Carmelo Anthony mocks Kevin Durant for taking Anthony Edwards taunts quietly: "I woulda been like 'This n**** buggin'"
The Minnesota Timberwolves' first-round series sweep of the Phoenix Suns has been seen by many as the turning of the tide with rising star Anthony Edwards defeating basketball icon Kevin Durant. However, Carmelo Anthony saw how the transition happened and had his opinion on how the T-Wolves guard talked trash to an established NBA superstar.
Anthony feels that if the situation happened to him, it would light him up and bring out his best game against a younger NBA player.
“I would’ve been like, ‘This n***a buggin'! I don’t want to k*ll this lil n***a’”," Anthony said on "Point Forward." "I would have been out for blood in a competitive way."
Anthony Edwards fired 31.0 points along with 8.0 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.0 steals in the four-game series. Those numbers eclipsed Kevin Durant's 26.8 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 3.3 apg and 1.5 blocks.
Carmelo Anthony has things to say about Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns' Big Three build
Having formed the NBA's newest Big Three, the Phoenix Suns were one of the favorites to come out of the Western Conference behind the defending champion Denver Nuggets. However, injuries and team chemistry hampered their growth, leaving them to get swept by the rising Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round.
The Suns went all in, giving Durant all the pieces he needed to get his third championship and first outside his playing years with the Golden State Warriors.
More than the loss, Carmelo Anthony feels that the Suns got disrespected by the young players as the Timberwolves showed no fear against them.
"It goes back to say that you got to know how to put these pieces together," Anthony said. "I get what Phoenix did. They said, 'F**k it. We are going all in. We got to go out, time is now, we got to put all the chips on the table, we got to go.' These young boys ain't trying to hear that s***. None of these young boys in this league is trying to hear that s***."
As the season ends for the Suns, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker have more time to prepare to represent Team USA in the Paris 2024 Olympics. They are going to play alongside Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Steph Curry, all of whom experienced early postseason exits.