Carmelo Anthony Shares Strong Reaction to Damian Lillard Being Released

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kevin Binoy | Last updated Jul 1, 2025 4:40 PM ET

Sports can be brutal sometimes no matter how much loyalty you show, it doesn’t always come back around. When big money and championship dreams are on the line, tough calls get made. Just ask Damian Lillard.

After giving it his all, he found out firsthand how cutthroat the game can be when the Bucks decided to waive the veteran point guard.

Before anyone could even process the shock, Milwaukee had already lined up his replacement in center Myles Turner. Talk about a ruthless move from a team that’s clearly all business this offseason.

Needless to say fans, and probably even Lillard himself were blindsided with this move. While we're yet to hear from Lillard, his former teammate and friend Carmelo Anthony did not mince words when sharing his thoughts about the situation.

As posted by Legion Hoops on X, Anthony commented on a post saying, "No loyalty in sports," "Business per usual," "SMH."

Carmelo Anthony is not happy with the way the Bucks treated Damian Lillard pic.twitter.com/wTtvcQLWYR
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) July 1, 2025

The Milwaukee Bucks just set the NBA rumor mill on fire Tuesday morning. Word got out that they’d snagged the free agent Turner on a four-year, $107 million deal — stealing him fresh off a Finals run while Indiana still wanted him back.

Naturally, everyone was scratching their heads about how the Bucks could pull that off with no cap space to play with.

Well, minutes later, the other shoe dropped: they’re waiving Damian Lillard and eating the rest of his two-year, $113 million deal. That’s $22 million in dead cap for each of the next five years. With Dame likely out for the entire 2025-26 season, it sorta makes sense, but still…ruthless.

Giannis reportedly isn’t thrilled about how it went down either. In a league full of shocking moves, this one’s already being talked about in the same breath as the Mavs’ middle-of-the-night Luka-for-AD trade.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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