NBA: Carmelo Anthony 'Would Rather Retire Than Ask LeBron James For Help Joining Los Angeles’

Carmelo Anthony, who was a free agent at the beginning of the current season, has revealed that he would have rathered retired than ask his friend LeBron James for help joining the Los Angeles Lakers.

After not playing a single match for more than a year in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Anthony had prepared himself for the worst.

"I was preparin' myself. And I had prepared myself to kinda just walk away from the game — if the right situation didn't come about," Anthony said.

However, the small forward got lucky when Portland Trail Blazers signed him in November. Two weeks later, he was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for scoring 67 points in total during his last three matches.

From his six matches for the Blazers to date, Anthony is averaging 17.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Even though he has an impressive resume, having been named an NBA All-Star as many as 10 times and an All-NBA Team member six times, he had to struggle before Blazers roped him in.

It all began last season when Houston Rockets gave him only 10 matches before they decided to move on and trade him to the Chicago Bulls. No team signed him after the Bulls waived him in February. Even during the first month of the 2019-20 season, Anthony was without a roster before the Blazers finally revived his career and stopped the 35-year-old from quitting the sport.

When Anthony was without a team, calling James for help looked like a possible option. Apparently, for Anthony, it was not.

"I never called him and said, 'What're we doin'?' Or 'I need you to do this for me.' I would never do that. I would never put him in that situation. I don't know what he's doin' on his side, but I would never put him, as a friend, as a brother, in that situation. And I know for a fact he would go to bat for me, but I don't feel comfortable putting people in that situation, whether you're my friend or not," the Brooklyn-born player added in his interview with ESPN.