Carmelo Anthony says he ‘can’t be at peace with not winning a championship’ now that he’s joined the Lakers

Carmelo Anthony has done just about everything an NBA player can do individually. He’s made six All-NBA teams, played in 10 All-Star games, and won a scoring title in 2012-13. He is currently 10th all-time in scoring in NBA history with 27,370 career points to his name, and will likely pass Moses Malone (27,409) early on during his first season with the Lakers.

Anthony has additionally won Olympic Gold Medals, and an NCAA Championship during his lone collegiate season. He may never have won an MVP award, but other than that, there is basically no level of basketball success that Anthony hasn’t achieved. The main thing missing from his resume is an NBA championship, which has often been perceived from the outside as the main reason he joined the Lakers.

To listen to Anthony tell it, however, it’s not quite that simple. During an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” Anthony said that he had actually made peace with not winning a ring... until he joined the Lakers, a team he never thought he’d actually get a shot to sign with.

Now, with his real and best shot at a title in front of him, he’s putting the pressure back on himself and his talented cast of teammates to get it done (via “The Daily Show”):

“There’s nothing that I’m trying to prove. If I hadn’t picked L.A., I would have been at peace walking away from the game, knowing that I gave everything I could and I still couldn’t win a championship. I would have been at peace with that. I would have been good. But now that I’m with the Lakers, I can’t be at peace with not winning a championship (laughs).”

It speaks to both the Lakers’ historical relevance and standard of excellence as well as their current level of talent that Anthony feels this way. He clearly knows how good of a shot they have, no matter how “old” the veteran-laden roster is:

“You’ve got to change your way of thinking, you’ve got to change your perspective... Being out there at this point in time of my career, we hear all of it. We hear that ‘they old’ and ‘the senior citizen home for basketball,’ but we just know what we bring to the game and what we bring to the table. And I say we’re wiser. Like we’re wise. We’re not old. 37 is young, 36 is young, it’s only old in the sports world, the basketball world. So like LeBron said, like other guys said, just watch and see. And I think people will enjoy the show.”

It remains to be seen exactly how big of a role Anthony will play for this team — he says he doesn’t care about that — but it’s clear that he wants to make the most of his time in Los Angeles. And hey, if he delivers on his newfound expectation to tie his career up with the one thing its missing, it’s a safe bet that Lakers fans will enjoy the Lake Show’s finale most of all.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.