High hopes for Carmelo Anthony ahead of Blazers’ first preseason game
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PORTLAND, OR (KPTV ) — The Portland Trail Blazers tip-off their four-game preseason schedule with Sacramento one week from Friday night.
FOX 12 joined a conference call on Friday with Carmelo Anthony, who elected to remain in Rip City for his 18th NBA season to further his legacy in a new role for the scarlet and black.
“Me, personally, I had to kind of swallow that pill,” Anthony said. “Let’s go, let’s make it happen. I feel comfortable being here. You guys feel comfortable with me being here. Let’s make it happen.”
Melo stayed to come off the bench.
“It’s that time, right?” Anthony said. “It’s basketball. It’s what works for this team. It’s not, if I should be starting or not, I don’t think that’s a question.”
The future hall-of-famer is swallowing some pride to fall into a new role in his second season with Portland.
“If I sit and say that wasn’t difficult or hard for me, to hear and take, and let that play with your pride and your ego, yes it does,” Anthony said. “Especially coming from somebody like myself. I had to take a deep breath and figure it out, we’ll make it work.”
“You can’t bring CJ and Dame off the bench, so I’ll do it,” Anthony said, laughing.
It’s the best for the team and the 36-year-old, who is chasing the Larry O’Brien trophy.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have high hopes,” Anthony said. “I would just be playing my swan song. I have higher hopes of being with this group and being with this team, being a major part of this team and our teams success.”
Doing so during a pandemic.
“It is what it is, we gotta do it, we gotta play these games,” Anthony said. “We gotta travel, we gotta be safe.”
Like a fine Willamette Valley vintage, Anthony enters season 18.
“It’s crazy to hear that number, 18,” Anthony said. “The only thing left is legacy, so that was a major point and emphasis in the conversation with Neil [Olshey], in particular …that was the first time that I actually had that conversation with anybody, as far as it comes to legacy,”
The Blazer legacy of Brandon Roy is also a hotly debated topic—to let it rise to rafter, or let it mellow with another?
Melo’s lucky number seven is off limits, so for now, Melo remains agent double 00.
“Listen, if Portland gives me number 7 this year, listen, I will be happy, I will be thrilled so we need a petition for that, I need number 7,” Anthony said.
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