‘My City, My Heart’ Camelo is Staying in NYC

13 Jul, 2014

Carmelo Anthony is staying in New York, announcing his decision Sunday in a posting titled “My City, My Heart” on his website.

“This organization has supported me and in return, I want to stay and build here with this city and my team,” Anthony said.

He explained that he owed it to himself to explore all his options as a free agent, and thanked the teams he met with for their interest.

“Through it all, my heart never wavered,” he wrote.

The Knicks can pay the All-Star forward nearly $130 million over five years, though Anthony has said he would be open to taking less than the maximum salary if it would help build a winning team.

Anthony decided four summers ago he wanted a trade from Denver to New York, and the Nuggets were finally able to accommodate him in February 2011. Anthony, who was born in Brooklyn, wrote in his posting that at that time he had dreamed of coming back of New York.

The Knicks went 37-45 last season, the first time in Anthony’s 11-year career he missed the postseason.

They hired Phil Jackson as president in March, and Anthony believes the 11-time champion as a coach can turn the organization into a winner.

“After three months of questions around Carmelo Anthony’s return to the NY Knicks, we are now happy to know that we have the cornerstone of what we envision as a `team of excellence,'” Jackson said in a statement.

“(General manager) Steve Mills and I have assured Carmelo through our conversations, that we share the vision and the determination to build this team.”

“I will always remember this chapter in my life,” he wrote. “In the end, I am a New York Knick at heart.”

AP

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