“It’s Kind of Hard to Just Commit”: Carmelo Anthony Not Certain of Returning to NBA This Season

After being released in November 2018, Carmelo Anthony was a free agent for a whole year till the Portland Trail Blazers signed him in November 2019. Melo was brought to fill the hole at power forward, that  Zach Collins left due to his injury. He put up 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting 42% from the field. Despite being 36, Melo showed he still had it.

The Trail Blazers were hit by multiple injury problems including a groin injury for their star player Damian Lillard. When the season got suspended in March, they were 3.5 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies who are the eighth seed. When the season resumes in July, they will have eight games before the playoffs to catch up to Memphis.

Carmelo Anthony says players are not informed

In an interview with NBA TNT, Melo told Ernie Johnson about his team’s physical readiness for the season. “As far as from a physical standpoint, yes, I’m ready. I’m in the gym, we’re in the gym because we understand the minute that the horn goes off, we have to be ready as a team, Portland specifically.” 

With Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic both returning from injuries, the Blazers have been rejuvenated at the 4 and 5. Their return will strengthen their defense considerably.

Despite this, Melo said the lack of clarity regarding the final details about the NBA return, has left players unsure. “As far as actually playing and going back down into Orlando, I’m still up in the air a little bit because I really don’t — we don’t have all the details,” Anthony said. “We don’t know a lot of information, so until we have that, it’s kind of hard to just commit to it 100 percent.”

Earlier, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski had reported that 40 to 50 players have had conference calls, expressing their concerns over the NBA’s resumption in Orlando.

The NBA and the NBPA will be engaging in dialogue now to resolve this issue as we slowly creep towards 31st July, the proposed return date. The players have brought up multiple concerns like family safety and the inability to leave the resort. The players will be waiting for further safety protocols from the NBA before making the decision to go to Orlando.