Anthony unsure of NBA future, but wants clarity

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Carmelo Anthony just wants it over, without saying where he hopes it will end.

The season-long trade speculation involving Denver’s All-Star forward is nearing completion, with the deadline for deals arriving Thursday afternoon. Anthony would love a quicker answer.

“My mind’s boggled right now about this whole situation,” Anthony said Friday. “I wish I could get this thing over with right now and I wish there was just something that was just on the table that the Nuggets could just say, ’OK, let’s get it done.”’

There were reports it was ready to happen, as the Nuggets tried for the third time this season to complete a deal with New Jersey, and that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was hoping to meet with Anthony sometime this weekend.

Anthony insisted earlier Friday during an NBA Cares community service event there was “no meeting at all” and repeated that claim later during his session with the media.

And he didn’t know what he would say if one was scheduled.

“If I was to meet with that guy, to be honest I really don’t know what I would say,” Anthony said while taking a break from painting a community center.

The Nuggets have looked into trading Anthony since he declined to sign a three-year contract extension worth nearly $65 million this season. The Nets have been close to a deal twice, and the New York Knicks are considered the other favorite to land Anthony if Denver decides to move him by Thursday afternoon.

Though refusing to rule out staying in Denver, Anthony also talked of his time with the Nuggets in the past tense. He won’t specify a preferred destination, noting that going to the Nets offers the chance to play in his birthplace of Brooklyn, while the Knicks’ rebuilding effort is further along since the arrival of fellow All-Star Amare Stoudemire.

Anthony said the constant speculation is causing him to lose sleep and he realizes how much it’s worn on people throughout the NBA.

“It’s way past soap opera. It’s like a bad movie now,” Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley said Thursday.