New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony seemingly shot down this week any chance of him bolting from the Big Apple to Los Angeles. While he didn't explicitly rule out signing with the Lakers next summer, the six-time All-Star appears to be a long-shot for the Lakers.
Anthony has a player option worth $23.7 million for the 2014-15 season. If Anthony were to opt out of his contract next summer, the Lakers are expected to pursue him - the team would have enough cap space to sign two max free agents, according to ESPN. Unfortunately for L.A. fans, Anthony appears unlikely to be one of them.
"I'm not going nowhere," Anthony said on Tuesday during an interview on Bloomberg Television, via Newsday.
Anthony's comments from Tuesday are the latest to suggest relocating to Los Angeles in 2014 is unlikely. When TMZ asked him in July if he could see himself in a Lakers' uniform next summer, Anthony dismissed it and said, "I doubt it."
The 29-year-old appears to have a goal he wants to accomplish in New York: leading the Knicks to their first NBA title since 1973.
"This is one of the reasons why I wanted to come here to New York, just so I could take on those pressures and those challenges," Anthony said. "A lot of people do not like to deal with the pressure. A lot of people do not know how to deal with the challenges they face. To me, it is everyday life."
One possibility the Lakers have of wooing Anthony is if the team can all but guarantee him a championship with a competitive roster, although it's uncertain what the team's roster would even look like after this season.
Anthony said earlier this week, at this point in his career, his ultimate goal is winning an NBA title.
"For me, the only thing I need is a championship," Anthony said earlier this week, via the New York Post. "I think I proved to everybody the type of basketball player I am. Everyone in the world knows I can score the basketball - to separate myself is a championship. I can count on one hand the amount of people that won a national championship in college, a gold medal and an NBA title. If I can do that, that kind of separates me from some others."
If the Lakers were able to field a championship-caliber roster, it wouldn't be the first time an NBA star jumped ship for a better shot at winning a championship.
