Carmelo Anthony Signs With Portland Trail Blazers On Non-Guaranteed Contract

Carmelo Anthony Signs With Portland Trail Blazers On Non-Guaranteed Contract

NBA vet Carmelo Anthony, who has been out of the NBA for over a year, has agreed to make his highly anticipated return, signing a non-guaranteed deal with the Portland Trail Blazers, according to reports. Melo’s signing follows his short tenor with the Houston Rockets, playing in just 10 games before being shipped in a trade to the Bulls and subsequently waived. The Blazers have tried at different times in the past to add Anthony and made an attempt to acquire him when he was with the New York Knicks.

Blazers president, Neil Olshey and Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose have continued their discussions of making a deal since the former Knicks player demanded he be traded back in 2017. According to reports, over the past two days, Olshey closed the deal to bring the 35-year-old back to the NBA.

Portland was in need a quick turn around as the team heads toward the bottom of the Western Conference standings with a 4-8 record, losing its past two games.

Carmelo Anthony

Portland Star point guard, Daminan Lillard reportedly was notified on the signing of Melo’s just hours prior to coming to an agreement. According to reports, Lillard has always been in support of having the 10-time NBA All-Star in Portland.

In addition to Lillard, close friend and retired NBA star, Dwyane Wade took to Twitter to express his thoughts on Melo’s signing with the Blazers. He writes,

“It’s about damn time!!”

In August, the decorated former first round pick from Syracuse, opened up about his short tenor with the Rockets. Anthony said he was shocked when Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey informed him the team was releasing him after only playing 10 games in a Rockets uniform.

“I was surprised by it big time. It went from, ‘Oh, this is a piece we want, this is a piece we need.’ Mind you, we’ve been talking for three years, four years, they were trying to get me to come to the Houston Rockets, and I finally went there. I get there, I’m thinking everything is good. I’m doing everything I’ve got to do – never miss a practice, did all my work, I was real professional with everybody there. I don’t think there’s one person there who can say I wasn’t a professional there. I did what I had to do. I did my work.”

"I didn't like how that went down."

—Carmelo Anthony talks about getting released from the Rockets. pic.twitter.com/OxwyUBl2wd

— First Take (@FirstTake) August 2, 2019

Anthony also explained how he reached out to Rockets front office to negotiate ways to stay a part of the team.

“Then the 10th game came and I just didn’t understand where that came from. I actually reached out to Daryl first, and said, ‘Can we talk about how can we make this better? What can we do to fix this? What can I do to fix this?’ But he already had in his mind that he wanted to come talk to me about releasing me and letting me go, so I didn’t like how that went down.”