Feeling a bit snappy today when it comes to the recent stories in the NBA today, so this may be more rants than facts and speculation.

So first things first.

Kevin Love Out for Remainder of Season due to Knee Surgery

Kevin Love – Erroneous dick farmer… make that, injured erroneous dick farmer

Well, this just put the icing on the cake for the hapless Minnesota Timberwolves. This whole team has had injuries the WHOLE season, but this one takes the cake. Kevin Love, dealing with two broken hand injuries, a knee injury; he has not been the player he was last season or when he helped the USA Olympic Team to a gold metal in the London games.

What’s worse is that he’s openly attacked the T-Wolves organization, David Kahn in particular, which has only pissed off some local fans. Not playing to the level he could this year has not helped matters much. Ricky Rubio hasn’t been the same factor since coming back from ACL surgery. Many other players have been injured.. And there’s the inexplicable signing of Brandon Roy prior to this season’s opening, given his chronic knee problems – he’s barely played.

All you can say is, these Timberwolves are atrocious and snake bitten. They should thank God they are not the Sacramento Kings, who stand in danger of being relocated.

Kevin Love – Current erroneous dick farmer

Minnesota Timberwolves – a gang of erroneous, injured dick farmers.

Minnesota Timberwolves fans – Sick of dealing with erroneous dick farmers that are the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Lakers or Jazz in Final Playoff Spot in the West?

I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Lakers – Stick a fork in them. They’re done.

The Jazz will finish strong, the Lakers will finish weak. The Dwight Howard experiment needs to end. He’s not a good fit for the Lakers. He’s a diva who’s incapable of being happy. The Lakers need a serious overhaul. The Jazz may not make it through the first round, but they’ll at least be deserving of the spot they have in the playoffs. The Lakers don’t deserve to suck shit through a tube.

The Lakers – another batch of erroneous dick famers who can’t win shit, and won’t. Plus, Jim Buss is a douchebag. Some body fuck him up and spit in his mouth. FUCKING wanker.

The Jazz – Decent enough to look like they belong in the playoffs. They might not make it past the first round to the Spurs or Thunder… but they at least play more like a cohesive unit than this year’s Lakers ever will.

Dwight Howard – You are a diseased corpse fucker who needs to go join the rest of the douchebags and divas on Corpse Fucker Island…. you fucking corpse fucker. Do us all a favor and kill yourself… you FUCKING wanker! Read my lips douchebag, you will never win a title with your attitude… CORPSE FUCKER!

Kobe Bryant – All signs point to Bryant playing one more year, and then calling it quits. He’s 34 now, will turn 35 this summer I think. He’s fast in decline, and I don’t think he has much left in the tank to carry the Lakers who will be in a massive overhaul state come the next couple of years. It would be nice to see Bryant finish his career on a high note, but that seems unlikely at this point.

The New York Knicks’ Chances in the Playoffs

Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks look ready to burn the house down in the playoffs.

This team is coming on at the right time. Carmelo Anthony is playing some of the best ball in his life, the Knicks are playing strong. Winning convincingly against the Oklahoma City Thunder at this point in the season speaks huge of how good this team has become when not injured and running on all cylinders. Now, they need to make it through the first round and the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals before we can discuss their chances against the Heat (who should get to the Eastern Conference Finals at least, pending no disasters), but if they’re playing like this now; we’ll be discussing them by that point in a few weeks. Plus, Anthony is likely to be given the NBA Scoring Title this year. He’s been bombastic the last couple of months since the Jan-February drop off for the team.

The Knicks will be ready to unload come the playoffs.

Who Gets the Worst Record in the NBA?

You gotta feel for Michael Jordan… How the hell is he going to rebuild this Charlotte Bobcats team that’s full of douchebags?

The Charlotte Bobcats. Pure and simple. They are the worst team in the NBA. They are a bunch of erroneous dick famers and diseased corpse fuckers. If they were a lame horse, I would take them out back and shoot them, slaughter them and carve them into steaks to feed the hungry.

A team that constantly loses by double digits shows they need to kill themselves, commit hari-kari, impose torture on themselves, perhaps even cut off their balls and eat them… that is if they have any. Probably not.

