At the end of the day, Carmelo Anthony holds the hammer.
And he wants to make it clear it is his hammer, not his wife’s.
That hammer is in the form of his signature on a three-year, $65 million extension sitting on the table in front of him. Just like it has been since this summer. The New Jersey Nets — who have contorted themselves like a Cirque du Soleil acrobat to make a trade palatable to the Denver Nuggets so they could land ‘Melo — will not take Anthony unless he puts pen to paper on that extension as part of an extend-and-trade (like Kevin Garnett did when leaving Minnesota).
When all the cards are face up on the table for this trade, Melo may not do it. He still hasn’t decided yet, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN, who quotes a source close to Anthony.
“He has not agreed to go to New Jersey,” said the source, who speaks regularly with Anthony. “I have never heard him, in all the times we’ve talked, say he’s willing to go to New Jersey. Not once. Personally, I would be stunned if he went there and signed an extension.”
Fact is, nobody knows. Maybe not even Anthony himself. He could still sign with the Nets, this is not a “no.” It’s not a “yes” either. The Nets are going to have to convince him by bringing in enough other talent so that Anthony feels he isn’t going to be wandering alone in the wilderness of New Jersey for a couple of years with a terrible team.
One thing he wanted to make clear is that his new wife, actress LaLa Vazquez, is not driving his choices or decisions. He spoke to reporters after the Nuggets game Tuesday night and asked people to back off from discussing her, as reported (via twitter) by Chris Tomasson of FanHouse.
“You all put this in bold words, LaLa has nothing to do with anything… It doesn’t bother me but people they have to write about something and for them to just come up with ‘She don’t want to be here…’ She has nothing to do with that. This is my career. This is my decision. Of course, I got to consult her with everything but it wasn’t one conversation I said where she told me, ‘Let’s get out of here.’
“It’s normal. You got to consult with your family about situations like that, decision making and that’s just all that we’ve been doing. She hasn’t had any say so on what should I do and where should go or anything like that.”
It’s a challenge to judge where Anthony stands on the Nets. His decision may have a lot to do with who comes with him. The trade being discussed — now apparently being negotiated under the Cone of Silence because not much is leaking out — is an at least 15-player, three-team trade that would send Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton to New Jersey; bring Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, Anthony Morrow, some other players and a couple first-round picks to Denver; and Troy Murphy and Johan Petro to Detroit along with picks.
Is that enough for Anthony? Nobody seems to know.
On one side of the equation is the fact his agent, Leon Rose, and the team at CAA (including William Wesley) have worked hard to bring this deal together. That means he hasn’t told them no (as he has done with several other teams that inquired about him), and they have some confidence he will say yes. The Nets have long believed they can convince him that owner Mikhail Prokhorov is building a winner if given the chance face-to-face.
However, Anthony’s people in the past have said it was Knicks or bust. That is his dream. And at the end of the day it still might be.
Which would mean a lot of people put in a lot of work for nothing.
