Carmelo Anthony says he considered joining Sixers

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At the moment, 34-year-old Danny Green is the oldest Sixer.

If free agency had played out a bit differently, though, there’d be a 37-year-old with 10 All-Star selections on the roster.

Carmelo Anthony considered joining the Sixers this summer before signing with the Lakers, he told Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes on the Posted up with Chris Haynes podcast.

“I found myself sitting around and waiting on Portland. … I’m sure there were a lot of things that were happening over there that were just not clear,” Anthony said to Haynes. “I made that almost like a home for me. Within two years, I felt like I was a part of that community. New York was always there; coming back to New York was always a story. I’ve always told my son, when he goes to high school, I’ll be right there with you. So the New York thing made sense. 

“Philly — looking at Philly. I didn’t really get a chance to really converse with Philly, but there was interest there. New Orleans had interest. The interest was there. It felt good to see that again and be a part of teams being interested in me. I was just happy to be in a situation where I had options this time around.”

The Sixers would have been a fascinating destination for several reasons, including Anthony’s history with president of basketball operations Daryl Morey. Anthony only played 10 games with the 2018-19 Rockets before the team “parted ways.” At the time, his career seemed on shaky ground. 

He’s now on a Lakers team with quite a few players of relatively advanced age, among them LeBron James, Trevor Ariza, Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo. 

In a world where Anthony signed for the Sixers, he likely would’ve served as Tobias Harris’ primary backup. Harris, a fellow New York native with a mid-post game reminiscent of Anthony’s, has Georges Niang and Paul Reed behind him on the depth chart. Anthony takes fewer threes than Niang and puts up a ton of mid-range shots, but he’s still capable of making contested jumpers and going on scoring spurts. If the Sixers signed him, the hope would’ve been that he could elevate their second-unit offense and be adequate defensively in the postseason. 

For a veteran minimum salary, that wouldn’t have been a very risky proposition. Instead of Anthony, former Laker Andre Drummond was the Sixers’ big-name, out-of-the-blue minimum signing this offseason.

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