On Monday morning, New York Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony announced his retirement on Twitter with a video. The 38-year-old was a free agent for the entirety of the 2022-23 season and although he would’ve been useful to quite a few teams, he went unsigned. Anthony concludes a career that started in 2003 when he was selected No. 3 overall by the Nuggets.
After spending seven and a half seasons in Denver, he was sent to New York in a trade that is still highly discussed to this day. He averaged 24.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in 412 total games with the Knicks before being traded to the Thunder in 2017. From there, he played for the Rockets, Trail Blazers, and Lakers.
Responses to Melo’s retirement from current and former players around the league have been pouring in on social media, including a series of Instagram stories from Suns star Kevin Durant. Melo and KD never played on the same NBA team together, but they did get to play together in the Olympics.
Durant chose to post a couple of pictures from when he was in OKC and Melo was in New York and captioned them, too. He even threw in a dig at himself by including a screenshot from a comment that Melo left on one of his Instagram photos from years ago.
Kevin Durant shows his respect to Carmelo Anthony on Instagram 😂 pic.twitter.com/oSkzIY3i2e
— Daily Knicks (@DailyKnicksFS) May 22, 2023
Kevin Durant uses humor to respond to Carmelo Anthony’s retirement
If only we could see the DM that Carmelo Anthony is going to send Kevin Durant when he clicks through the Instagram stories.
The two share a special friendship and it was even rumored over the past year that Melo was going to sign with the Nets, and then possibly even the Suns after they traded for KD. When it was still unsure whether or not Melo was going to play another game in the NBA, Durant advocated for Melo by saying that he believed that he still had the talent to play in the league.
Anthony could’ve signed with Phoenix to have a shot at winning a ring, but none of that matters now since KD and the Suns were eliminated by the Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals.
As much as Knicks fans would’ve loved to see Melo get the ring that he deserved, now it’s time to shift the focus to New York retiring his No. 7 jersey.
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