“I’m way harder on him than his dad is”: Kiyan Anthony’s mom La La revealed how she “doubted the process” of his basketball growth at times

Kiyan Anthony verbally committed to Syracuse during Friday's episode of his father's podcast, "7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony." His mom, actress La La Anthony, also appeared just before the big announcement and revealed she had been harsher on him than anybody else, including his NBA superstar dad.

The podcast's co-host, Kid Mero, brought up Kiyan's basketball improvement and asked La La what it was like as a parent to watch him grow.

"It's definitely been a process, and he still has so much more room to grow and continue to get better," she said. "But you have to, you know when they say trust the process, you really do and there were times that I doubted the process coz I would tell his dad what is going on and I'm harder on him when it comes to basketball than his dad is.

"Mel would just be like, it's going to happen, it's going to come, it's going to come, and I'm like, but why is it not happening now? Like I'm not seeing the growth, and then all of a sudden and Mel would say it all the time, it's like it's just going to start clicking and then it just started clicking and now we're seeing all the hard work and the hours pay off." (12:11 - 12:50)

Kiyan Anthony started playing basketball competitively later than most and was once a bench player. However, he has improved and is now the consensus No. 1 player in New York and the No. 35 overall in the country, according to On3.

Carmelo and La La's toast to Kiyan Anthony after his Syracuse decision

A few moments after Kiyan Anthony announced his commitment to Syracuse on the podcast, La La noted how proud of him she was, and said that she was lucky to be his mom. This was when Carmelo said, "Cheers!" before the two former partners shared a toast for their son, with Kid Mero also celebrating.

Kiyan Anthony chose Syracuse over USC, which would have had him live closer to his mom in California, but as La La mentioned in the episode, it's only a 45-minute flight to Syracuse. By choosing the New York school, Kiyan gets to stay closer to his dad in NY.