They were two franchise changing players. Although everybody knew that James was a once in a lifetime player, people said that Carmelo Anthony was actually ready to play right now and was actually better than LeBron James.
Every game that they played in early in their career saw their stats being compared to each other and in their rookie season it was James who took home the rookie of the year award. Even though they were deemed to be rivals in the eyes of the media, they were actually friends off the court and they formed a friendship that would go beyond basketball.