All I know is Michael Jordan probably wants to go postal on all of them come the end of the season. Will there be any end to the misery in sight for Jordan and his organization… Probably not.

As depressing as watching a Michael Bay film… both will drive you to suicide if you dare watch.

Anthony on fire – ESPN.com

Wow… the New York Knicks are coming alive at the right time. Carmelo Anthony has had 50 and 40 point games against Miami and Atlanta respectively in their recent ninth and tenth straight wins. Against the Hawks, he shot 17-of-27 and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Raymond Felton had 14 points, J.R. Smith contributed 19 with some key baskets in the fourth quarter, including a clutch three pointer that gave the Knicks an 11-point lead with 4 minutes to go that sealed the victory.

The Knicks themselves have made some key plays, great screens and moving the basketball effectively. But stopping a player like Anthony is becoming near impossible as of late. His play has been so good, containing him seems pointless. The Heat had trouble containing him, despite Wade and LeBron sitting out against the Knicks, in their loss to them; the Hawks couldn’t guard him. His killer shooting whether open or covered as opened up other opportunities for the Knicks’s cast.

Now, I continue to feel that if they met the Heat in the conference finals, the latter would be victorious. I just think the Heat are going to be too strong when it comes down to it. But if the Knicks are playing at the level they are now, it’s going to be tremendously difficult.

The 1992 USA Dream Team

I for one, think that this year’s line-up is a good start for the latest incarnation of US NBA Olympic talent. Following my expectations from them, Team USA, Spain and France are the team to beat in this year’s Basketball Olympics.

The utter disappointment for me is that injury hit certain players now such as center Dwight Howard, guards Derrick Rose and my favorite player Dwyane Wade, it would likely be My Dream Team and would be hell of a game all throughout. Still, I think Howard and Wade had proven themselves worthy to represent their country from the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal win against Spain in Beijing, China. I hope Rose can play for the next Olympic games (Rio 2016). On the other hand, I’m still rooting to have Ricky Rubio in the roster for Spain, even if that’s not even possible for now, at least Pau and Marc Gasol would be able to play.

2008 USA Men’s Basketball Team, Bejing Olympics
Photo:Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE

LeBron James, coming off his first NBA title with Miami, will be joined by 2008 Olympic gold medal-winning teammates Kobe ‘The Black Mamba’ Bryant, my personal clutch player Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Deron Williams on the squad once again guided by Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski, with Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala and James Harden nabbing the final three roster spots.

It’s good to have young athletes such as NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City teammate Russell Westbrook, who just recently lost to Miami in the NBA Finals. Their athleticism and aggressiveness are really needed. They will be joined by 2010 world championship teammates Tyson Chandler and Kevin Love, two vital big men for the Americans.

Introducing, Team USA!

USA squad from left to right (TOP): Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks), Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers), Tyson Chandler (New York Knicks), Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves), Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder), LeBron James (Miami Heat)
Down: Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers), Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder), Deron Williams (Brooklyn Nets), James Harden (Oklahoma City Thunder), Andre Iguodala (Philadelphia 76ers) and Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers)

It was announced today who the Team USA(whoever that ends up being after Playoff injures) will train against. The USA Select Basketball Team will play against the Team USA in July in order to get them ready. The list includes alot of two notable choices: Jeremy Lin who was out during the playoffs due to a knee injury and Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving.  I’m not sure what goes into making this list but when you look at you notice there are not a lot of high profilers.  I guess USA Basketball is not to worried about their competition.

Here’s the rest of the  list:

Ryan Anderson (Orlando Magic), DeJuan Blair (San Antonio Spurs), DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings) DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors), Derrick Favors (Utah Jazz), Paul George (Indiana Pacers), Taj Gibson (Chicago Bulls), Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz), Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers), Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs), Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors) and John Wall (Washington Wizards)

AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

Leave us your most creative comment for the photo above from last night’s Knicks’ game. Best comment gets a free Jeremy Lin tee from #linningtees (www.linningtees.com). Leave your email so we can contact you.

The big news preceding the end of the trading deadline, of course, was that after an endless dance, the Nuggets finally traded Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks. There was much rejoicing and a surprising amount of hand wringing after the trade was consummated. Due to the deluge of media coverage leading up to the trade, much of the focus was placed on Carmelo Anthony. The fact that Chauncey Billups was included in the trade was a mere afterthought.

