Carmelo Anthony has dropped LeBron James from his list of favorite teammates

Being teammates in the NBA can eventually turn into a love/hate relationship, as you live and share your locker room every day with fierce rivals who not only want what's best for their team, but for each other as well. Carmelo Anthony recently shed light on the complexities of fighting for the same jersey, when he named his favorite teammates of all time.

We're not saying this is the case between the former All-Star and LeBron James, but we can guess this after Melo calls the Lakers on his list. This surprising omission has sparked debate about the nuances of their relationship.

It all started on a recent episode of his podcast 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony & The Kid Mero. “I think that of all my teammates, it would have to be, I would say, it would have to be JR Smith and Kenyon Martin because he was on my team the longest in all of our years.

Lakers News: Carmelo Anthony's Surprising Snub of LeBron James Stirs NBA Team Dynamics Debate

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“We were in Denver. We were here in New York,” said Melo. “We spent a lot of time together until we got to the point where we are the same, we don't need to look at each other, you know what state I'm in.” You know what I'm about to do. You know, you see early.”

Even though Anthony has always praised LeBron as one of the best players to ever play basketball, he has recently been vocal about his deep respect for the game of Kevin Durant, who he believes deserves to be part of the GOAT conversation.

After Kevin Durant almost single-handedly beat the Bulls earlier this year with his 40-point performance, Carmelo appeared this year in the team's lineup. 7PM in Brooklyn show and share his thoughts.

“Kevin Durant was recently interviewed, he said, 'despite all the accolades I've received, I've done everything a GOAT should do but I'm not in the GOAT conversation, what's going on with that?'…So at the end of the day when it's all said and done, does KD deserve to be in the GOAT debate?” he was asked.

Anthony has described Kevin Durant as one of the goats many times before, praising and sharing James but in a different way.

Especially in recent years, Melo has given more props to KD as the GOAT, than he has given to LeBron. “…Absolutely! I hate the GOAT talk…he will go down as the purest scorer this league has ever seen. He is a five-goal scorer. There is no way he can score a goal on the field. He is a champion… He has seven feet. He changed the game,” he said at the beginning of the year.

Melo then explained why he became one of the greatest. “How [are] you're not going to say he's not in a conversation with the GOAT?…If we talk about ring culture, Michael Jordan is not the GOAT, Bill Russell…But people will say Michael Jordan IS THE GOAT…to answer the question, yes, that is. the man is in the speech of the GOAT. YOU ARE A GOAT,” he confirmed.

The Phoenix star is undoubtedly one of the purest scorers the NBA has ever seen, but is his legacy bigger than we think? In this year's interview with the media, he suggested that there was one reason why he was not in the GOAT debate.

“Because I went to the Warriors,” said Durant first, as his decision to join Golden State was among the most controversial choices of free agents. “Why shouldn't I get into that? That's the question you should be asking. Why not? What did I not do?”