Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony Talk 2003 NBA Draft, Rockets, More on IG Live Video

Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony provided a service to NBA fans on Friday night as they virtually shared a glass of wine in an Instagram Live session and talked about life, the league and even the Banana Boat vacation. 

With guest appearances from actress Gabrielle Union, who kept popping up behind husband Wade, the former Miami Heat star began by playfully taunting Melo about the 2003 NBA draft. After bringing up that Darko Milicic was selected ahead of Anthony, the small forward pretended he was unable to hear Wade even mention that name.

Although Milicic would go on to help the Detroit Pistons win the NBA Finals in 2004, Anthony said he believes the team could have won two or three had it drafted him instead. 

"I don't know how everything else would've played out after that throughout my career," Anthony said. 

Instead, the Denver Nuggets selected Anthony third overall in 2003, and he embarked on a career full of ups and downs. The low point seemed to come when Melo joined the Houston Rockets for the 2018-19 campaign, but he was traded to the Chicago Bulls in January and waived shortly after. 

That led to his signing with the Portland Trail Blazers in November, something that his wife, La La, had been encouraging him to do. 

"My wife was telling me to go to Portland for four years," Anthony said. "I'm like: 'What you want me to pick up and leave? I've got a contract.'"

Still, Anthony doesn't look back on his time with the Rockets as a loss. 

"If it wasn't for me going to Houston, my whole perspective on things would've been totally different," Melo said. "That situation was bad, but it was eye-opening for me."

Wade agreed and said he hoped Anthony would've signed with Portland instead of Houston to begin with.

Melo also shared a story about NBA legend Kobe Bryant (warning: contains profanity): 

At one point during the conversation, Union dropped in to get Anthony to discuss his time on the Banana Boat vacation, when Melo almost drowned and LeBron James had to dive into the water like a "commercial" to save him. 

Speaking of James, he'll likely be bummed he missed out on the wine tasting. He's been looking for someone to drink with since the early days of social distancing.