Carmelo Anthony was a man without a country to start the season.
After a failed stretch with the Houston Rockets early in the 2018-19 NBA campaign, Anthony was out of basketball for a year before signing with the Portland Trail Blazers this past November.
While Anthony is clearly not the dominant scorer he once was, he has still found some success with the Blazers this season. He was averaging 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds over 32.5 minutes per game while shooting 42.6 percent from the floor, 37.1 percent from 3-point range and 84.3 percent from the free-throw line prior to the season being suspended.
But apparently, Anthony was close to calling it quits before Portland came calling.
During his appearance on the Pull Up podcast with his Blazers teammate CJ McCollum, Anthony revealed that he had a retirement date set prior to the Blazers signing him:
“I was like, if nothing happens by this day, I'm announcing my retirement. I'm at peace with letting the game go,” Carmelo Anthony told CJ McCollum.
Anthony even added that his wife and one of his kids asked him why he wasn't considering Portland, which Anthony said he found strange at first. Then, he realized that it did make sense, and ironically enough, the Blazers called him up shortly after.
The 35-year-old entered the NBA as a No. 3 overall pick of the Denver Nuggets back in 2003. He spent his first seven and a half seasons with the Nuggets before being traded to the New York Knicks midway through the 2010-11 campaign.
Carmelo Anthony then spent six and a half years with the Knicks. He was dealt to the Oklahoma City Thunder just ahead of the 2017-18 season and resided with the Thunder for one year before being waived.
The 11-time All-Star owns a lifetime average of 23.6 points per game.
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