Carmelo Anthony Tells The Story Behind His Knicks Trade

Amber · February 22, 2021

Carmelo Anthony will go down as a legend when all is said and done. While he has bounced around the league over the last couple of years, his best years were with the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks, where he was very clearly in his prime. His trade to the New York Knicks back in 2011 was a massive moment for the NBA, as it brought a superstar player back to the Mecca of basketball. While he never had much playoff success in New York, Melo fans look back on those days fondly.

During an appearance on Adrian Wojnarowski's "The Woj Pod," Anthony went in-depth on the trade and how it all went down. As he explains, he was supposed to sit out the 2010-2011 season as he didn't want to play for a Nuggets team that wanted to rebuild. At the time, the Nuggets wanted to send him to the Jazz or the Lakers, but during All-Star weekend, the Knicks came in and offered a much better deal. From there, the rest was history.

"New York comes in at the 25th hour and we have a meeting with New York," Carmelo recounted. "The infamous meeting. 3 O'Clock in the morning. And it's just like 'what are we gonna do.'"

In the end, both the Knicks and the Nuggets lost out on the trade as neither team has been able to win a championship, much less make it to an NBA Finals. Either way, the story is quite interesting and it just goes to show how coveted Melo was at the time.