5:38pm: In addition to Anthony’s enthusiasm about the Calderon addition in New York, ‘Melo believes the Knicks have a shot at landing Pau Gasol this season, a friend of his tells Marc Berman of The New York Post.
3:36pm: Agent Leon Rose tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com that Anthony has not made a decision yet between the Knicks and Lakers (Twitter link). The wording of Shelburne’s tweet seems to suggest those are the only two teams still in consideration, but that remains unclear.
3:24pm: The Knicks haven’t been told of any decision, but they have no reason to believe that Anthony will sign elsewhere, a source tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter link).
3:16pm: A source cautions to Howard Beck of Bleacher Report that Anthony has yet to render a decision, and the teams that have pursued him have received no definitive word (Twitter link).
2:58pm: Carmelo Anthony is ready to announce that he’ll re-sign with the Knicks, barring a change of heart at the last minute, a person close to Anthony tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. The person, a friend of Anthony’s, said that Anthony has been hesitating in an effort to make sure he finds the team with the best chance to win a title, and that Anthony is pleased with New York’s acquisition of Jose Calderon.
Anthony will make an announcement Thursday, the friend added, saying to Isola that Anthony “believes in Phil,” a reference to Knicks president Phil Jackson. Sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that within Anthony’s camp, the general belief has been that the idea was to take the maximum salary from the Knicks, a roughly $129MM contract over five seasons, and push for a trade later if necessary (Twitter link).
Presumably Anthony will be signing for the max, which the Knicks offered during their meeting with the star forward last week. Still, there reportedly remains a distinct possibility that he’d agree to take his max salary of nearly $22.5MM this season and raises lower than the maximum 7.5% that New York could give him in subsequent years.
The Knicks were seemingly the front-runners at different points throughout the process, though the latest dispatch cast it as a two-team race between New York and the Lakers. The Bulls seemed like the next most likely destination, followed by the Rockets and the Mavs, with whom Anthony also met. The Heat seemed like a darkhorse, but they hadn’t really been in the discussion, Wojnarowski hears, and Anthony hadn’t even been able to reach LeBron James as of a few days ago, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter links). ‘Melo reportedly dreams of pairing up with James in New York.
Darn! It looks like it’s on to the Pau Gasol or Kevin Love plan for the Bulls.
The two sources of these rumors are local to the other cities involved. Usually there isn’t much truth to these kinds of rumors at all. That is especially true of New York Daily News, which is essentially a tabloid.
The Post is even worse…especially Berman. Might as well be TMZ.
If his attitude is “Get the money now, and push for a trade later”, I really don’t want him on the Knicks. Stigma against Melo will always be true. You can talk all you want about wanting to win, but when push comes to shove, Melo will always be a selfish player, both on and off the court.
Don’t think he’ll actually demand a trade, but I do find it shameful that he’s even thinking of the possibility of using his power for a trade.
Jose made that much of a difference huh? Got to love rumors.
You must have no idea how hard it is playing basketball and traveling over half the year with Raymond Felton then.
LOL @newyorkpost . Someone should tell Pau Gasol to add the Knicks to a team he would sign with.
Calderon makes that much of a difference? A player the Mavericks got rid of, who really didn’t contribute to Dallas as much as expected? Dude is a solid 3 point shooter, but you also lost a 7 ft. rim protector….
The fans go overboard when money is mention, as much as I respect Phil Jackson when he ask Melo not to opt out of his contract this year he was not being fair if Melo does that and he gets hurt than he and his family stand to lose 129 million dollars the Knicks won’t want to give him that money coming off a injury, that like Phil to rebuilt the Team well why can’t he give the Knicks a discount until the team is rebuilt take 6 millions instead of 12 millions, I realize Phil money has nothing to do with the salary cap but for anyone to do what Phil is asking is stupid Melo could go out there and have a career inning injury, I believe if Melo returns he will make it possible for the Knicks to have more money on the salary cap just not the way Phil was talking about.