The funny thing is that Chauncey may end up making a larger impact on the Knicks  this season than Carmelo. I’m not trying to argue that Chauncey is better than Carmelo or that he’s even close to being the player Carmelo is. I just think that as Amare and Carmelo try to mesh their high usage games together, that Chauncey will prove to be exceedingly valuable to the Knicks.

I realize it has been an extremely small sample size but their performance has shown this to some degree so far. Chauncey’s production, so far, has been far, far more efficient than Carmelo’s. I realize that Carmelo has produced more in terms of sheer numbers, but there is something to be said about producing efficiently. I’ll pose this hypothetical: Would you rather have a player shoot 6/8 from the field (2/2 from 3pt and 5-5 FT) for a total of 20 points or 8/23 from the field (1/3 from 3pt and 6-6 FT) for a total of 23 points. Yeah, 23 points is more than 20, but I’d much rather have a player put up that first stat line.

In any case, whatever your views on efficiency, it’s undeniable that Chauncey has been a more efficient offensive player. In his 4 games so far (he missed one with a thigh bruise), he’s scored 93 points while taking 49 attempts from the field; that works out to 1.9 pts per field goal attempt. That’s a pretty good number. If you factor in turnovers and look at points per possession, that number falls a little to 1.6, still pretty good. Carmelo on the other hand has scored 130 points but has needed 111 field goal attempts to reach that total, which is 1.2 pts per field goal attempt. His points per possession works out to 1.07. Another way to look at it, is at that rate Chauncey would score 160 points using 100 possessions whereas Carmelo would only score 107 points, using 100 possessions. It’s a little abstract to think of it like that, but it is a fairly significant difference. Another way to look at it is that league average points per field goal attempt is 1.2, the same as Carmelo and league average points per possession is 1.06, almost the same as Carmelo. In that view, Carmelo is producing at a rate no better than league average.

Carmelo has the superior per game statistics and the higher bulk totals due to playing an extra game and also playing more minutes that Chauncey. Another way to view things on a more level field is to look at their per 36 minutes stats. Per 36 minutes, Chauncey has averaged 25.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg, and 6.6 apg. Carmelo on the other hand has averaged 25.6/4.7/2.4. There’s no arguing here that Chauncey has provided more output per 36 minutes. He’s outscored Carmelo, while providing the same number of rebounds (from the point guard position!!) and nearly tripling Carmelo’s assists.

I think part of Chauncey’s efficiency dominance is attributable to 3 things. First, Carmelo is a great scorer, but not an efficient one. Second, Carmelo, who has gotten used to dominating the ball since Iverson was traded, has to learn to share the rock with Amare. Finally, I think the D’Antoni offense generally benefits point guard play.

So as I said, I’m not trying to convince anyone that Chauncey is better than Carmelo. I am trying to say that his production so far has been underrated and that his production moving forward will also likely be underrated. There’s extreme value in efficiency, which is something Chauncey has in spades when compared to Melo.

After the formation of, for lack of a better name, (I’ll oblige them), the Heatles and now that Carmelo officially has become a Knick, it appears that the free agency landscape has changed drastically in the NBA. Throw in the impending (2012) free agencies of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Dwight Howard and it would be perfectly reasonable to assume that the (star) players now have all the leverage in terms of where they end up. The teams that these stars are leaving are desperate to get at least pennies on the dollar so they kowtow to the wishes of their star even as he orchestrates his departure. Inevitably, that star will leave for greener pastures in a larger market. That is, at least, the perception.

It is that perception that I want to take a look at. Do stars really leave their teams to sign larger contracts in a city they deem better? Plus, what qualities do these cities have that make them “better”?

So these are the rules, if you will, of the way I treated the data. I scoured the Internet for reliable lists of the highest paid players in their respective leagues. For the NBA, I used a HoopsHype list of the highest salaries of players for this season. This means that I wasn’t looking at the largest total salaries, just single season salaries from this current season. The site listed the top 30 players. For the MLB, I used the invaluable Cot’s Contracts. He had the top 33 total contracts in history listed, meaning the total value over the life of the contract. That means for the MLB, it’s more of a snap shot of the last 15-20 years rather than a single season snap shot. Finally, for the NHL, I used a listing from USA Today which had the top 25 salaries from LAST (2009-2010) season. (I ignored the NFL because things get hairy after including signing and roster bonuses).

