NBA / Aug 4, 2010 / 10:30 am

NBA Rumor: Carmelo Anthony Walking Away From $65 Million

Carmelo Anthony, Dime #53

In this day and age, it’s somewhat unfathomable to see star athletes to leave big money on the table. And in Carmelo Anthony‘s situation, especially with an impending lockout on the horizon. But while everyone gets up in arms about players switching teams, the beauty of the contract is that the players have the ultimate control. That’s why you can’t get mad at LeBron for turning down more money in Cleveland in favor of Miami; and why you can’t get mad when ‘Melo leaves the Nuggets next summer.

As we’ve seen over time, players have taken less money to be in a more desirable situation. Whether it’s the team (winning) or the city (girls), an extra couple million one way or another doesn’t always dictate the bottom line. So when I read that Alex Kennedy from HoopsWorld is reporting that sources close to the situation don’t expect Carmelo Anthony to sign an extension with the Nuggets this summer, I wasn’t surprised in the least.

By walking away from the extension, ‘Melo will be an unrestricted free agent next summer and have his own “Decision” to make. While it might not be on an hourlong ESPN special, the repercussions will be similar. He could head to New York and potentially team up with Amar’e Stoudemire and another big-time free agent, or he could go somewhere else. But at the end of the day, turning down the guaranteed money now makes sense for the 26-year-old in the longterm. It leaves him with the most options possible.

And Nuggets fans shouldn’t panic and beg management to trade him at the deadline. If this summer’s shenanigans showed us anything, it was that teams worried about getting nothing in return for their stars hold the power of the purse. Through sign-and-trade, they can get their guys even more money. But what this summer also showed us is that ‘Melo doesn’t necessarily need to leave Denver. While many people thought that Dwyane Wade was on his way back home to Chicago, having the power of unrestricted free agency, he realized that staying in Miami was the best option for him. And look how that turned out.

What do you think? Should ‘Melo sign the extension or become and unrestricted free agent next summer?

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37 Responses to “NBA Rumor: Carmelo Anthony Walking Away From $65 Million”

  1. dredre says:

    if melo leavs, he is abandoning our entire franchize

    he cant blame the orginazition for the fact we cant beat L.A.

    he needs to be more of a leader, we can win this year, and all we need is a center, and we can do this!

    B3AT L.A! B3AT L.A! B3AT L.A!

  2. Heckler says:

    what is being under reported is that there may be a (rumored) deal in place to send carmelo anthony, jr smith and kenyon martin to the Washington Wizards for Josh Howard, Gilbert Arenas, Al Thornton and Yi.

    Unlikely.

    But don’t rule out the possibility of Carmelo Anthony playing for the Wizards next year. If I am not mistaken, Carmelo was raised around the DC/Baltimore area.

  3. chump change says:

    unless the cba comes back next year with a $9m max or a smaller, hard cap precludes him from signing with the teams he wants

  4. TRL says:

    What does the lockout have to do with it? Players will not get paid during the lockout whether they have a contract or not.

    The relevant point is that the collective bargaining agreement will expire next summer, and the next CBA is expected to be much less favorable to the players.

  5. ahan says:

    @dredre
    Funny thing is, we don’t care about the Nuggets. Every Laker fan this year only care about the
    Heats: How good will they be? Will they click together?
    Celtics: Can they push 1 more year? + with Shaq more hatred.
    And maybe the Magics.
    Nuggets Who?

  6. King says:

    This is business. When these guys contracts are up and they leave they are not abandoning anyone or city they are just weighing there options and choosing where they want to WORK.

    In college I interned with a company for a while and contributed to many big projects. When I graduated thy made me an offer but I got a better offer from another company that was in the city I wanted to work in. It’s BUSINESS. Friends were disappointed but they indestood.

  7. CasualFan says:

    99.99% of the posters on his board must not love their mothers…?

  8. Chise says:

    @4

    The plural forms of “Heat” and “Magic” are “Heat” and “Magic”. You sound retarded.

