Carmelo: My Life Was in Danger

Yesterday, Shoals told you about Brandon James Herrera, the guy who had his face re-arranged by a buddy of Carmelo Anthony's inside a 7-Eleven. According to Anthony, Herrera got on his cellphone and told someone to come and "kill Melo" after Anthony refused to sign an autograph for him.

"When we walked in there (Herrera) said, 'Come around here, man, we need you to kill somebody. We need you to kill Melo. We need you to take care of this business for us.' And this and that. I'm like, 'What are you talking about?' Look, anything could have happened. We were still in 7-Eleven and anyone could have come there.

"Something could have easily happened, and then what? People are going to say I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time. You never win in situations like this."

Anthony reportedly went to check on his fiancée LaLa Vazquez in their car after hearing of the threat, and when he returned inside the convenience store, he found out that Rahchine Craig (his friend) had punched Herrera.

I'm going to side with Carmelo here; athletes are targets, and despite what some of our astute readers would have you believe, they are not 'thugs'. So next time your hear of an NBA player and his dangerous 'posse', remember this story. These guys need all of the protection they can get. You never know what kind of psychos they can run into even when they're just out for a pack of gum.