Count Carmelo Anthony as one of the players who would love to play with Kobe Bryant. The New York Knicks star dismissed ESPN's critical report of Bryant and said if the Los Angeles Lakers were the right situation for him in July, he would've had no issue playing alongside Bryant.
Anthony considered signing with Los Angeles in the summer, but he ultimately decided to stay in New York. In the wake of Henry Abbott's scathing ESPN report last week, Anthony acknowledged the idea of playing with Bryant wasn't the reason he passed on the Lakers.
"Hell no. Of course not," Anthony said, via ESPN. "If I thought that [playing for the Lakers] was the right situation for me from an overall perspective as far as having a team there, then I would have looked at that situation more in-depth. I just felt more comfortable staying here in New York. But as far as playing with him ... I'm here now but I would always love to play with Kobe."
Anthony considers Bryant a friend, and he admitted he reached out to Bryant for advice in adapting to Phil Jackson's triangle offense.
"If I know Kobe the way I think I know him, he is more of a person that will let me go out there and see how it works out and then throughout the season I am pretty sure he will be reaching out and say, 'OK, I see this, or I see that,'" Anthony said. "I am just trying to deal with him and get my own experience in it and if I need advice from other people and really talk to somebody, I have the right people in my phone to talk to."
ESPN's article last week accused Bryant as being the reason the Lakers have deteriorated into a lottery-pick team unable to sign a big-name free agent. The report cited a number of NBA agents and Lakers insiders as saying nobody wanted to play with Bryant, something which some - including Anthony, Jackson and Jeanie Buss - have disputed.
