Carmelo Anthony is making it known the only meeting he has held prior to free agency is with the New York Knicks and new head coach Derek Fisher along with team president Phil Jackson. The free-agent-to-be has the attention of every team in the league as many await his decision to opt out of his current contract or not. The Knicks are doing everything in their power to try and retain their franchise player and Anthony is letting them give him a sales pitch before he starts talking with anyone else.
While speaking at a promotional event, Anthony told media that he loved what Jackson had done with the Knicks since being hired, presumably speaking about naming Fisher as head coach. However, most NBA sources are reporting that Anthony still plans on opting out of his contract come June 23. Jackson has made it known that he has been trying to get Anthony to at least fulfill his entire deal in order to let the Knicks make a few more moves favorable to the salary cap, but it appears that has fallen on deaf ears.
Rumors have been swirling that players are have been giving their sales pitch to Anthony about making the jump to their respective teams. Joakim Noah reportedly did a little recruiting during All-Star Weekend and Dwight Howard was said to be doing the same thing. However, in an interview with USA Today, Howard denied the idea that he has spoken with Anthony about joining the Houston Rockets, simply saying he staying out of the entire free agency whirlwind this year.
"I haven't spoken with Melo personally," Howard said, via Sam Amick of The USA Today. "I know this is a time for him when he has to really just focus on what's going to be best for him. And I really believe that in this point in Melo's career, he just wants to win. He's done everything - we both have that kind of same mentality to where all the individual accolades, we've got them. We've got a gold medal, he has been in tops in scoring for a while, but those are all individual things. I think at this point he just wants to win, so it would be great to have him here because I know what his focus would be. It's up to him, where he's at in his career. But I want people on my team who are all about winning. That's my focus."
The Rockets remain hopeful they can sign either Anthony or LeBron James. If one is not available, the other will become the priority. All of this cannot happen until Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik are traded which is an even bigger longshot in itself.
