When Carmelo Antony opted out of his contract with the New York Knicks, many expected him to return to the Big Apple after testing the free agent waters. That’s exactly what happened when Anthony signed a five-year, $124 million contract to return to stay in New York after visits with the Bulls and Lakers.
Anthony mentioned his desire to win and belief in Phil Jackson among the reasons he decided to remain with the Knicks. The first part of that was met with sentence was met with laughs and snickers considering the Bulls presented a better opportunity to be successful in the immediate future.
The money Anthony will make over the life of his new contract was obviously played a part in re-signing, but so did interests outside of Madison Square Garden. Speaking a business summit in Manhattan, Anthony talked about business interests in New York and how they weren’t ignored during decision making process.
“I just couldn’t leave from that perspective,” he said at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit in Manhattan via Newsday. “There were so many opportunities that I started to build upon here in New York City, business opportunities, different situations.
“I just felt if I was to leave, I would have to start all over in the next place, meet new people, build that foundation up once again, and it took me a lot to build that foundation and get it up and going to where it’s at right now.”
If you want to build yourself into a brand, there aren’t many better places to do so than in New York City. Those ventures will be of use when Anthony’s playing days are over and it’s never to early to start thinking about life after basketball.
As for the winning part, Anthony may have to wait a bit for that. Derek Fisher will be in his first year as head coach during the upcoming season so we will have to see how that works out and the team will gain salary cap space in 2015, but what they do with it is yet to be determined.
