The New York Knicks landed All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony to play alongside Amar’e Stoudemire, bolstering a team seeking its first winning season in a decade and a return to National Basketball Association relevance.
The trade puts Anthony back in his home town with the team he said repeatedly was his first choice as a destination. The move, reported late yesterday by the Denver Post, was confirmed in an e-mail by Denver Nuggets spokesman Aaron Lopez.
“I’m glad it’s over,” the Post cited Nuggets coach George Karl as saying. “Everybody handled it as classy as you could handle it. There’s some sadness to it; there always will be.”
The Knicks will boast an offense with two of the NBA’s top 10 scorers. The 6-foot-8 Anthony ranks sixth, with an average 25.2 points per game this season, while the 28-year-old Stoudemire has scored an average 26.1 points per game, to rank second, since joining New York in July from the Phoenix Suns, where he spent eight seasons.
The Knicks (28-26) are second in the Eastern Conference Atlantic division behind the Boston Celtics, a year after posting a 29-53 record. New York hasn’t had a winning season since 2000-01 and last won a playoff series a year earlier, in Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing’s final season with the team.
Trade details reported by the Post were confirmed by Lopez. Knicks spokesman Jonathan Supranowitz declined to comment in an e-mail.
Billups Moves
Anthony, 26, will go to New York along with 34-year-old Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Renaldo Balkman.
In exchange, New York will send Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and a 2014 first-round draft pick to the Nuggets. Denver also gets the Golden State Warriors’ 2012 and 2013 second-round draft picks and $3 million in cash.
The Knicks will also send Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of the trade.
Knicks President Donnie Walsh’s failure to sign two-time reigning NBA Most Valuable Player LeBron James in July gave New York salary cap leeway to negotiate with a player such as Anthony, a four-time All-Star who is in the final year of his contract.
Anthony has finished among the top eight in NBA scoring in each of the past six seasons and is fourth among active players with a career average of 24.7 points per game.
Gold Medal
He played on the 2008 U.S. squad that won gold at the Olympics in Beijing and also was on the team that took the bronze medal in Athens in 2004 after becoming the first U.S. squad with NBA players to lose at the Games.
Anthony, who played in the All-Star Game on Feb. 20 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was the No. 3 pick in the 2003 NBA draft after leading Syracuse University to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in his only season at the school.
He’s married to actress and television personality Alani “La La” Vazquez.
The Knicks made 14 straight playoff appearances from 1988 through 2001, during which time Ewing twice helped them reach the NBA Finals. The Knicks lost both appearances, in 1994 to the Houston Rockets, and in 1999 to the San Antonio Spurs.
Playoff Slump
Since losing in the Eastern Conference finals after the 1999-2000 season, the Knicks have made the playoffs twice and were eliminated in the opening round both times.
With one of the league’s highest payrolls and playing in the nation’s largest media market, New York has compiled a 173-319 record over the past six complete seasons. The low point was a 23-59 mark in 2007-08, when the Knicks matched a franchise record for losses in a season and endured turmoil off the court that led to the firing of Isiah Thomas as coach. He was replaced by Mike D’Antoni and the team went 29-53 last season.
Just before James opted to join the Miami Heat during the offseason, the Knicks signed Stoudemire, an eight-year veteran who’s the most experienced player on a young roster. In adding Anthony, the Knicks may be hoping for a run similar to the one that followed their last prolonged losing stretch.
New York had one winning season over a 12-year span from 1956 to 1967. It then won NBA championships in 1970 and 1973 behind players such as Walt Frazier and Willis Reed, now in the Hall of Fame. They remain the only titles in the history of a franchise that started play in 1946.
(Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-22/carmelo-anthony-moves-to-new-york-knicks-in-nba-trade-with-denver-nuggets.html)
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