According to Carmelo Anthony, he nearly joined forces with one of the better players in the league at the time in LeBron James before James decided to team up with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat.
Carmelo reveals how he & LeBron almost teamed up in Chicago before the Miami Big 3 formed.
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“Before the Big 3, the Miami Big 3, it was talks about me and Bron ’cause we were out of — me, him and D-Wade,” Anthony said. “It was me and him close, and then it was me and D-Wade close. And then Bron and D-Wade was close. But we never was all three locked in until we started going and getting — you know what I mean?
“And then we had experiences playing on the world championship team, and I think that’s when it kinda really started to blossom. And it was — I think it was because we lost together. We felt the same pain. We felt the same sentiment, so, that brought us — all three — together.
“With Bron it was always like, ‘Yo, we gotta make it happen. Someway, somehow — the opportunity comes, let’s make it happen.’ We just never knew where. ‘You goin’ to New York? I ain’t goin’ to Cleveland. You comin’ to Denver?’
“Then the conversation got serious after ’06, ’07, ’08. It was supposed to be Bosh and Wade and then me and Bron goin’ somewhere. We just couldn’t find out where. We wanted it to be New York, you know what I’m saying? Or Chicago — Chicago was in the fold. If we gon’ find a place then let it be — go to Chicago, you know? I’m in Denver. You’re in Cleveland. Free agency hit, let’s try to make it work.”
For much of the time that Wade, Bosh and James spent playing alongside each other on the Heat, Anthony played for the New York Knicks and led the team to modest success.
Anthony became a Knick midway through the 2010-11 campaign and helped New York make the playoffs in 2011, which marked the squad’s first playoff appearance since the year 2004.
New York qualified for the playoffs for three years in a row from 2011 to 2013 with Anthony on the roster, and arguably his best season as a Knick came during the 2012-13 campaign.
In 67 games played during the regular season, he averaged a league-high 28.7 points per game while shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 37.9 percent from 3-point range. On top of that, Anthony averaged 6.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest during his second full season with the Knicks.
Anthony ended up finishing third in that year’s MVP voting behind only James and Kevin Durant after he helped New York pick up 54 regular-season wins and secure the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
But Anthony’s Knicks later went on to lose to the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs, while James, Wade and Bosh won that year’s title after eliminating the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
Miami’s Big 3 won two titles and appeared in four NBA Finals during its time together. On the other hand, Anthony never led New York past the second round of the playoffs in any of his seasons with the Knicks.
It’s unfortunate that NBA fans never had a chance to find out what a Bulls team led by Anthony and James would have accomplished, but it’s hard to imagine that the duo wouldn’t have been successful.
