By now, it’s been established that the early reports of Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony hating the selection of Latvian big man Kristaps Porzingis in the 2015 Draft are probably wrong. Anthony has gone on the record several times, calling Porzingis a “steal” and saying that he really loves the 19-year-old who tore up the Spanish ACB League in limited action last year.
In fact, in this exclusive interview with Bleacher Report, we learned that Anthony actually reached out to Porzingis right after he was taken with the fourth pick of the Draft. We also learned that Anthony apparently refers to himself as “Me7o.”
Carmelo Anthony reached out to me after I got drafted. He said, “Congrats, welcome to the team.” I didn’t have his number, so I texted back, “Who’s this?” And then a few minutes later, he said, “This is Melo” with his No. 7 as the “l.” I met him actually when I came for my Knicks tryout for the first time. We’ve talked a couple of times since then.
Jared Zwerling’s article has a ton of great details about Porzingis and his transition to the NBA and the United States. The latter of which, Zinger said has been pretty easy, because “I had American teammates in Spain, and I listened to hip-hop my whole life. I listen to a lot of Drake and Meek Mill before games.” (whoops). But none of them to the tidbits about New York’s new import are quite as interesting as the one where we learned how Carmelo refers to himself when reaching out to his teammates.
(via Bleacher Report)