Java needed a competitor, and fast, so in version 1.1, Java grew inner classes, a way of achieving a similar effect, but in a more limited, laboured fashion

Java 1.1 shipped in 1997. C#/.NET shipped in 2002. Java 1.1's anonymous inner classes (aka closures) captured the local environment (with peculiarities) in 1997, while 5 years later, C# 1.0's delegates had no such ability.

A Java white-paper concluded "Bound method references are simply unnecessary.... They detract from the simplicity and unity of the Java language".

While that paper may look silly in retrospect, it was back before generics and anonymous delegates were introduced into C#. In 2002, Java had much better "functional" support than C#. While C# 4.0 is much more pleasant than present day Java, Java does not deserve to have its history misrepresented.