When you’re an elite player like Carmelo Anthony, it’s not very often you become a free agent considering your team wants to lock you up long-term.
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Quite often you never even see free agency (thanks to contract extensions), so when Carmelo Anthony had the opportunity this offseason he took it. The All-Star small forward continually maintained that his desire to test free agency wasn’t an indication that he was ready to leave the New York Knicks, just that he wanted to experience what comes with the process.
Experience it he did as the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Chicago Bulls all attempted to woo the former Syracuse product on their franchise yet Melo decided the best place for him was back home in the Big Apple.
Speaking at the Bloomberg Summit, Carmelo Anthony stated that deep down in his heart, he never wanted to leave the New York Knicks franchise.
While I’m sure most fans of the Knicks would have preferred that Carmelo Anthony simply re-sign before free agency to avoid the drama and headache, in the end they still got their man. Hell, he even re-signed at a ‘discount’ (har har) to help the franchise have extra funds down the road.
Anthony’s return to New York never appeared to be a sure thing though it sounds like Carmelo had seemingly already made his decision before embarking on his free agent tour.