ME: Hey, guys! Sorry I’m late.
CARMELO ANTHONY: Hey, guys. Sorry I’m late.
ME: The most amazing thing just happened!
CARMELO ANTHONY: The most annoying thing just happened.
ME: I was at the Y.M.C.A., just shooting around…
CARMELO ANTHONY: I got stuck at the Y again.
ME: And guess who’s shooting right next to me?
CARMELO ANTHONY: Some skinny white dude was lobbing airballs right next to me.
ME: Carmelo Anthony! Melo Yellow himself! I couldn’t believe it. I’ve always been a diehard fan.
CARMELO ANTHONY: Probably one of these guys that comes to two games a year and calls himself a diehard fan.
ME: I even went to those two games this year. So I just played it cool, kept to myself, did my thing.
CARMELO ANTHONY: He kept shooting these ridiculous half-court shots to get my attention.
ME: And I glanced over at him.
CARMELO ANTHONY: He was staring at me the whole time.
ME: And it seemed like he wanted some company.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I just wanted to be left alone.
ME: So I walked up to him, and was like, “Hey, Melo, how ’bout a little one-on-one?”
CARMELO ANTHONY: He was like (affecting a loser’s voice), “Uh … Mr. Anthony, I’m such a huge fan.”
ME: And Melo was like, “You think you can take me?”
CARMELO ANTHONY: And I was like, “I guess we can shoot around for a minute.”
ME: So I said, “It’s on.” Can you believe I said that? “It’s on.”
CARMELO ANTHONY: He said (affecting a girl’s falsetto), “Thank you so much, Mr. Anthony! It’s such an honor! My friends are never gonna believe me.”
ME: So I suggested we play shirts and skins.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I guess he thought we were actually playing a real game.
ME: You know, just in case more guys jumped in.
CARMELO ANTHONY: And before I could tell him that there’s no way I was playing skins.
ME: I took my shirt off.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I almost threw up.
ME: And I’ve really filled out the past few months. I’ve been doing tons of crunches.
CARMELO ANTHONY: He looked like one of those kids in a Sally Struthers commercial.
ME: I’m kind of ripped. I actually think he was a little shocked.
CARMELO ANTHONY: It was actually kind of shocking the way you could see every single one of his ribs.
ME: So I took the ball out.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I let him start with the ball.
ME: And I tried to drive by him.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I think he was trying to dribble past me.
ME: But he was quick.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I literally did not move my feet.
ME: And he blocked me!
CARMELO ANTHONY: I barely raised my hand and he kind of just ran into it.
ME: And Melo was like, “Not in my house!”
CARMELO ANTHONY: And I think I apologized to him. Like, just instinctively. Like when you step on a cat’s tail and you’re like, “Oh! Sorry, cat!”
ME: But we were both totally in the zone.
CARMELO ANTHONY: While he was prancing around, I finally finished reading that Economist article you e-mailed me.
ME: It was like we were the only two people on the planet.
CARMELO ANTHONY: It’s really terrible how they’re exploiting those Nicaraguan coffee farmers.
ME: I don’t think he’s really been tested in a while.
CARMELO ANTHONY: So I decided to give him the ball. Just to get it over with.
ME: But I robbed him in the paint and did one of my moves.
CARMELO ANTHONY: He kept trying to dribble the ball between his legs.
ME: I did my Harden Eurostep, my Rondo No-Look, my J-Craw Step Back.
CARMELO ANTHONY: But it just bounced off his knees, out of bounds. It was so embarrassing.
ME: It was so empowering! I hadn’t played like that since high school.
CARMELO ANTHONY: He’s clearly never played against another actual human person. And the worst part was…
ME: Oh! I forgot about the best part!
CARMELO ANTHONY: There was this woman teaching a yoga class nearby, and the ball kept flying over to her.
ME: There was this yoga chick near us, and she was, like, eyeing me the whole time.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I could tell she wanted to kill this guy every time she brought the ball back to us.
ME: She was totally into me, like bringing the ball back for me…
CARMELO ANTHONY: And then he actually started trash talking. Have you ever heard a skinny white dude try to talk trash?
ME: We were both getting a little dirty in the mouth.
CARMELO ANTHONY: It was like watching a Chihuahua bark at a hydrant.
ME: I was like, “I’m gonna beat you like a red-headed stepchild!”
CARMELO ANTHONY: He said something horrifying about child abuse.
ME: And he was clearly intimidated.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I was actually kind of scared. He seemed crazed.
ME: So then I said, “Hope you brought toast, Melo, ’cause I’m about to spread my jam all over you!”
CARMELO ANTHONY: Then he said something kind of gross, so I just kept my mouth shut.
ME: He was speechless!
CARMELO ANTHONY: And people were starting to notice us, so I said, “Next point wins.”
ME: I think I must have wore him down, ’cause he was like, “Sorry, brother, I only got one more left.”
CARMELO ANTHONY: So I gave him the ball.
ME: So I grabbed the rock.
CARMELO ANTHONY: And he started dribbling it the wrong way.
ME: I went to my sweet spot.
CARMELO ANTHONY: Then he turned around and heaved it from half court.
ME: And I launched a bullet from the fifty!
CARMELO ANTHONY: But the ball was heading nowhere near the basket.
ME: It was heading right toward that sweet nylon hole.
CARMELO ANTHONY: And I could tell that it was gonna slam off the backboard and right into yoga girl again.
ME: And I could tell that yoga girl was watching.
CARMELO ANTHONY: So I did the only thing any sane person would do.
ME: And then Melo did the stupidest thing.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I jumped up and grabbed the ball.
ME: He goal-tended my shot!
CARMELO ANTHONY: And I softly tipped the ball in, winning the game and, frankly, saving that girl’s life.
ME: And then he acted like he won the game!
CARMELO ANTHONY: But the guy was acting like he won the game!
ME: But I didn’t want to call him out. I mean, it was just a friendly game.
CARMELO ANTHONY: You know, it was always kind of annoying to work out at the Y, but this was more than I could take.
ME: I think this might be the beginning of a pretty heated rivalry.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I just hope I never see him again.
ME: It’ll probably become a regular thing for us.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I cancelled my membership on the way out.
ME: This is why New York City is the greatest city in the world.
CARMELO ANTHONY: This is why I gotta leave New York.
ME: You run into the coolest people.
CARMELO ANTHONY: You’re accosted by the weirdest people.
ME: But what I realized is that…
CARMELO ANTHONY: Anybody can be delusional and dangerous.
ME: Everyone is just as normal as I am.
Photograph: Jim McIsaac/Getty