NBA

Derrick Rose: If Carmelo chose Bulls, ‘game would be easy’

Bulls point guard Derrick Rose said he’s not “mad’’ at Carmelo Anthony for spurning Chicago, realizing money talks and “millions and millions of dollars’’ were on the line.

The Bulls, if they dealt Mike Dunleavy and Jimmy Butler and had not signed their draft prospect Nikola Mirotic, only could have paid Anthony a four-year deal worth $73 million. Anthony signed for five years and $124 million — and that was less than the Knicks’ max.

Rose, at training camp for Team USA as it preps for the FIBA World Cup, said his message was a simple one.

“If he was to come, the game would be easy,” Rose told reporters in Las Vegas. “I don’t know how easy but, of course, it would be easy. And that we wanted him. Just plain and simple, we wanted him to come. He decided to go somewhere else. But it’s no hard feelings. I can’t get mad at the decision he made. He’s a grown man.’’

“If you put yourself in that decision, that’s a hard decision,” he said. “You got your family to think about. You got money to think about. Not to say you should think about money. But when you’re talking about millions and millions of dollars, you can’t just put that behind you.

“So I’m not mad with the decision that he made, and I wish him nothing but the best.’’

Anthony has said money wasn’t a factor and believed president Phil Jackson has the Knicks on a winning track.