On the latest edition of the podcast ‘7pm in Brooklyn' (a Wave Sports + Entertainment Original), Carmelo Anthony revealed the NSFW message that he shared with Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard before he was dealt by the Portland Trail Blazers:

Said Melo of the now Bucks' star, “We spoke. I was telling Dame, man get the f**k out here [Portland]. It wasn’t like a knock to Portland but it was, ‘Champ, you in the same situation I was in, in Denver. Our loyalty gonna kill us It’s gonna kill us!’ What do we have to see or know to make the decision? For me they had to hit rock bottom for it to be like alright I’m gonna go…So I’ve been telling Dame that, and finally, he was like ‘My loyalty is stamped in Portland.' They better put a statue of Dame in Portland. It’s that deep of a connection. But I be telling him, ‘You gotta go’ because I knew what was gonna happen.”

After requesting a trade to the Miami Heat in early July, Lillard was dealt to the Bucks in September in a multi-team deal that landed Jrue Holiday and Deandre Ayton in Portland. Holiday was then rerouted to the Boston Celtics.

Lillard had arguably his best game of the season on Tuesday against the Spurs, dropping 40 points on 14-22 shooting from the field (7-12 from deep) to go along with four rebounds and three assists. And in the process of doing so, the Bucks star finally crossed 20,000 points for his career — an elite club that houses just 51 players throughout the history of the NBA.

Up next for the Bucks: They take on the Orlando Magic on Thursday night.