BasketballMelo taking his talents to Newark?

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Will Carmelo Anthony soon be driving to the basket for the New Jersey Nets? (Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

I have a personal bias in favour of Carmelo Anthony.

He brought my beloved Syracuse Orange (16-0 this year I might add, Montreal's Kris Joseph leading them at 15.1 points per game) the 2003 NCAA title, giving coach Jim Boeheim his first U.S. national championship after decades of being one of the top coaches in the game. I didn't go to Syracuse, but I spent some time in the city when younger and always affectionately equated the colour orange with tangy refreshment.

Melo's million-dollar grin after dispatching Oklahoma in the regionals that year had me thinking this guy was an NBA uber-star in the making, and made me want to believe he could become a better player than fellow '03 draftee LeBron James.

Despite his 2006 Madison Square Garden slap on Mardy Collins (which most Knicks fans seem to have forgotten) and an array of off-court issues, I've always tried to give Anthony the benefit of the doubt because of my said bias. However, in the case of his supposedly imminent three-way trade to the Nets, I have no choice but to question his past decision-making, if only from a purely business standpoint.

The only reason that any talk of the Nuggets dealing him is contingent upon him signing a three-year, $65 million US extension with a new team is because he loses big time money if he doesn't. If July 1 comes and he's a free agent, god knows what he gets after that day's expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. While everything is relative in pro sports terms, to paraphrase Stewie from Family Guy, it's not a toaster.

In the summer of 2006, when James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade caught observers off guard by signing four-year deals, the reaction from fatalist Raptors fans was "well, that's when Bosh is leaving." And while that turned out to be true, it was at least a smart business move for the three of them, whether they intended then to play together or not. Labour armageddon has been on the horizon in the NBA for years now, and locking in a contract before the CBA expired was simply logical.
 
Melo on the other hand re-upped in Denver for five years, at least creating the impression at the time he was committed to the Nuggets long-term. Except now, apparently for mostly non-basketball reasons (wife), he wants to play in New York. The Knicks are seemingly out of the picture because they don't have the horses Denver wants and Anthony has reportedly softened his stance about playing for the New York area's ugly basketball cousin.

While Anthony again shrugged off the trade rumours Monday, ESPN reported that Nets owners Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z aren't even bothering to request a meeting with Melo about signing an extension. The reason:  he's backed himself into a corner.

As the rumoured deal swells to reportedly include more teams and everyone from Chauncey Billips to Al Harrington to Kiki Vandeweghe, it's likely Melo will for the most part get what he wants -- playing in NYC (in the borough of his birth, Brooklyn, once the Nets move there in 2012) while coping with what may be his last big payday for a while.

He's got to be wishing he just copied his superfriends. Maybe he'd be playing on a better team with Amar'e at MSG right now.

Stay tuned.

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For a bad team playing the role of jilted lover this season, there always seems to be something fun happening around the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Last week, the team offered Ted Williams, the homeless Ohio man who became an internet sensation with his golden voice, a public address announcing job at Quicken Loans Arena. Quicken Loans Inc. and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, best known for his vitriolic comic-sans MS diatribe toward James, also reportedly will provide Williams with a house.

Then this week, the Cavs decided to switch Los Angeles-area hotels because of an NBA scheduling anomaly that has the hated Miami Heat in town as well to play the Clippers Wednesday, while the Cavs face the Lakers Tuesday. Apparently visiting NBA teams usually stay at a specific Beverly Hills hotel, and the possibility of LBJ making eye contact with Cleveland players and staff was disconcerting enough for the team to move.

I've got to say, having bad blood in the NBA, even if it's somewhat contrived by Gilbert, is refreshing. One of the reasons some old school sports fans don't watch the NBA any more is because of all the fraternizing and shugging before games. The problem here though is we're talking about the 8-29 Cleveland Cavaliers.

Aside from James kicking northern Ohio in the face, there's about as much of a rivalry between the Cavs and the Heat as there is between Beyonce and Susan Boyle.

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