Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony was one of the best players of his generation, but he wasn’t exactly known to be a willing passer. Anthony was the definition of an iso-scorer, and his former New York Knicks teammate, Iman Shumpert, revealed how he once reacted when he told him he was open, on No Limit.
“I told Melo I was open, I told [LeBron James] I was open plenty of times,” Shumpert said. “Until he ready, he ain’t passing s***… Melo looked me dead in the eye and said, ‘I saw you, Shump. I know. I see you. They left you open. They left you there. I saw it. I just didn’t take the bait, boy… They doubled me to pass to you, and I didn’t take the bait. I beat the trap and shot it anyway. I missed. Go get the rebound.'”
Shumpert wasn’t exactly a reliable outside shooter (33.7% from three for his career), so Anthony had even more reason not to pass him the ball, even if he was wide open. While some players might be frustrated by that, Shumpert appreciated the honesty.
“Hey Melo, you the realest ever,” Shumpert stated. “Not everybody would have just told me, ‘Yeah, I saw you open and I didn’t pass it to you.’ Not everybody would do that, but that’s a big boy conversation for me and you.”
Some might have lied in that situation, and Anthony showed respect to Shumpert by not going down that route. These two had a pretty good relationship during their time together, but they wouldn’t be teammates for too long.
The Knicks had drafted Shumpert with the 17th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, and he proved to be a fine defensive guard. He and Anthony helped the team post an impressive 54-28 record in 2012-13, but things went downhill after that.
By the time the 2014-15 season came around, the Knicks had become a complete mess. They finished the campaign with a woeful 17-65 record and decided amid those struggles to trade Shumpert and J. R. Smith to LeBron James‘ Cleveland Cavaliers in January 2015. Anthony was not a fan of that trade, to say the least.
“F**k them! I told LeBron, I said, ‘That’s what we doing?’ When it happened, the only thing going through my mind was LeBron. I know this is a chess game… I gotta get these guys away from him,” said Anthony. “Sh*t is f***ed up because I could have used Shump and J.R. to go win a championship. That’s why I flipped out like that in the locker room, because you do not touch this nucleus right here! I don’t give a f**k what you do. I said ‘Y’all can’t say sh*t to me. Do y’all know what the f**k you just did? You’re gonna send them to him?'”
Shumpert and Smith would help James and the Cavaliers win the NBA championship in 2016. Anthony, meanwhile, had little to no success with the Knicks and would finish his career without a title to his name. Would he have won if Shumpert and Smith weren’t traded?
It’s doubtful, considering Anthony never even made the playoffs with the Knicks in the years that followed. This wasn’t a case of a team being a couple of solid pieces away from winning it all. The Knicks needed a lot more talent if they were to even come close to winning it all.
