Nic Batum Reveals the Toughest Player He Ever Guarded in His NBA Career

Nicolas Batum has had a long and storied career in the NBA, beginning way back in 2008/09 with the Portland Trail Blazers. Since then, the French forward has played in Charlotte, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and at 36-years of age, he's still going strong.

Throughout that time, he's gone up against some of the best players in league history like Nikola Jokic, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steph Curry and countless others. In a recent interview however, he was asked to name the toughest player he's ever guarded, and his answer may be surprising.

"Denver Melo, I would say like, he had everything. He was strong, post-up, drives, threes, pull up, iso, jab, turnaround, everything. I always say he's the toughest guy I had to guard in my career."

Given how complete Carmelo Anthony was when he entered the league, Batum isn't the only one to have expressed this sentiment throughout his career. On his best day, Melo could score at an elite pace on all three levels, and with more moves than most in the NBA could hope for, he was always a problem.

Still, it's surprising coming from Batum given that he often guards the best player on the opposing team, meaning Durant, Curry, James and Bryant among others have all been faced at one time or another. Ultimately though, Anthony will be forever remembered as one of the greatest pure scorers in NBA history, and given that Batum was young when he faced him, this is an answer that makes plenty of sense.