Much has been written about Carmelo Anthony’s potential departure and eventual re-connection with the New York Knicks. How it wasn’t about the money, even though Carmelo Anthony turned down offers from better teams to play for less money. How it’s all about winning, even if it may take a while to succeed in New York under new president Phil Jackson and rookie head coach Derek Fisher.
Now, we’ve got yet another reason. The guy doesn’t want to be a free agent again. Ever, ever, ever.
(Even if he totally wanted to be a free agent this summer.)
Anthony further discussed his reasoning at the same Bloomberg Sports Business Summit that provided Adam Silver’s telling remarks about legalized betting and the idea of early-morning NBA tip-offs to further accommodate Chinese viewership.
Here’s Anthony’s take on what must have been a miserable summer, via the New York Post’s Marc Berman’s report:
“I plan on ending my career here, so it wasn’t for me to go out there and try to strike a two-year deal and then have to go through this situation in two years. I’m not doing that ever again. I would never do that again. I would advise no one to ever do that,” Anthony said. “I experienced it and it’s behind me.”
Remember that “behind me” entails five-star accommodations as Anthony was wined and dined and recruited in third-world outposts like Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston.
“I want to be a free agent,” Anthony tells me, as our cigars burn close to the nub. “I think everybody in the NBA dreams to be a free agent at least one time in their career. It’s like you have an evaluation period, you know. It’s like if I’m in the gym and I have all the coaches, all the owners, all the GMs come into the gym and just evaluate everything I do. So yes, I want that experience.”
Be careful what you wish for, I suppose.
September snark aside, this is completely understandable from all angles. Anthony was never a free agent, prior to this summer, despite entering the NBA in 2003. His 2006 contract extension with Denver fell before his eventual free agent status, and he signed an extension with New York upon forcing a trade to the Knicks in 2011. It’s nice to be wanted, and it’s nice to feel in control of your own destiny.
It’s also nice to have potentially great teams, potentially interesting situations, and potential hundreds of millions of dollars offered to you by a variety of franchises.
The Lakers aren’t doing anything any time soon, but they will have a future once Kobe Bryant’s contract comes off the books, and helping re-load a franchise while nesting by the waves of Malibu should have been incredibly appealing.
Dallas didn’t figure to be an obvious championship contender even with Carmelo Anthony suiting up alongside Dirk Nowitzki, but they didn’t seem like an obvious championship contender heading into 2010-11, and that didn’t stop them from falling behind Rick Carlisle’s wily ways and winning a ring.
Lining up alongside Dwight Howard, James Harden and lord knows who else in Kevin McHale and Daryl Morey’s madcap experiment? That could have been incredible, and possible championship, fun.
Nobody knows how Derrick Rose will look while suiting for (essentially) his first time in two seasons, but a lineup featuring a brilliant defensive front court and emerging young bench talent under the leadership of coach Tom Thibodeau should have truly intrigued Anthony.
Especially when the Bulls were apparently, for better or worse for the franchise, ready to offer Carmelo the same deal that is going to make LeBron James a whole heck of a lot of money:
That would, as you know, make Anthony a free agent in 2016 at the age of 32, and possibly as his prime starts to decline. The Chicago Bulls can’t NBA-legally assure Anthony that a maximum contract extension following a two-year deal would be in the cards, and there’s always the possibility the franchise could take advantage of two years of Anthony’s prime at below his free agent value, then pull the carpet out from underneath him and leave him without that expected extension just as his production starts to decline.
Now, Chicago would run the risk of turning off just about every player agent and future NBA free agent in the process, but there’s always the chance. I suppose.
Of course, there’s always this telling addendum, via the Post:
Anthony noted a move also would have meant restarting his brand from scratch.
“I just felt if I was to leave, I would have to … build that foundation up once again, and it took me a while to build that foundation and to get it up and going to where it’s at right now,” Anthony said.
/Mr. Burns voice:
Ah yes … the brand!
Now “his brand” is Marc Berman’s choice of phrase, but he’s not wrong in using it. And Carmelo Anthony isn’t wrong in considering it – his off-court and on-court brand and, heaven forbid, thinking about his family.
Anthony is explaining quite a bit away, but he doesn’t need to. All he has to do is align his statements, and we’d understand. The Knicks offered him the most amount of money, and the ability to play in a wonderful city while making an average of $26 million until he is 35. He and his wife enjoy New York, and the roots they’ve put down. Also, while the Knicks were embarrassing last season and won’t be much better in 2014-15, there is the sound possibility that Phil Jackson could at the very least turn the squad into an aesthetically-pleasing winner that Anthony would enjoy playing with. They won’t land Kevin Love or Kevin Durant, but things could eventually turn around, even if a championship isn’t in the offing.
That’s just a paragraph’s worth of explanations. There’s no need to lie about how it wasn’t about the money, because money was a huge part of it, and we understand. There’s no need to hold your nose at the thought of free agency, 11 months after drooling over the prospect of no restriction, because anything can happen between now and 2016, and we understand.
And don’t talk up building a foundation in New York, because it’s already shot to hell, and foundations in Houston, Chicago and Dallas are already in place.
Just say that you love New York, you have faith in Phil Jackson, and that the guaranteed money was too much to pass up. We’d understand.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
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