Former Los Angeles Lakers’ baller Carmelo Anthony was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Sept. 6, and fans were shocked to see the daughter he had with Mia Burks while he was married to La La Anthony at the ceremony. La La and Anthony broke up over his infidelity in 2017, but they reunited for a time in 2018 before she filed for divorce in 2021, per People.
Anthony has two children — a son, Kiyan Anthony, with his ex-wife La La, and a daughter, Genesis Harlo Anthony, with Burks. Anthony proudly showed off both of his children at the induction ceremony and mentioned them in his acceptance speech.
“Raising children in this world is revolutionary,” he said. “I didn’t just want to be a basketball player. I wanted to be a model of redemption, of accountability, of love. My kids saved me,” he added as he pointed to his children, who were seated next to each other in the audience.
The 8-year-old then waved at the camera with an adorable coy expression as the audience applauded and laughed. She and her brother both applauded as well.
“They gave me a reason to move past ego, past noise, past criticism,” he continued. “They reminded me that legacy isn’t what you leave behind, it’s what you lift up.”
While the former couple’s breakup was public, many fans were unaware that Anthony had a daughter, and they left comments under a clip of the speech shared on Instagram.
One fan exclaimed, “He got a daughter?”
A second fan also replied, “When he get a daughter?”
“That’s the one he had when he cheated on La La,” another fan answered.
One user wrote, “‘Wow. Had a baby on La La.”
“His daughter like, ‘Yup, he talkin bout me.’😂.”
“Salute to him for stepping up and bringing his daughter into his life,” added one fan. “He made a huge mistake, but just like any of us, all you can do is move forward.”
La La Anthony spoke about her ex-husband’s infidelity during an appearance on Angie Martinez’s “IRL” podcast on Aug. 20.
“It is incredibly hard, incredibly hard,” she said of going through the situation in public. “But what are you going to do? You gotta push forward, like every day a little bit stronger, stronger, stronger until you get past it. … So then you have to fake smile. … And you’re dying inside.”
During the ceremony, Anthony’s fans shouted “Melo! Melo” as he walked to the stage to give his speech, where he teared up, according to The Associated Press.
“Pardon my language, but damn,” he said. “Tonight. I just don’t step into the Hall of Fame — I carry the echoes of every voice that ever told me I couldn’t. … I had to build a new road. I had to write a new ending.”
