Carmelo Anthony has no regrets about signing 5-year extension before TV deal announcement
As the NBA and its players union digest the various implications of the league's recently announced nine-year, $24-billion television deal (which will kick in for the 2016-17 season), a pall of uncertainty has been cast over the world of professional basketball.
Chief among these uncertainties is how the unprecedented windfall will be dispersed, and whether or not the owners and the union will reach a consensus on an allotment structure that suits the interest of both sides.
On the players' end, it is unclear how those who've signed long-term deals that will eliminate them from the free agency boom in 2016 - when the salary cap is projected to leap in accordance with the influx of basketball-related income - will respond to the possibility of a new standard in contract values, which could significantly dwarf their own.
New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony is one such player, but he doesn't appear to be sweating it.
"I never thought about it," Anthony said Monday, referring to the prospect of signing a shorter contract. "I never thought about a two-year deal. I didn't want to have to go back and do what I did this summer, not at all.
"I signed my deal. I’m good. The organization is good. We moved forward and everybody is in a good place. So I don’t think there’s even no need to discuss it."
Anthony re-upped with the Knicks this summer for five years and $124 million, which may seem exorbitant, but could be average in a couple of years. LeBron James is the most famous example of a player taking the opposite tack, negotiating a shorter contract this offseason specifically geared towards hitting free agency when the new TV deal takes effect. Asked if he felt the impending deal had factored into James' decision, Anthony pled ignorance.
"I really don’t know," he said. "We all knew about the TV deal. Everybody who knows a little bit about the business of basketball knows about the TV deal that was coming. So I don’t know if his two-year deal has something to do with the TV deal or not."
Chris Bosh, another marquee free agent who signed a five-year deal this summer to remain with the Miami Heat, expressed a similar sentiment to Anthony's.
"I'm not a greedy man," Bosh said. "I'm tired of being a free agent... Twice is enough."
Other players to sign long-term deals this offseason include Kyrie Irving, Eric Bledsoe, Kyle Lowry, and Gordon Hayward.