Carmelo Anthony revealed he was nearly traded to the Lakers in 2011 in a deal involving Nene, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum. The move collapsed, sending him to the Knicks instead— altering his career and the Lakers’ championship trajectory.
Carmelo Anthony has confirmed one of the NBA’s great “what-if” moments — and it involves him in purple and gold.
Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Anthony
Position: SF
Age: 41
Height: 203 cm
Weight: 104 kg
Birth place: Maryland, United States of America
Speaking with Dwyane Wade on iHeart’s WY Network, the 10-time All-Star detailed a 2011 trade that was supposedly a done deal. Anthony andNene were set to join the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum. The move would have paired Anthony with Kobe Bryant during his prime and potentially extended the Lakers’ championship window.
“The deal was done with the Lakers. It was me and Nenê for Lamar Odom and Bynum,” Anthony recalled.
“That deal was done. I never thought about New York. But then, when they turned that deal down, now it’s like, ‘Oh, y’all don’t want me in the West. You’re gonna send me to the East.’ Get me to New York.”
At the time, media reports suggested Anthony had his heart set on the Knicks, but he now says that wasn’t true. In fact, New York only entered the picture after talks with the Nets fell apart.
“The deal never was with New York, the deal was with the New Jersey Nets,” Anthony said. “So when it was All-Star weekend, the deal was with the Nets. George Karl had a deal with Utah behind the scenes for Derrick Favors … and he thought he was a Nenê-type power forward. So I ended up in New York, but that deal wasn’t supposed to happen.”
The fallout changed the course of multiple franchises. For the Lakers, missing out on Anthony meant their dominance slowly faded as Bryant aged, with no new championship-level co-star arriving. For Anthony, the Knicks years were a mix of personal scoring brilliance and postseason frustration— without a single Finals appearance.
Anthony eventually left New York for the Thunder in 2017, marking the start of his late-career journeyman phase. He retired in 2022, finishing with over 28,000 career points but no NBA championship — a gap that could have been filled had the 2011 deal gone through.
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