Carmelo Anthony confirmed that one of the biggest “what ifs” in the NBA is almost becoming a reality.
Anthony revealed that he and LeBron James seriously discussed joining forces during their prime, with the pair eyeing the New York Knicks or Chicago Bulls as potential destinations.
According to Anthony, the original plan was not to team up with all four members of the famed 2003 draft class.
Instead, the idea is to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh while Anthony and James form another superteam elsewhere.
“LeBron and I hope it’s New York or Chicago,” Anthony said on the P podcast with Paul George. “Chicago is in it. If we find a place, it’s Chicago.”
If they are going to Chicago, it will be around the same time Derrick Rose enters the league. In the 2010-11 season, he led the Bulls to a league-best 62-20 record and won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award, becoming the youngest MVP in league history at the age of 22.
The combination of Rose with Melo and LeBron is absolutely cinematic.
Ultimately, neither scenario (New York or Chicago) came to fruition.
Anthony eventually joined the Knicks in 2011, while James took his talents to South Beach along with Wade and Bosh, creating the Miami Heat’s Big Three and reshaping the league for years to come.
As for Chicago, the Bulls, while firmly entrenched in those discussions, have never managed to attract either superstar.
James and Anthony would eventually become teammates throughout their careers with the Los Angeles Lakers, but by then both players were past their primes, which would have produced one of the most interesting superstar tandems in NBA history.
Instead, the basketball world wonders what would have happened if two of the greatest scorers of the modern era had chosen Chicago or New York and changed the course of NBA history.
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