Carmelo Anthony breaks silence over move to Portland Trail Blazers

“Me and Dame [Lillard], we’ve been talking the past couple years off and on.

“I just look at that opportunity and that team and say, ‘look, this is what I can bring to the team, this is where I can help’.

“It will only work if all parties see it the same way.”

Anthony went on to speak about the process of when he got the call from Portland.

“The last year and a half man has been like an emotional rollercoaster,” he added.

“All of this started on Wednesday. I got the call on Wednesday, thought about it and then Thursday – that Thursday was the commitment.

“It was ‘okay, I’m ready to do this. If you guys really want to make this happen, I’m open. Let’s get serious about this and make something happen’.

“That led to the next day on Friday which they wanted me to come and get right in to it.

“Let me just get three or four days of just getting back in to it.

“Mentally and emotionally I had to almost detach myself from the game a little bit just to get myself from sanity and not think about it.

“Once I got that call, the challenge was to just flip that back mentally.”