MELO OPTS OUT

Carmelo Anthony officially opted out of his contract with the Knicks on Monday to test free agency his agent, Leon Rose said Monday. “Carmelo loves being a Knick, he loves the city, and he loves the fans,” Rose said. “At this stage of his career, he just wants to explore his options.” Anthony can sign a max contract worth 129 million dollars over 5 years with the Knicks or a max contact worth 96 million for 4 years with a different team. The most likely landing sites for Melo would be Dallas, Chicago, or Houston. The Heat are another possibility but the big 3 would have to take paycuts in order to do so.

“The average person just sees opportunity to say that, ‘Oh, Melo should go here, Melo should go there. I think he should do this, I think he should do that.’ But they don’t take into consideration the family aspect of it. Your livelihood. Where you’re going to be living at. Do you want your kids to grow up in that place? In that city? Do I want to spend the rest of my career in that situation in that city? So all of that stuff comes into play,” Anthony said in an interview with Vice Sports that was taped on June 3.–My son goes to school (in New York). He loves it here. To take him out and take him somewhere else, he has to learn that system all over again, he has to get new friends. And I know how hard it was for me when I moved from New York to Baltimore at a young age. Having to work your way to try to make friends. And go extra to try to make friends and try to fit in and try to figure out the culture in that area.–As far as this goes, basketball goes, it’s hard to just say, ‘OK, I’m going to go here, I’m going to make this decision, I’m going to do that. Because everybody’s affected by that.” Anthony also said he’d think about the “big picture” when making a decision. “The average person is looking at it as next year, like it’s just one year. ‘Next year you win the championship if you go here.’ We’re looking at the big picture here now, you’re looking at the next six to eight years of your career, of the end of your career at that. So do you want to spend that much time in that place?”

Teams can meet with Melo starting July 1st, the start of free-agency season.