Los Angeles Lakers bench cog Jared Dudley took his share of flak this summer after many media personalities noticed Carmelo Anthony had yet to find a place on an NBA roster. LeBron James had clamored for Melo as a potential help piece in the past, but the Lakers opted to add a veteran spot-up shooter instead of the former NBA scoring champion — which had many up in arms.
Anthony, now a member of the Portland Trail Blazers, cleared the air regarding their previously tenuous relationship, noting he felt bad Dudley was taking all that hoopla for something he didn't do:
“Me and Jared Dudley had some issues in the past, man, but I started feeling bad for him a little bit,” Anthony told Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “I mean, not feeling bad, but it’s just like, ‘Leave that man alone.’ It’s not his fault. Teams that wanted him, they wanted a specific role, and that's why they picked him up.
“Yeah, [Dudley] didn’t deserve that. We were in different situations. You can’t blame him for what I went through.”
Many supporters of Melo started to bring up career comparisons between Anthony, a former NBA star, and a lifelong role player in Dudley:
“I had to tell some guys to lay off,” said Anthony. “He wasn’t keeping a roster spot from me. That wasn’t the case. The [treatment] he received wasn’t right.”
The Blazers forward expounded on his previous issues with Dudley, ones he claims are no longer a tiff between them:
“Man, it was just some game s**t in [competition],” said Anthony. “S**t that happened on the court. Nothing serious. We don’t have any problems.”
Now that Jared Dudley and Carmelo Anthony are both employed by their respective teams and have put their issues behind them, it seems this story has a happy ending after all.
UPDATE: Dudley indeed shares the same sentiment, no bad feelings here:
Happy to see Melo back on the floor doing what he loves! https://t.co/2tKYaXe0vK
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) November 22, 2019
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