“If you were loyal to Damian Lillard then why did you join forces with LeBron James?”: NBA fans react to Carmelo Anthony praising the Blazers superstar

NBA fans call out Carmelo Anthony for leaving Damian Lillard for the Lakers when he claims to have built a real connection with the Blazers star. 

Carmelo Anthony was merely an afterthought following his short stint with the Houston Rockets. After only a handful of games, Daryl Morey let go of the former New York Knick and no other team bit on Meo for a while. Despite rumblings of Carmelo being bad for the locker room and that his playstyle was much too iso-heavy, the Portland Trailblazers took a chance on him. 

Damian Lillard and the Blazers, who were fresh off a run to the Western Conference Finals the year prior, started off the 2019-20 season in poor fashion. To boost their scoring, they brought along Carmelo Anthony and it’s safe to say that this addition helped them actually make the Playoffs as an eighth seed out West.

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He averaged 15.4 points during the 2020 season while shooting 39% from beyond the arc. The 2021 season saw him shoot 41% from three-point land while averaging a solid 13.4 points per game. 

Carmelo Anthony gets flack for praising Damian Lillard and subsequently leaving him for the Lakers. 

Carmelo Anthony recently appeared on the ‘All the Smoke’ podcast and talked about his time with the Portland Trailblazers for quite some time. During this part of the show, he claimed that he had always felt a connection to Portland and that Damian Lillard will go down as one of his top dogs, on and off the court. 

While most fans were glad to see Melo praise the Blazers superstar, some fans questioned him as to why he would leave Portland after praising it to such an extent.

“ I had to be loyal to those guys “

*signs with Lakers 👎🏾

— Z A Y 🦅 (@205Zay) August 22, 2021

He left Portland because he wants a ring…

— bruno chiri (@chiri_bruno) August 22, 2021

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Many of these ‘fans’ do not realize that this episode of ‘All the Smoke’ was taped well before his decision to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Besides, Melo showed his loyalty to the Blazers by resigning with them prior to the 2020-21 NBA season.