https://twitter.com/R0BaTO/status/887161657599852544
He also has no interest in giving up the $54 million in salary they owe him, and I somehow doubt he's give up much of his $8 million trade kicker either. If he really wanted to go to Houston, I'm sure the Knicks would be happy to release him from his contract. But he wants to have his $60 million cake and eat it too.
He allegedly asked for a buyout before the draft and the Knicks said no. Buyouts always mean money's being left on the table by the player. So he was rather recently willing to give up money to get out, but they weren't and claimed they'd explore trades for him. During the press conference yesterday, Mills and Perry both said buying him out wasn't an option for them.
I don't see how Melo did anything in this situation. Even when Phil was publicly blasting him, he handled it well. This is the Knicks realizing Phil destroyed a player's trade value and the offers they're getting are reflecting that.
Do you know how much he was willing to give up in a buyout? Because none of the reports I heard indicated he was willing to give up anywhere near $50 million. It's one thing to ask for a release and give up a couple of million. It's another to do the same and give up $50 million.
Do you know how much he
wasn't willing to give up in a buyout? The point is, he is willing to give up something to get out of NYC free and clear but the Knickerbockers are the unwilling party here.
I get it, Anthony isn't exactly loved or the most respected but the Knicks aren't being held hostage. My favorite tidbit I've read this weekend was this:
As Perry starts to shape the front office and impact policy, another realization has washed over the organization: Months of organizational harping on Anthony, driven largely by deposed president of basketball operations Jackson, has dramatically lowered Anthony's trade value. Mills and Perry are evaluating whether it's worth allowing time for Anthony's standing around the NBA to be rebuilt, as opposed to trading him at an all-time low, league sources said.
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20075037/carmelo-anthony-counting-new-york-knicks-trading-houston-rocketsUm, duh. Did no one in the organization realize this before? I'm not really sure what else Melo is supposed to do. If you asked him a year ago, he would've said he wanted to be a Knick a.k.a he's "loyal", then they spend the past year publicly needling him into accepting a trade, now he does and they've done an about face.
Quite frankly my thinking is this: they signed him to that deal, they gave him the No Trade Clause, they allowed an over-the-hill egomaniac to go on a year long public rampage against him and destroy his trade value. He shouldn't give up a penny.