Carmelo Anthony either has no intention of waiving his no-trade clause, or the New York Knicks have assured him that they are not looking to move him.
Anthony briefly spoke with reporters at a TechCrunch conference in Brooklyn on Wednesday, and he was asked if he will still be with the Knicks when the 2016-2017 season tips off.
“Oh, yeah, you’ll see me for the Knicks,” he said, via Marc Berman of the New York Post. “Absolutely.”
Anthony was appearing on behalf of a company he started last year that invests in tech start-ups. When asked if he has given any thought to giving up basketball to pursue his new business venture full time, the soon-to-be 32-year-old was quick to say he is not considering retirement.
“Not at all. No retirement talk at all,” Carmelo said. “I still have years to go. But it’s a long-term plan I see myself doing down the road.”
Anthony has maintained that he is fully invested in the future of the Knicks, stating publicly that he wants a say in which free agents the team pursues and who his next head coach is. One recent report indicated he is open to playing for a coach who butted heads with his buddy LeBron James.
Some of the remarks Anthony made during the season (like these) that showed how frustrated he was led to speculation that he could ask Phil Jackson to trade him this summer. While you can never rule it out, it sounds like Anthony would prefer to have a say in which direction the franchise is headed rather than try to start fresh with another team.
