Carmelo Anthony Rumors: Kobe Bryant will hold private meeting on Thursday
By Josh Hill
The New York Knicks are hoping that their meeting with Carmelo Anthony can result in a verbal agreement before the weekend starts but they will have to compete with one more meeting following the one they have scheduled on Thursday. Kobe Bryant was scheduled to be part of Los Angeles Lakers meeting with Melo on Thursday morning but was held up traveling back from Europe.
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Rather than miss the meeting, Kobe simply rescheduled his part of it and will be meeting privately with Melo on Thursday to round out his meetings for the week. According to Dave McMenamin, the meeting with Kobe will come after the meeting with the Knicks meaning the Lakers will get the final say on Melo’s tour around the country.
Kobe Bryant intends to meet with Carmelo Anthony personally following Melo's meeting w/ NYK in LA later today, according to a league source
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) July 3, 2014
This is extraordinarily good news for the Lakers but it’s almost needed since they have the least chance of signing Melo. Two meetings for the Lakers is arguably equivalent to one meeting with either the Bulls or Lakers and about the same as what the Dallas Mavericks rolled out on Wednesday night.
Kobe meeting with Melo is something he needs to do, not only to show the Lakers he cares but to make sure that he can get a personal word in with Melo. Kobe may have checked out way early on the worse season he’s had to endure with the Lakers but he still wants to win and his effort to meet with Melo might go a long way i the All-Star forward’s book.