So after choosing my lists, I parsed the names to find out which players either A) Signed with a different team as a free agent or B) Forced a trade/was traded and immediately signed an extension. Those in group B weren’t technically free agents, but things worked, to the same effect. It does, however, exclude players such as Matt Holliday who was traded to the Cardinals, played through the remainder of the season, hit free agency, and then resigned with the Cardinals.

Let’s take a look at the lists starting with the NBA since this is what set me on this line of inquiry:

NBA – 10/30 – 33%

Rashard Lewis (Magic)

Carmelo Anthony (Knicks)

Gilbert Arenas (first salary) (Wizards)

Amare Stoudemire (Knicks)

Kenyon Martin (Nuggets)

Elton Brand (76ers)

Peja Stojakovic (Hornets)

Lebron James (Heat)

Chris Bosh (Heat)

Carlos Boozer (Bulls)

Of the 30 highest paid players in the NBA, only 10 of them met my criteria. Bosh, Lebron, and Carmelo are all prominently on that list. They also, make up a sizable portion. The teams that the players signed with don’t seem to have any sort of correlation. For every Carmelo who wanted the big market you have a Peja who signed with the small market Hornets. For every Lebron James who headed for warm weather, there’s a Carlos Boozer who went to a cold weather city. I think what it comes down to is that the players went to the teams that could pay them the most. They also seem not to be (LBJ excluded) the premier talents of the league. Yes, Amare Stoudemire is a very good player but he wouldn’t be in your top 7 of players with whom to start a team with. Taking this all into account, it seems (recently) that star players usually sign extensions with teams that drafted them (2/3 of the listed 30). It means that the Heatles and Melo are breaking the mold, so to speak, with the way that they orchestrated their moves to their current teams. It’s impossible to say whether this is a trend or a blip, but if history says anything it is that you can expect some superstars to move about, but the vast majority will stay put.

After the jump we’ll take a look at the NHL and MLB.

The NHL list looks as follows:

NHL – 12/25 – 48%

Chris Drury (Rangers)

Daniel Briere (Flyers)

Scott Gomez (Rangers)

Wade Redden (Rangers)

Marian Hossa (Blackhawks)

Zdeno Chara (Bruins)

Marian Gaborik (Rangers)

Ilya Kovalchuk (Devils)

Roberto Luongo (Canucks)

Brian Campbell (Blackhawks)

Jay Bouwmeester (Flames)

Kimmo Timonen (Flyers)

There was a bit more movement in the NHL than in the NBA. Nearly half of the highest paid players from 2009-2010 met my criteria. There are a few trends that can be discerned here. When players in the NHL move about, they head for bigger cities and/or cities with more history. There aren’t any Atlantas or Los Angeleses on there. There are original six cities like New York, Chicago, and Boston and other storied hockey cities like Philly, Vancouver and Calgary. It’s quite possible that this is due to those teams having more money to spend to begin with, but since there is a hard cap, all teams, in theory should be able to compete for free agents. What I do find amazing is that the Rangers have 4 of the 12 on this list yet haven’t reached a conference finals. (It should be noted that with the hard cap, the Rangers never had all 4 on the team at the same time).

Major League Baseball looks like this:

MLB – 15/33 – 45%

Mark Teixeira (Yankees)

CC Sabathia (Yankees)

Carl Crawford (Red Sox)

Johan Santana (Mets)

Alfonso Soriano (Cubs)

Barry Zito (Giants)

Jayson Werth (Nationals)

Mike Hampton (Rockies)

Cliff Lee (Phillies)

Carlos Beltran (Mets)

Ken Griffey Jr. (Reds)

Kevin Brown (Dodgers)

Carlos Lee (Astros)

Barry Bonds (Giants)

Torii Hunter (Angels)

Again, there is a lot of movement when compared to the NBA. Most of the players on this list ended up signing with teams in larger cities. This makes sense, as baseball doesn’t have a salary cap. They do have a luxury tax, but trades and player moves aren’t hindered by breaching the luxury tax a la the NBA. This allows for the financially stronger teams to flex their financial muscle and explains why more than a quarter of the list ended up with one of the New York teams. The surprises here are Mike Hampton with the Rockies and Ken Griffey Jr with the Reds. The Reds and Rockies don’t typically come to mind when thinking of large budget franchises. Oddly enough, neither move worked out well.

