Carmelo Anthony had the opportunity to be mentored by one of the greatest players in the game in Michael Jordan, and there’s no denying the Chicago Bulls legend had such a massive impact on Melo.
Anthony shared as much in the latest episode of his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast with The Kid Mero. Melo recently revealed that he never lost a 1-on-1 game against NBA players, and so when The Kid Mero asked if he also beat Jordan when the icon was mentoring him, the 10-time NBA All-Star evaded the question and instead shared how His Airness mentored him.
The 10-time NBA All-Star did say that he never actually had a legitimate 1-on-1 with Mike, adding that their previous battles were mostly teaching moments as MJ helped develop Anthony to become the lethal scorer everyone knows of.
“I don’t want to talk bout that,” Anthony said when Mero asked if he ever had 1-on-1s with Jordan and if he ever beat him, as presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment Original. “I prefer not to talk about it because that was a real moment. I was in the sanctuary. I was in the temple. So yeah, we played but it wasn’t ‘Yo let’s play to seven or 11.’ It’s like we got two dribbles. We gotta score … He taught me the psychological aspect of how to break down scoring.
“When I got with him, it was more individualized and catered to my game like OK, ‘Here’s how I see your game, I wanna give you the add to that. Here’s the tricks of the trade.’ It’s those types of moments but you dealing with it in quick time like this is how you do it now check up. So It wasn’t like 1:1 games, it was like teaching in real-time and action though. Game speed, but this is what we’re trying to get out of this.”
It’s definitely easy to see where Carmelo Anthony is coming from here. The former NBA superstar definitely felt that he never had a legit 1-on-1 with Michael Jordan where their purpose is to win over the other. MJ was a real mentor to him, and that was evident through and through.
More must-reads: