Carmelo Anthony: 'It was always Chicago or New York'

No big name free agent flirted with more teams in free agency than Carmelo Anthony. Once the media got ahold of his intentions, there was a constant back and forth about where he wanted to play. First it came down to New York and Los Angeles. Then New York. Then Chicago re-emerged as a contender as ‘Melo second guessed himself.

But according to the superstar in an interview with ESPN.com, it was always Chicago or New York for him.

From ESPN New York:

"“I was flip-flopping,” he admitted. “It was hard. It was Chicago, but then after I met with L.A., it was L.A. But it came back to Chicago — and was pretty much always Chicago or New York. That’s a situation where I could have walked in now to an opportunity to compete for the next however many years.”"

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Anthony saying this feeds into the idea that Carmelo Anthony used the Los Angeles Lakers for potential trade leverage to Chicago. Unlike the Knicks and Lakers, the Chicago Bulls weren’t in the position to offer Anthony the full max contract without a sign-and-trade. By spiking the Lakers interest, Anthony hoped that the New York Knicks, mainly Phil Jackson, would feel pressured into trading Anthony to a team where they could receive compensation back–possibly a future first-round pick or a player–but the Knicks never fed into moving Anthony.

Either he would take an extreme pay cut to play for Chicago, play for a Los Angeles Lakers team who weren’t in the position to be competitive in the Western Conference, or re-sign with the Knicks.

In the end, Anthony made the decision to return to New York on a five-year deal for slightly below the max.

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Carmelo Anthony: ‘It was always Chicago or New York’

By Trisity Miller | Jul 25, 2014