Carmelo Anthony publicly went to bat for Lakers backup forward Jared Dudley, pushing back against the suggestion Dudley took up a roster spot that was rightfully his in Los Angeles.
“You can’t blame him for what I went through,” Anthony says.
Melo, who inked a non-guaranteed deal with the Portland Trail Blazers this week, also downplayed any on-court beef he may have had with Dudley in the past.
Per Yahoo Sports:
“Me and Jared Dudley had some issues in the past, man, but I started feeling bad for him a little bit,” Anthony told Yahoo Sports. “I mean, not feeling bad, but it’s just like, ‘Leave that man alone.’ It’s not his fault. Teams that wanted him, they wanted a specific role, and that’s why they picked him up. I had to tell some guys to lay off. He wasn’t keeping a roster spot from me. That wasn’t the case. The [treatment] he received wasn’t right.”
Anthony expounded on the issues he had with Dudley.
“Man, it was just some game s— in [competition],” he told Yahoo Sports. “S— that happened on the court. Nothing serious. We don’t have any problems.”
It’s been a long journey to get back to where he belongs, but it was that experience — which caused so much unnecessary vitriol directed toward Dudley — he said he won’t take for granted.
“Yeah, [Dudley] didn’t deserve that,” Anthony told Yahoo Sports. “We were in different situations. You can’t blame him for what I went through.”
