The Portland Trail Blazers were the only organization not to vote to approve the NBA’s plan to return to the court, and start point guard Damian Lillard has been one of the most outspoken about the league’s plans. Now, it’s Lillard’s new teammate, Carmelo Anthony, who is voicing his uncertainty about the Orlando bubble.
In an interview with Ernie Johnson as part of the #NBATogether series on the league’s social channels, Anthony said he was still “up in the air” because of a lack of details from the NBA on the plan.
“As far as actually playing and going back down into Orlando, I’m still up in the air a little bit because I really don’t, we don’t have all the details.” Anthony told Johnson. “We don’t know a lot of information, so until we have that, it’s hard to just commit to that 100 percent.”
It’s a bit of a change of tune for the 10-time All-Star. Previously, he had told CBS Sports that he would be excited for the chance to compete with his teammates, especially a fully healthy Portland frontcourt with Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins back in the fray.
“I feel like if we have a healthy team then, yes, we want to go in,” Anthony told Colin Ward-Henninger of CBS Sports.
Yet Anthony is not the only skeptical NBA star. As Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported this week, at least 40-50 NBA players, predominantly from non-title contending teams, are voicing hesitancy about the plan based on a range of issues. The stringency of the bubble, health risks, and distractions from the ongoing uprisings over the death of George Floyd are just a few of the reasons NBA players are hesitant to depart for Orlando in a matter of weeks.
For the message to come from Anthony’s mouth is for it to have more power, however. Despite his slide on the court recently, he is one of the most famous players in the league. His words matter. While both the league’s board of governors and representatives from the Players’ Association both voted overwhelmingly in support of a return, it does appear that there’s plenty of wrinkles that need to be ironed out between now and whenever games tip off in Orlando.
