Carmelo Anthony's Trade Demands Are Just Plain Selfish

The New York Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets on Sunday 129-125. Unfortunately for Nuggets fans the news got even worse after the game. Nuggets star forward Carmelo Anthony reportedly said that he will sign an extension only if he is traded to the Knicks. Now if the source of this information is a member of the Nuggets management then they need to be canned because they are hurting the team. I believe the source is from the Anthony camp, if not Anthony himself. I have no problem with Anthony wanting to play with the Knicks, but if he truly wants to get traded he should keep his mouth shut.

The only way the Nuggets are going to get a deal that is even close to appealing for Anthony is if the Knicks think there is competition for the forward's services If the Knicks know they are the only team in the mix they will try to low ball Nuggets and why not. If the Knicks know that the New Jersey Nets have no shot at a deal then they are only going to offer a bag off balls for Anthony.

Anthony needs to help the Nuggets make the deal he wants. Talk to the Nuggets front office not the press. Take a page from baseball free agent Cliff Lee's playbook, play teams against one another. Lee has teams upping their offers to ridiculous sums for his services. Lee will get exactly what he wants because he knows how to play the contract game.

It is apparent that Anthony is no longer happy in Denver, but he shouldn't make it so hard on the Nuggets to trade him. Denver probably made a mistake by not trading him this off season, when his trade value was probably at it's highest. Now they must trade Anthony to get some value out of him, before he reaches free agency. Unfortunately that value seems to be dwindling as each day goes by.

Sources:

Mark J. Miller, Carmelo Anthony Only Wants Trade to Knicks?, sports.yahoo.com