron have wasn’t willing to make s**t work. We wasn’t willing to make the s**t work when I was with the Lakers. Luka (Doncic) got the ball now and this is the first time that we see (Le)Bron (James) deferring to somebody with the ball.”
“I want all the smoke… the Lakers are doing great… Y’all are idiots because y’all talk about the Lakers and the Warriors all the time… Oklahoma City [Thunder] and the Cavs been ballin for six months.”
Charles Barkley took SHOTS at ESPN 😳pic.twitter.com/T24BBE1m9t
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 7, 2025
Carmelo Anthony says his Lakers tandem with LeBron James did not gel with veterans in the roster back then
Another possible reason why the tandem of Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James did not work out for the Lakers at the time was that the roster comprised a number of NBA stars with whom organizations centered their team around, including Anthony himself and Dwight Howard. During that stage of James’ career, he could not have possibly deferred to them the way he can with Luka Doncic today.
Anthony feels that the reason behind the recent success of the Lakers is that James has felt very comfortable with Doncic being in control of the ball. The last couple of seasons had seen King James take control of the ball most of the time due to his team’s overreliance on his capacity to deliver results whenever.
With Doncic in the team, the Lakers have an astounding number of options that have opened up for their top-heavy roster. James and the Lakers coaching staff have seemingly found relief and the team seems to play more freely now.
Now that the Lakers don’t have to over-rely on the 40-year-old superstar, James is able to play the best defense he’s played in recent memory. As Carmelo Anthony said, this current Lakers roster does seem to believe in each other, and that reflects in their immediate rise in the Western Conference.
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