When Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors, the reaction around the NBA extended far beyond fan debates. According to Carmelo Anthony, frustration ran deep inside locker rooms, front offices, and coaching circles across the league. Years later, Anthony finally put words to what many felt at the time, saying the dominance of the Durant-era Warriors pushed the entire league to a breaking point.
Speaking on the 7PM in Brooklyn, Anthony explained that resentment toward Golden State reached such an extreme that rivals found themselves rooting for an unlikely figure. “At that moment we’re rooting for CP3 to win a championship,” Anthony said, describing how even opponents wanted to see Chris Paul finally get his ring during the 2018 playoffs. The Warriors had become the common enemy, and nearly everyone wanted their reign to end.
Carmelo Anthony says NBA players, coaches, and Front offices hated the KD Warriors so much, they were all rooting for CP3 to win a ring in 2018 💀
“At that moment we’re rooting for CP3 to win a championship. His OPs was watching him rooting for him to win a championship… They… https://t.co/rlkcPVE4z2 pic.twitter.com/74xyEfjMAY
— Heat Central (@HeatCulture13) January 13, 2026
The League’s Breaking Point With the KD Warriors
Anthony described a league exhausted by trying to solve an unsolvable puzzle. With Durant, Stephen Curry, and a roster already built to win, Golden State felt inevitable. Anthony said teams grew tired of preparing for a style of basketball that warped roster construction and competitive balance. Front offices wanted the game to “shift in a new direction,” not because the Warriors played poorly, but because they played too well.
In that environment, Anthony noted how rare it felt to see rivals openly support one another. Chris Paul, then leading the Houston Rockets alongside James Harden, became a symbol of resistance. Despite Paul’s reputation as a difficult competitor, Anthony said the collective desire to dethrone Golden State overrode personal feelings.
Carmelo Anthony also placed the Warriors among a short list of franchises the league historically roots against. He named the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls, Warriors, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Detroit Pistons as organizations that often draw widespread resentment when they dominate.
The irony came later. The Warriors’ eventual unraveling arrived through injuries and timing rather than strategy. For a moment in 2018, though, the entire league stood united behind Chris Paul, not out of love, but out of exhaustion.