    @5

    For a guy getting big time job offers, you butchered the spelling of “understood”. I don’t even think that was a typo.

  9. control says:

    ppl who talk shit about him “betraying” Denver by not saying he’ll be there forever are fucking idiots. 99.99% of the posters on this board would kill their mothers for a chance at 65 mil…choosing where he wants to work isn’t betraying shit.

  10. Detroit Dave says:

    He should sign and trade and go play with Dwight Howard.

  11. jryu says:

    @7

    for a guy criticizing everyone’s grammar and spelling, i guess you forgot that periods go inside the quotation marks and not outside.

    “Magic”.

    “understood”.

    i love when ppl do that.

  12. The Journeyman says:

    @ 7 Chise,

    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO You suck immensely and greatly!

    lol, “Stone him!!”

  13. LMAO says:

    @ 10

    love it.

  14. Chise says:

    @10

    Periods go inside the quotes if the quote itself is a complete sentence. I’m a lawyer, I think I know my grammar. Now you look retarded too, join the club lmao.

  15. Chise says:

    @11*

  16. JAY says:

    @ #7 Chise

    There is no plural form of “Magic”. It’s just magic, singular. If you see 5 magicians doing their thing, they aren’t doing magics.

    I’m with Journeyman, you should be stoned. Then again, you might be.

  17. karizmatic says:

    He should sign an extenstion and then demand a trade….lol

  18. JAY says:

    I have a feeling this chise just hijacked this thread. Lol. The next 10 posts will be a Hook on Phonics lesson.

  19. marcus the great says:

    Jryu for the winnnn!!!!!!

    Hahahaha

  20. Mike Mihalow says:

    You guys keep the internetz awesome.

  21. Chise says:

    @#16 Jay

    I’m the one who said it was “Magic” not “Magics” lol.. I guess you have trouble reading.

  22. Chise says:

    I love it how people finally shut the fuck up when they realize they’re wrong…

    Back on the topic of basketball, this whole mess about ‘Melo heading east to team up with Tony Parker/Chris Paul and Stat is pretty interesting to me; because even though they’d become one of these new NBA Super Trios, I really don’t think they’d be as hated as the Miami Heat are around the country. I think they’d be the Super Trio that true hoop heads would want to root for. They seem like more of a natural basketball fit IMO.

  23. Mt. Pleasant says:

    @ Chise

    It is a basketball site. Nobody comes here for perfect punctuation or your opinions on grammar.

    Go kill fun somewhere else. If you want to analyze grammar why not just go back to work? If you want to debate grammar find a spelling site.

  24. Paul Wall says:

    Don’t leave MELO. We will return to the Nuggets that we were before you arrived….17-65….

  25. atticusmitch says:

    @ Chise
    what a fucking nerd.

  26. atticusmitch says:

    @ Chise
    what a fucking nerd.

  27. jryu says:

    @JAY
    got a couple more posts til we get to 10 hahahaha
    goddamn i can’t wait for the season to start so we can stop discussing grammar……..

    i think without a doubt, melo shouldn’t sign anything til he gets an idea of what the other free agents are doing this offseason.

    man melo + cp3/parker + stoudemire would be like the old phoenix suns teams but so much better….. just need to pick up some good role players like miami has been doing this offseason and they’d be legit contenders for years barring injury.

    somewhat related.. anyone ever read “the book of basketball” or BS’s column about how the suns could’ve been great for the next decade if the owner hadn’t been cheap as hell? it makes you wonder..

  28. go says:

    melo welcome to ny

  29. Royal says:

    I before E except after C BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!

  30. jryu says:

    umm, i posted a reply but for some reason it was under moderation? here it is again. let’s see if dime removes it again.

