Carmelo Anthony shook up the ending of the NBA offseason when he waived his no-trade clause and went to Oklahoma City Thunder. But apparently fans have Carmelo’s son, Kaiyan Anthony, to thank for the trade.
Melo sat down with The New York Times ahead of Thursday’s opening game with OKC versus the New York Knicks, and discussed him leaving his hometown and who influenced his decision. “My son said he wanted me to play for OKC,” Carmelo said. “Even before OKC was in the picture.”
Melo revealed that he spoke about a trade with young Kaiyan a few times, and he was pretty unshakeable about his dad playing alongside Russell Westbrook and Paul George.
My son has a basketball mind. So I will always throw little topics at him. He was like, ‘Dad, where are you getting traded to?’ I told him, ‘I don’t know, where do you think I should go?’ He said: ‘You really want me to give you my opinion? I think you should go to OKC.’ It worked out.
Further along in the interview, Carmelo discussed his strained relationship with former New York Knicks coach Phil Jackson.
When I signed with the Knicks, I wanted to be in New York and I believed in Phil. Then last year it went to: I was being pushed out. There were things being said about me that I didn’t know where they were coming from. And I still had to go to the gym and play and practice and deal with the media, answer all those questions every day.
