Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James go a long way back, and luckily for Los Angeles Lakers fans, they'll be able to see the chemistry that the two share in the upcoming 2021-22 season.

In his recent appearance on the “All the Smoke” podcast of Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Anthony opened up about his friendship with James and reminisced how it all started. Apparently, the two have a lot in common and they only discovered it after a fateful moment in 2002 when their high school teams were about to play each other.

LeBron was at St. Vincent-St. Mary at the time, while Melo was with Oak Hills Academy.

“When I get to Oak, LeBron happened to beat Oak the previous year. I’m like, I gotta play against him, it’s in the schedule. We gotta make it happen…” the new Lakers forward narrated. “We get the jersey, we get to the prime-time shootout and we come in the hotel, and he was like you Melo? Yeah! It was All-Star weekend in Philly, too. And we sat on the steps for hours the night before that game. I don’t know nothing about you doug, you don’t know nothing about me.

“We clicked from that moment, we just felt like we’re from similar backgrounds, single-parent home, broken family, growing up in the hood. So we connected for that, before basketball. … I was looking for some type of relationship like that with somebody, he was looking for that as well, so we came in each other's life at the right time. We were both looking for that brotherhood.”

It's definitely awesome to hear the friendship between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, and clearly, that friendship and brotherhood only strengthened through time as both players make their way to the NBA. Now, they are teammates on the Lakers looking to win a championship together.

Sure enough, it will be interesting to see how their partnership and long history of playing against each other will benefit the Lakers in the quest for that 18th banner. One thing is certain, though: the two will keep pushing each other and their teammates to the best of their abilities.