If Carmelo Anthony signs with an NBA team before the start of the 2019-20 season — the 35-year-old last played in a contest in November as a member of the Houston Rockets before he was traded to the Chicago Bulls and was waived — he might have Damian Lillard to thank.
The Portland Trail Blazers star guard tweeted “#VoteForMeloFareWellSeason #StopPlayinMelo” on Monday evening (I’m guessing the latter hashtag is meant to tell NBA teams to stop playing by not signing Melo and NOT for Melo to stop playing, otherwise that’d be a weird tweet).
When someone told him that the Blazers should sign the forward, he had this to say:
This came after Anthony’s trainer Chris Brickley said the veteran doesn’t even care about being a starter, he just wants “a final season”:
And with Team USA losing so many big names for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, there have been calls by a lot of people like Kendrick Perkins to get the three-time Olympic gold medalist on the team:
I honestly don’t think efforts like Lillard’s will decide whether a team — NBA or otherwise — employs him. If a franchise thinks it can get Olympic Melo (the scorer who doesn’t have to be the focal point and can rain threes all day) as a role player, he’ll get his farewell tour.
