Throughout this entire, bizarre process, there have been some who kept questioning if any of this was true or just a fabrication of the New York media. After all, Carmelo Anthony never said he wanted to be traded from the Nuggets. And technically that could still be true. But a big piece fell into place late Sunday. David Aldridge of NBA.com reports:
A league source said Sunday that the Denver Nuggets have granted the New Jersey Nets permission to speak directly with Carmelo Anthony about the proposed trade that would send Anthony to New Jersey, and about potentially signing the three-year extension that the Nets insist Anthony agree to before they agree to make the deal…
…Under normal rules, direct contact with Anthony by Nets officials, up to and including majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov, would be tampering. But if Denver gives New Jersey permission to contact Anthony, the Nets can make their sales pitch to Anthony about their team without being subject to penalties. Prohkorov, according to league sources, believes he can sell Anthony on the Nets if he can get in front of him.
via Nuggets grant Nets permission to speak with Anthony | NBA.com.
And here come the big guns.
The Nets has previously felt they could get Anthony to sign even without having to meet with Prokhorov. But with reports coming out late last week that Melo was still unconvinced on signing, despite a framework of the now-goal-line three-way trade in place, the Nets apparently felt that the time had come to take it to the next level.
It’s also a huge step for Denver, who is surrendering its last vestiges of leverage. They can still reject any deal, but if the three-way should fall through following the meeting due to Anthony’s reluctance, their control over future deals will be compromised as teams will be able to prey upon a revealed engagement in trading the superstar. This has been the case for months anyway, but Masai Ujiri and company have insisted on attempting to maintain the appearance of being in control of this situation (Read: They have no hand!)
So now the Russian will speak to the superstar, and we’re all held captive for probably another week.
Oh, goody.