Melo ripped up Knicks locker room after shock trade led LeBron’s Cavs to title

Carmelo Anthony was furious when the Knicks strengthened the Cavaliers with two key pieces during the 2014-2015 NBA season.

LeBron James‘ squad picked up Knicks duo Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith midway through that season — a decision that sent Melo spiraling.

The ten-time All-Star recently hosted former teammate Shumpert on his 7 PM in Brooklyn podcast, where he revealed his reaction to first hearing the news of the trade.

“F*** them,” Anthony said. “I told ‘Bron, ‘That’s what we doing?’ When it happened, the only thing going through my mind, ‘Bron, I know this is a chess game. I got to get these guys away from him.’ S*** is f***** up over there. I could use Shump and J.R. to go win a championship.

“In that room, all you hear is just boom, boom, water splashing,” replied Shumpert.

“That’s why I flipped out like that in the locker room. Because I’m like, ‘You do not touch this nucleus right here.’ I don’t give a f*** what you do. I said, ‘Yo, y’all can’t say s*** to me. Do you know what the f*** you did? Y’all gon’ send them to him? We’re building to go against this. ‘Y’all don’t give a f*** about me. This s*** is nasty.'”

The decision effectively marked the end of the Knicks being competitive in the Eastern Conference for at least a good few years.

To be fair, they were already on the slide at the time, which is why former team president Phil Jackson decided to free up cap space and trade Shumpert and Smith so that he could target free agents as part of a rebuild the following year.

The Knicks promptly fell off of a cliff after they left, finishing the season with a dismal record of 17-65 — the second worst in the league — after an injury to Anthony sidelined the Knicks star for the rest of the year.

The Cavs, meanwhile, went from strength to strength.

They bulldozed their way through the Eastern Conference, eventually making it to the 2015 NBA Finals where they were outgunned by Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors.

However, Cleveland bounced back the following year, with Shumpert and Smith serving as key role players — Shump on the defensive end and J.R. on the offensive end — throughout the regular season and playoffs.

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LeBron and the Cavs made it to the 2016 NBA Finals in a rematch with Golden State, but quickly found themselves in a 1-3 hole.

‘King James’ then put on his Superman cape, scoring, assisting and blocking at a ridiculous rate to steer the Cavs to a seven-game series win and the organization’s first ever world championship.

It was the first time in NBA history a team had ever come back from a 1-3 deficit to win the Finals, and the Knicks’ decision to send two key players to the champion Cavs looked all the more egregious.

Shumpert is one of the few players to suit up alongside Melo and LeBron during his carrer.

During his appearance on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, he reflected on playing against Anthony as a members of the Cavaliers.

He said, “I’m like, trying to process like, damn bro, like, one, this [guy] and Bron are like, arch enemies, you know what I’m saying? It’s like, they’re like everybody’s comic book right now. Like, why the f***, why do I gotta be part of this?”

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Shumpert also explained the differences between the pair, who were both part of the 2003 NBA Draft as well as NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

“With Melo, he will find your weakness immediately. He’ll know it 100 percent, and he’ll keep it in his pocket to use when he needs to use it. LeBron will make it to where you can’t even play, you can’t even be on the floor right now because we’re going to expose it,” Shum explained.

Shumpert returned to the Finals with the Cavs in 2017 and 2018, but lost on both occasions to the new-look Warriors featuring Kevin Durant.

He left Cleveland in 2018 for the Sacramento Kings before joining the Rockets in 2019 and ending his career with the Nets in 2021.

Anthony, meanwhile, eventually got to play alongside good friend LeBron.

He joined the Lakers for the 2021-22 season in the hopes of finally winning a championship ring. Melo primarily came off the bench for the purple and gold, and was ultimately unsuccessful in his quest for a title, lasting just one year in Hollywood.

Carmelo went unsigned the following year and announced his retirement from basketball in 2023.