Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James have a long-standing relationship, and luckily for Los Angeles Lakers fans, they will get to see the two play together during the upcoming 2021-22 season. Chemical reactions between people.

On a recent appearance on Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson's "All the Smoke" podcast, Anthony opened up about his friendship with James, recalling how it all started. It was clear that the two men had a lot in common, something they discovered only after a fateful moment in 2002, when their high school teams were about to play each other.

LeBron at St. Vincent-St. It was Mary, then at Oak Hill Academy.

"When I came to Oak, LeBron happened to beat Oak the year before. I thought, I'm going to play him, it's on the schedule. We have to make it happen. ..." the new Lakers forward said. "We got the jerseys, we got to the prime-time game, we got into the hotel and he was like you Melo, it was All-Star weekend in Philadelphia as well. The night before the game, we sat on the steps for hours. I Nothing about you, nothing about me."

"From that moment on, we hit it off, we felt like we came from similar backgrounds, single-parent families, broken homes, Growing up in the community. So we connected over that before playing basketball and I was looking for a relationship like that and he was looking for it, so we were both in each other's lives at the right time. Looking for that brotherhood ”

It was great to hear about the friendship between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony, and it’s clear that their friendship and brotherhood grew over time. Will get stronger and stronger. Now, they are teammates on a Lakers team hoping to win a championship together.

To be sure, their partnership and longstanding rivalry history will benefit the Lakers in their pursuit of that 18th flag, which will be very interesting to watch. But one thing is for sure: the two will continue to push each other and their teammates to the best of their abilities.