"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." But the 30-year-old Anthony said he is invigorated to work with a new team president in Phil Jackson and a new coach in Derek Fisher. "It's a matter of me believing in the organization, believing in Phil," Anthony said. "I wanted to go somewhere where I can end my career."
"It's a matter of me believing in the organization, believing in Phil," Anthony said. "I wanted to go somewhere where I can end my career." He believes in the NY organization and PJax. He believes he's going to end his career in NY. Those were the reasons he gave. I wonder if Boozer and Deng thought they would end their careers in Chicago.
Its interesting that if an organization makes business decisions to maximize Profits! they get complimented for being wise and prudent but if a player makes the same decision they get mocked and chided. Or vice-versa, depending on what side of this decades long Bulls drama you are supposedly aligned with.
I read his reasons given. Doen't jibe with his admitted flip flopping and struggle deciding. I believe this was his explaining away his abandoning contention which he said he wanted and going for the big bucks. I don't blame him. Just saying I want to win sounds a bit hollow to me.
I don't blame the players or the org. There is so much mgmt hate I read I often point out the argument of max cuts both ways.
Yah, I kind of agree. At least short term. Long term * The Knicks are one of the few destination franchises in the NBA * If you have faith in Phil Jackson, who does have a track record of success, you can believe that the management isn't stupid * They will spend the $$$ to get players in there. Over a 4 year window, if you think Phil Jackson and the org he builds will be fairly smart about things, I think its reasonable to think they will be able to build around Melo. And of course his family lives there and there is way more $$$ to be made for him. I don't think its unreasonable for Melo to think that 2-3 years from now the Knicks will be a winning team. Next year the Bulls will almost assuredly be better than the Knicks.
Carmelo has always been about the money. And that is fine. But call it like it is. He could have opted to sign with New York in the off-season for less. Instead, he forced a trade from Denver to get more money. That also contributed to a gutted roster. He could have signed with us or Houston if he wanted to win now. But he'd have to sacrifice money. He wanted the money. And staying in New York was probably important to him, too. Of course, Denny ignores the obvious.
Sure there are also the family considerations. I respect his decision. That is a hell of a lot of money to leave. More than I will see in a lifetime by an exponential amount. That would be rough. Phil is definitely a credible man to put faith in. He is in some uncharted waters in the front office rebuilding rather than coaching and tweaking. Still the man has rings for every finger plus his privy member so he can't be ruled out.
Or he might have been an ass to have them gut the team to get him and then walk. He's not that much more of a cap hit to NY than Rose is to us. NY has Amare and Bargnani coming off the books after next season. They'll have about $41M committed to salaries, $6.4M more if J.R. opts out. I'm not sure why he should give a discount to anyone.
And he didn't which was his right and made sense. However, the idea that he stayed in NY out of some sense of social obligation and staying after the team moved lots of players was the right thing to do strains credibility.
Screw Carmelo. He was interesting to me when he was a possibility for helping my Bulls to a title. He chose a different path. Nothing personal, but he's dead to me.