Heat Chris Andersen almost went to New York Knicks?
Big city lights and Birdman. That’s right, Chris Anderson was pursued by the Knicks, per Yahoo! Sports. Anderson, however, elected to stay in Miami with the team that helped turn his career around. Don’t mess with a good thing, right?
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Keith Schlosser of SNY.tv reflects on the possibility of Anderson making his way to New York.
"It turns out the “Birdman” almost flew up to the Big Apple. The big man just appears to get better with age, as evidenced since the Heat provided him with quite the unique lifeline just two seasons ago. Following a slew of off-the-court troubles, injuries, and subsequent struggles, the 36 year old has risen up from the ashes to contribute for a championship contender. Theoretically, he’s already has a very ideal situation in South Beach."
Birdman would join a overpaid and underperforming group of power forwards in Amar’e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani. Though the terms of Anderson’s deal have not been disclosed yet, it will likely be a small fee. So ironically, Birdman would have been paid less to perform at a likely higher level. But alas, he returned to Miami.
According to the Yahoo! report, multiple teams were interested in the Championship winning forward. Everyone wanted their own Miami Heat player to put on their mantle piece. Thus far though, only Cleveland has something to say for themselves, signing the mother-of-them-all, LeBron James.
12-year-veteran Anderson will rejoin Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade and will continue to play a reserve role. Last season he played almost 20 minutes per game, shot for 64 percent from the field, and accounted for 5.3 rebounds per game and 1.3 blocks per game.