Los Angeles Lakers weren't banking on signing Carmelo Anthony

The future of Carmelo Anthony has taken him back to New York to re-sign with the Knicks but he didn’t ink his five-year max contract with New York before going on a cross-country tour to hear pitches form other teams.

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In the end, hearing the pitches from other teams showed Melo just how much he loves New York and one of those teams sort of figured that would be his choice before they even met with him.

According to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Lakers may have made a pitch to Carmelo Anthony this summer but they never really were banking on it making much of a difference in his decision to sign where he ended up signing.

"“We always felt like it was a longshot,” Kupchak said. “We gave it our best shot and we’re happy to accomplish what we did and we still have more work to do.”The Lakers pitched Anthony on July 3 with a Hollywood-inspired video presentation, pitching from sibling executives Jeanie and Jim Buss, as well as James Worthy.“Everybody really worked well together and made great presentations and that’s the best we can do,” Kupchak said. “There’s a lot going against you when you’re working with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.”"

The Lakers are already starting to look ahead to the summer of 2015 when names like Rajon Rondo, Kevin Love and DeAndre Jordan are set to hit the market and be top prizes. Still, they at least tried to bag Melo this offseason and that’s something that at least shows they’re trying.

Be sure to stay glued to FanSided’s NBA Rumors page to stay up to date with the latest happenings from the world of NBA Free Agency.

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Los Angeles Lakers weren’t banking on signing Carmelo Anthony

By Josh Hill | Jul 14, 2014