It was all quiet on the Carmelo Anthony free agency front until last week.
“I want to be a free agent,” the Knicks star said in a New York Observer article, noting that he has never hit the open market.
With that, the quiet ended and Anthony, along with Knicks coach Mike Woodson, was bombarded with questions about the future.
“Everyone wants to be wooed and go through that process,” said TNT analyst Reggie Miller, who played his entire career with the Pacers. “What I would say to Carmelo is: ‘Be careful what you ask for.’ We saw what happened with LeBron [James].”
Anthony has promised he would not be distracted by the noise surrounding his potential free agency. He is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract following the season, though Anthony said he would like to return to the Knicks. But he also praised Kobe Bryant and admitted the Lakers, who will have an abundance of cap space, would be the team most talked about as an alternative landing spot.
“Right now you play in the No. 1 media market in the world in terms of professional basketball,” Miller said. “What better place to be successful and try to win a championship than in New York? It would be hard to imagine him leaving there. The grass isn’t always greener. The grass was greener for LeBron and he’s won back-to-back titles, but what he went through to get there was such a firestorm.”
James also has an opt-out clause in his contract and seems headed toward free agency after this season, but likely has learned from the P.R. mistakes stemming from his decision to bolt Cleveland to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Months of speculation culminated with an hour-long ESPN special, “The Decision”, during which he announced his, well, decision. James already has announced he will not discuss free agency during the season with the Heat going for a three-peat.
“He was doing good until last week,” TNT analyst and former Suns GM Steve Kerr said of Anthony. “The lesson is the players should just say, ‘No comment’. You can’t win if you say anything about free agency. I like the way LeBron handled it. He’s not going to talk about it and he’ll deal with it next year.”