Carmelo Anthony had no shortage of suitors in free agency, but the high-scoring forward decided to re-sign with the New York Knicks. Anthony says that is because he believes the Knicks are close to competing for a title and far from the rebuilding mode many believe they’re in.
“I want to win. I don’t care about the money,” Anthony told ESPN.com. “I believe Phil (Jackson) will do what he has to do to take care of that.
“I don’t think we’re that far away,” he added. “People use ‘rebuilding’ too loosely.”
While the Knicks were an embarrassing 37-45 last season, they were competitive the previous season and went 54-28 while reaching the conference semis. Maybe ‘Melo figures that having a new coach, new system and some new players will help them become winners again.
Anthony also said his free agency decision was hard to make and that he was strongly considering the Bulls.
“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.”
Based on Anthony’s comments, that report saying the Lakers were in the mix for him was accurate.
The Knicks will have somewhat of a different roster after trading Ray Felton and Tyson Chandler to the Mavericks for Jose Calderon, Sam Dalembert, Shane Larkin and Wayne Ellington. They also drafted Cleanthony Early. The changes led ‘Melo to say it feels like the Knicks have a new team.