———

Moving forward, I’ll be interested in seeing what happens in the NBA. Right now, there’s clearly less player movement (in terms of high value free agents) than in the NHL or MLB. It is, however, possible that Lebron and Carmelo’s methods catch on and lead to an uptick in player movement. We’ll just have to wait and see, especially with the CBA up in the air.

Brooklyn born Carmelo Anthony is officially a New York Knicks!

Ok, Ok, Carmelo Anthony is finally going to the New York Knicks. Your prayers have been answered Knicks fans. Your savior is here.

I’d like to start by saying, “good for you.” If I was a Knicks fan, I’d be psyched. Carmelo is a top 5 player in the NBA, and having him join up with Amare Stoudemaire is undeniably a potent combination offensively. This trade was widely cited by critics as the Knicks giving up too much — most of the players responsible for the Knicks’ “resurgence”,  $3 million in cash, and all of your upcoming major draft picks. I agree that the Knicks gave up too much to get Melo, but my thinking is “so what?” This is what the Knicks had to do to get him, and sometimes you’ve got to take a step backwards in order to go forwards. I have no doubt that the Knicks will be able to recruit other scrubs who are pretty good and simply want to play in NYC with Melo and Amare, just as the Heat did with players like Eddie House and Mike Miller. In other words, this was the right move.

Now, I’m going to play devil’s advocate — hear me out on a few major issues in regard to this trade.

1) Chauncey Billups was included in this trade, which is huge — he’s a great veteran player and already has some chemistry with Carmelo. That said, he’s old and he doesn’t want to play in New York. Denver is his home, and he was thrilled to head back there following his time with the Pistons. While Billups isn’t pleased, he’s a player in the twilight of his career. I’d expect him to suck it up, and make the best of this final opportunity for him to win a Finals and play on the big stage. This isn’t a huge concern for me.

2) While this trade is not about this year, I wouldn’t expect much from the Knicks this year. They haven’t had time to play together and have a completely new roster. They’ll have growing pains, a la the Heat. But in the future, two stars is not equal to three. The Celtics have four, the Heat have three. While Melo and Amare are more than enough firepower, this brings injuries into the game in a major way. If Melo or Amare is injured in the upcoming seasons, or simply in the playoffs, this team will not have enough depth to win. Period. That’s something to be seriously concerned about as you fix your eyes on NBA titles.

3) Melo just made himself Lebron #2, at least to some extent, no? I’m sure you New York fans won’t agree. Whether you like it or not, that’s partially because you are bitter that Lebron snubbed you. But let’s face the facts — while Melo did not hold a ridiculous press conference and refer to himself in the third person a la Lebron, his departure was a bit ugly. Like Lebron, he left a larger contract on the table to go elsewhere after several seasons in Denver. Like Lebron, he made some bad comments like saying “I’ll be playing in Denver for the game on Tuesday at least,” during the course of all-star weekend. This move, like Lebron’s, also seems to suggest that he couldn’t get it done on his own. Sure, James joined D-Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Carmelo is joining the second leading scorer in the NBA in New York, which is something even Lebron can’t say. So this whole thing is a little hypocritical, no? If you’re saying Lebron can never be looked at in the same light because he joined forces with Dwayne Wade, then Carmelo can’t be seen in the same light either because he’s joining forces with Amare. Sorry, NYC, but I’m not sure how you can argue that.

I think those are some very valid points, and some legitimate concerns. That said, it is a big day for Knicks’ fans, I understand that and applaud this move. I’d still take the Celtics or the Heat in a series though, sorry guys.

