Carmelo Anthony went on a free agent tour of several teams, before ultimately re-signing with the Knicks as was widely expected all along.
The reason, of course, was money -- even though Anthony has been disingenuous publicly in claiming otherwise.
During his process, Anthony spent time with the Rockets, Mavericks, Bulls and Lakers, and while reports had him strongly considering all of those teams as a potential destination, now that the process is finished, he says it really was only a two-team race.
From Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com:“It was overwhelming,” Anthony said. “It was stressful in the final days, one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”
Anthony said, though, it ultimately came down to New York and Chicago.
“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.”
At one point it was reported that the Lakers became serious contenders to secure Anthony’s services, but we see now that it was never really that serious of an option.
The Bulls were the only other team outside of New York that ever made any sense, due to the fact that Anthony could have contended for a title immediately in Chicago. But because it would have cost him tens of millions of dollars to do so, the Knicks were always the most logical choice.