18 Years Later, Carmelo Anthony And LeBron James Finally Join Forces After Melo Inked A One-Year Deal To Play For The Lakers

I don't care if it will work. I don't care if Melo is a role player and LeBron is (presumably) at the tail end of his prime. None of that matters. We saw LeBron and Dwyane Wade in South Beach, and while Wade has easily had the more decorated professional career, there's something about Melo that still carries an allure nearly two decades later. He and LeBron were the faces of that 2003 Draft. They were going to be battling it out for League supremacy for the next 15 years. LeBron, obviously, rose to become one of the greatest players the world has ever seen. Melo, despite his prolific scoring numbers and Olympic gold medals, found himself out of the League a few years back and still has idiots debating whether or not he'll make the Hall of Fame. They were sort of billed as the Magic and Bird of the 21st Century, and while it never lived up to that hype, it's been a helluva ride. 

It's cool as hell that Melo and LeBron are finally on the same team. However it happened, whenever it happened, all that matters is that it happened. You wanna worry about the Lakers roster, the average age, the size, the depth, that's for another discussion on another day. You wanna break down how the ball is going to move with Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Malik Monk on the court, there's plenty of time for that between now and October. This team would go 82-0 in 2013 and that's all I'm really going to think about for the rest of the day. 

This signing feels like the final chapter of an era. Not just for the NBA, but for people like me. The 2003 NBA Draft was a coming-of-age draft class for someone set to start their freshman year of high school that fall. We watched Melo win at Syracuse, we saw LeBron on the cover of Sports Illustrated and on ESPN getting his H2 and throwback jerseys combed over with a microscope every night. Now I got a kid and a mortgage and they're two old cops trying to crack one more case before riding off into the sunset. Yes, a free agent signing has me thinking about my mortality, that's completely normal, nothing unhealthy at all about my relationship with sports, find a new slant.