    —————————————

    you’re a lawyer? why didn’t you say so from the beginning?!?! we all know lawyers are never wrong.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Punctuation

    what you say refutes the AP style handbook and chicago manual of style but i’m sure you were using “british english.”

    my apologies. again, we all know lawyers are never wrong. especially lawyers in britain like yourself. i love when ppl go around referencing what they do for a living like it’s a big ‘ol wang…

  31. K Dizzle says:

    “While many people thought that Dwyane Wade was on his way back home to Chicago”

    Dude was never goin back to tha Chi. He just gave em a 2nd visit knowin he didn’t wanna catch the hate that Bron caught in Cleveland so delusional fans would say “Oh, snap. Flash could be comin home….” Wrong!

    Here it is, Denver fans and management. Melo needs to be traded for the best package possible. Don’t pull a Raptors or Cavs and think he’ll stay if the team does well. If he turns down the extension, then he’s already gone. Get some pieces before the trade value starts to drop. Melo holdin all the juice right now. Even AI got you Billups; trade him as soon as he rejects the extension, before the word gets out…

  32. JAY says:

    @#21 Chise: I’m the one who said it was “Magic” not “Magics” lol.. I guess you have trouble reading.”

    You’re a lawyer who supposedly gets paid to understand legal jargon and you can’t even understand my #16 post?? I know you were the one who said it was “magic”…. but you said the PLURAL for magic is magic.
    What I’m saying is there IS NO PLURAL FOR MAGIC. Re-read and then tell me who has trouble reading.
    I feel sorry for your clients… that’s assuming you really are a lawyer.

  33. JAY says:

    Seeing how this “Superfriends” nickname is starting to catch on. Let’s draw lines between the players and characters from DC’s Superfriends…
    IMO, this “Batman & Robin” thing is played out. Everytime there is a dominant duo, we call them Batman and Robin. I think in the case of the Heat, it won’t work because Robin always backed up Batman and never really stood on his own.

    I think Wade’s original nickname of “Flash” fits because The Flash is actually a Superfriend.
    Bosh, being more long than thick is Plasticman.
    And Lebron, being a superstrong force in the middle, and will probably be allowed to sport his headband, and has this invisible force-field around him (his team) there is only only Superfriend character that compares…. Wonder Woman.

    There’s my case, let’s get the discussion moving away from the retarded laywer’s spelling bee.

  34. Yorker says:

    The Knicks will do a trade with the Hornets for Paul and Okafor. Then next year Melo will sign for the minimum while James Dolan offers Melos wife Lala Vasquez a TV show on his cable network for $20 million per year.
    pg: Paul
    sg: Chandler
    sf: Anthony
    pf: Stoudemire
    c: Okafor

    Bench will be comprised of Vet minimums such as miami and Okafor makes up for some of the defensive and rebounding deficiencies of Stoudemire. This team in D’antonis offense would destroy the league with average defense (anthony, stoudemire) and above average (paul, chandler and okafor) You’re gonna tell me Pat Riley is gonna sit on the sidelines with the lineup he’s created? Knicks vs Heat games going down as some of the most entertaining basketball in a LONG time!

  35. Ekstor says:

    I pik my nose for a living… even I know that talking grammer on a basketball sight is stoopid!

  36. JAY says:

    LMAO! Ekstor.
    Hooked-on-Phonics will go after u if your knot spell-chequing.

  37. Mr. TKO says:

    I’m a huge Melo fan, and he probably does need to go to NYC next year. It’s not really nothing against Denver, but the way the team is constructed, they’re not going to be able to get better than they are. Main thing they need to do is to get a Legit Big man that can push Nene to the 4 where he won’t punk out against 7 footers anymore, but we all know how rare 7 footers like that are.

    I really don’t see any legitimate trade that will improve Denver’s chance especially against OKC, Miami and Orlando(after the Lakers fall off)

    He definitely doesn’t want to extend with a team that’s already peaked ala CP3 and the Hornets.

    I have to check Dwill’s contract status but if they could get Dwill, Melo in NYC with Amare. That team would dominate. Much more Balanced than the SuperFriends IMO.

    Yes I like Dwill much better than CP3, Let Deron play without Sloan constantly micromanaging and watch the accolades stack up.

Highschoolhoop
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