Carmelo Anthony may not be handling his departure from Denver perfectly, but after watching what LeBron James did last summer leaving Cleveland Anthony told Sports Illustrated he learned some lessons.
“I would never go about it the way LeBron did it,” the Denver Nuggets’ three-time All-Star forward told Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Ian Thomsen…
“If he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t do it that way — he would do it a totally different way, I can guarantee you that,” added Anthony, who said he talks to James and fellow NBA stars Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade regularly.
What Anthony has done in one sense is far more fair to the franchise — rather than string them along then leave them with nothing, he came out last summer and told them he would not be signing an extension and that he wanted to be traded to the Knicks or Bulls. Call it cold and egotistical if you want, but he was up front with the franchise. The fact the Nuggets have moved slowly is on this, hoping he would change his mind and trying to find a good deal, is on them. But unlike Cleveland at least they have the chance to get some value back for him.
Of course, LeBron played out his contract and was a free agent. Anthony is trying to leverage the last year of his deal into a move.
Whether ‘Melo goes to the Nets as part of a massive three-team, 15-player (or more) trade remains to be seen. Thompson says in the piece it looks like Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and Anthony will meet, although on the record everyone still denies it. Anthony said that all the key players have talked about these things.
Would Anthony sign an extension with the Nets if they were able to complete a trade for him? He wouldn’t tell me, but he indicated (Nuggets GM Masai) Ujiri knows the answer. “If he wanted to know, he could come and ask me,” said Anthony. “There’s nothing that’s been said in the paper that we haven’t talked about already, and there’s things that I know and he know that has not gotten out there and that people don’t even know about right now.”
When you read the article, Anthony comes off as having thought it all through, he’s just waiting for it to play out.
“Right now it’s hard for me to explain my reasoning behind the madness,” he said with a smile. “But it’s a lot of things that come into play. Whether it’s the future of the organization or where they’re headed or where they’re trying to go, or whether it’s contractual stuff with players and guys that are up [to be free agents] at the same time. People don’t really know that type of stuff. They just think that I’m being stubborn and I just want to get up and leave — just throw away eight years of my life.”
