There are many perks to being an NBA scion. The best one, though, is picking the brains of some family friends. Kiyan Anthony is emerging as the next big thing to hit the court and he’s not even revealed his college decision yet. But he’s absorbing a world of basketball IQ not only from his dad, one of the all-time greatest scorers in NBA history, Carmelo Anthony. He’s got his dad’s friends and former rivals to turn to. One opportunity was meeting his GOAT, Paul George, and even his dad’s old friend, LeBron James. But it was another Olympian who won best advice.

Mere days before he’s set to announce which college he’s going to, the 17-year-old was on League Ready dishing about the NBA star who gave him the best advice. Sorry, PG. That credit goes to Jayson Tatum.

“I would say on my ‘Overtime’ show, I had Jayson Tatum recently… Just, I interview just digging in his mind a little bit, his mindset coming off a championship… obviously not really playing in the Olympics, and then not winning Finals MVP,” says Kiyan. He attended the Paris Olympics with his dad and it wasn’t lost on him how underplayed Tatum was.

The reigning NBA champ was not the Finals MVP either. That went to his teammate, Jaylen Brown, who was snubbed off the Olympic team. So even Kiyan noted that the Celtics stars haven’t received their due and he prodded Jayson Tatum about how that shaped him for the 2024-25 season as the defending champ.

“What’s his chip on his shoulder now coming into the season he’s currently in? You can see like he’s [Tatum] one of, if not the best, players in the NBA right now. So just him coming off barely playing in Team USA, still cheering on his teammates and then winning a championship but not getting the… finals MVP, just him still being grounded and him coming back, having a season that he’s having… he was just talking to me about that.”

Kiyan doesn’t specify what about Tatum’s advice resonated with him the most which made it the best.

Kiyan Anthony asked Jayson Tatum the tough questions

Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James’ friendship extends to their sons too in interesting ways. On Overtime, Kiyan and Bryce – both on the verge of making college decisions – faced off in front of their dads. Kiyan’s also one of Bronny’s biggest hypemen since the eldest James entered the NBA.

Kiyan also made it known that despite the obvious choices, Paul George is his GOAT. George even came on both Kiyan and Melo’s shows, and the 17-year-old guard got to shoot a few hoops with PG13.

It was, however, the interactions with Jayson Tatum on Melo’s podcast and again on Kiyan’s web reality series on Overtime that won the Internet. Tatum presented an interesting question, “Who do you think would win if I was 17 and you were 17?” It was an easy, “I think I would win,” from Kiyan. However, he doesn’t think he can beat the Team USA gold medalist and NBA champ, Jayson Tatum, now.

Kiyan Anthony had a similar question to Tatum but only replaced himself with prime Melo. JT said, “We’re going to 11? 11-8, me.” Fans especially love watching Kiyan interact with his favorite NBA stars. Even though he’s Melo’s son, hung around the likes of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, and been a staple at his dad’s NBA games for most of his life, he still gets starstruck meeting them.