It was over a year ago in May 2022, that Carmelo Anthony announced his retirement from basketball. As tends to be the case with most great players, he received calls to come out of retirement, and in the teaser for his new podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn, he revealed who had called.
“China,” Anthony said when asked if anyone had called him to lace ’em up one time. “The Pelicans called… That would have been that jersey, hide that.”
Carmelo x Barmelo
Dropping Thursday. pic.twitter.com/6HpowtijwE
— 7PM in Brooklyn (@7PMinBrooklyn) December 5, 2023
Anthony didn’t reveal when exactly the calls came. We can assume that the one from the New Orleans Pelicans came at some point during the 2022-23 season, as they were dealing with serious injury problems during the campaign. In response to Anthony’s claims, the Pelicans’ X account hilariously stated they would delete the retirement post they made for him.
“Lemme delete this”
Lemme delete this https://t.co/2waAYroCIf
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 5, 2023
With Zion Williamson playing in just 29 games and Brandon Ingram playing in 45, the Pelicans probably could have used Anthony’s scoring. In his final season in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers, the future Hall of Famer averaged 13.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game.
While Carmelo was obviously nowhere near his best, he certainly could have given them a bit of a spark off the bench. We can’t be sure whether the 39-year-old ultimately chose not to come back or if the two sides just couldn’t come to an agreement on the terms.
Carmelo Anthony Did Not Want To Play Overseas
As for China, they have given plenty of opportunities to older NBA players in the past, but it appears Anthony was not interested in going outside of the U.S. NBA insider Marc Stein reported that Carmelo was targeted by top European teams before his retirement, but he only wanted to play in the NBA.
If he didn’t want to play in Europe, I doubt he’d have had an interest in going to China, where the level of competition would be even lower. If we go by Stein’s reporting, it would appear the Pelicans weren’t interested in him when he announced his retirement, as he was waiting for an offer from an NBA team at the time.
Carmelo Anthony Sounded Off On ‘Ring Culture’
Carmelo finished his career with fine averages of 22.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. He won the 2013 scoring title and was a 10-time All-Star, but his critics tend to knock him for never winning a championship. In response to all that talk, Anthony blasted the toxic ‘ring culture’.
“I just think that the mindset has shifted tremendously when it comes to ring culture,” said Anthony, via Complex. “Like, there’s no way that guys who haven’t won the ring shouldn’t still get the credit that they deserve. Barkley is who he is… we are who we are. So because we didn’t get win the NBA championship, we shouldn’t get credit? Like we should just be dismissed on everything? So I will always kind of disagree with that but as far as ring culture, I think people understand that not everybody can win it.”
Not every great player ends up winning a ring and we shouldn’t minimize what they accomplished during their careers if they don’t win one. A lot of things have to go your way to win a championship and for some great players, the ball just doesn’t bounce their way in the end.
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