Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant will be teammates this summer — both men will play for Team USA in the Olympics — but Anthony wouldn’t mind making that a more permanent situation.
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The Knicks forward said he has talked to the free-agent-to-be about his team, but he’s not pressing the issue.
"We're friends. We hang out," Anthony told ESPN. "It's magnified now because he's a free agent and we're in New York. But last year nobody was talking about us hanging out, going to work out or going to dinner or things like that. So, yeah, those conversations do come up, but it's not something that I'm constantly on him, throwing at him, because I was in that situation before."
The two men go back quite a ways, even before becoming NBA stars. Anthony grew up in Baltimore and Durant is from the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Anthony was a big-time free agent two years ago, and now it's Durant's turn.
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"Melo has been my friend since I have been in high school. We talk about everything," Durant said. "That is like my big brother right there. The best thing about all of us, none of the guys here have put any type of pressure. It has been cool."
After missing the playoffs for the past three seasons, the Knicks pulled off a deal to bring former Bulls guard Derrick Rose to Gotham, forming a solid core along with Anthony and rising sophomore sensation Kristaps Porzingis. Adding Durant to that mix would be a big deal in the Big Apple.
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Of course, the Knicks will have plenty of competitors for Durant, who has spent his entire career with the Thunder. For now, though, he says he's focused on the Olympics.
"I want to have fun playing ball," Durant said. "That's just my main concern, and that's always been my main concern. But I'm locked in on Team USA, man. Just trying to shift my focus back and forth, from (free agency) stuff to being on the USA team. I just wanna have fun playing ball."