After two resurgent seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers, Carmelo Anthony called time on his stint playing alongside Damian Lillard. Now with the Los Angeles Lakers, Melo took some time to reflect on his memorable spell with the Blazers and what type of relationship he has with Lillard.

Anthony is truly appreciative of how Lillard, CJ McCollum, and the rest of the Blazers organization welcomed him with open arms during a tough juncture in his career:

“Portland was real solid,” Melo said on a recent episode of the All The Smoke podcast, via Marlow Ferguson Jr. of Blazer's Edge. “They brought me in and I played right away. And that’s all I ever wanted to do was just hoop, man, I love to hoop. I wanted to be on the court. Then, I’m playing with Dame, I’m playing with CJ, they opened they arms, they opened they city, their organization, so I had to be loyal to those guys. Like, I’m gonna give you what I got.”

Melo also revealed that Lillard, in particular, went out of his way to make sure that Anthony felt welcome in Portland:

“Dame is a real one because Dame always knew like, ‘Man we don’t care about what nobody else is saying. We know you can play. I know you can play. I see you. I talk to you.’ So when you get somebody like that, rocking with you, it makes that situation easier,” Melo added.

Nevertheless, Anthony knew it was time to move on. LeBron James himself recruited him to the Lakers, and Melo knew it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Despite parting ways with Lillard and the Blazers, though, it doesn't seem like this is going to have an effect on Melo's relationship with Dame:

“I always was connected to Portland somehow,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I was always connected with Portland. I could’ve been there four years ago, it didn’t work out. I always told myself Dame will always go down as one of my top dogs. Forget basketball. Like as a human being, it don’t get better than that.”

Safe to say that Melo and Dame are brothers. There are clearly no hard feelings being harbored between them in spite of Anthony's decision to leave Portland. After all, the bond they formed goes beyond the boundaries of the basketball court.