By Mark McCormick, howiGit Contributing Writer, Boston, MA

I suppose the first step in combatting a problem is admission of guilt. As a devout Boston Celtics fan, I have committed treason. This deceit comes in the form of a secret and well-hidden man crush for the New York Knicks and all of the glitz and glamour that is carried with the franchise; the allure of Madison Square Garden, the countless number of greats that have come from New York City, Coney Island and other basketball epicenters that make New York crucial to the NBA and basketball in general.

The Knicks are a symbol of excellence, regardless of recent performance.They have produced magical moments from such greats as Willis Reed, Elgin Baylor, and Patrick Ewing. Under the guidance of Isiah Thomas, the Knicks became irrelevant due to painfully inept leadership that left everyone scratching their heads. “What the hell are they thinking?” and “How much money did they give Keith Van Horn?” was a common sentiment. Egregious contract signings included Jared Jeffries, Stephon Marbury(now playing in China, damn Steph), Eddy Curry and millions to alcoholic center Vin Baker, who we all hope is still on the wagon. God speed Vin.

Post-Isaiah, the combined genius of Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoini have made the Knicks relevant again. The best part is that their mission is just beginning. After a sultry summer that saw a new big three form in South Beach, Melo and Chris Paul added to the intrigue by toasting at Melo’s wedding to play together one day. CP3 appears to be tied to New Orleans, as ownership is reluctant to trade their best player and one of few draws that putts asses in the seats. CP3 may be out, but where does that leave Carmelo? We’ll tackle that later.

GM Walsh should be praised for creating the cap space that almost saw the Knicks acquire Lebron James as well as assembling a solid roster with the signings of Amare Stoudemire, Raymond Felton, and Landry Fields. People fail to remember just how bad of a situation Walsh and D’Antoin inherited. They have done a Houdini-like act by trimming the fat and bringing the excitement back to MSG. The final feather in Walshs’ cap is that he knows the Knicks are poised to make a huge splash in 2011 free agency, having enough cap space to sign one max player. Who will it be?

Welcome home Carmelo! Being a member of the Knicks will be great for Melo as well as the NBA. David Stern needs the booming market that NYC has to offer to prosper as much as possible. Simply stated, it’s good business. The Garden is already sold out every night, good team or Vin Baker’s Knicks missing jumpers. But being featured on nationally televised games, challenging the Celtics and Heat for Eastern Conference supremacy while allowing Madison Square Garden to bask in all of its glory is something that every basketball fan should crave and will only make the league more profitable, competitive and balanced. Carmelo also will enjoy the fruits of this signing, with increased exposure to the multitude of media markets and outlets that New York possesses. Being a figurehead for the one of the best markets and the brand recognition that comes with that automatically increases notoriety. Translation: inordinate amounts of endorsement cash. Overall, great move for the NBA as well as Melo.

After the Nets trade saga, Melo has endured boos from his current home crowd in Denver. It represents the epitome of disrespect for a player that has played seven years with the same team, always playing hard and hitting the big shot. He’s matured from a young man being featured in gangster DVD’s in Baltimore, claiming “snitches end up in ditches” to a businessman who, regardless of the uncertainty of next year’s CBA, knows it’s time to go to the big stage, be the man, and cash in. Lebron couldn’t do that and he will always be remembered as the guy who was anointed to save the Knicks but couldn’t take the chance. Don’t make the same mistake Carmelo. You are too uniquely talented to not play in one of the best stadiums and cities that sports have to offer. Accept your position on the throne, a truly special place that has bared witness to stars such as Broadway Joe, Derek Jeter, and Mark Messier just to name a few. Get in to that New York State of mind and take the Heat to the cleaners. Just not the Celts. Go Green.

UPDATE: Carmelo Anthony has definitely been in the spotlight and had a fair share of media attention lately. It’s no surprise too that the former Denver Nuggets forward, who’s now dressing for the New York Knicks, also sold his 21,000 sq-ft Colorado home for $6M; which was a $5.8M dollar loss from the price he originally bought it at. Although considering he signed a $65M dollar contract to play ball with the Knicks, this kind of loss can be chalked up as more or less a moving expense in the everyday life of a NBA superstar.

Is the Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony going to leave Denver?  At this point rumors are still floating around, but that hasn’t stopped Melo from putting his 21,000 sq ft Mega Mansion up for sale.

The gated estate sits on 5.7 acres, is 21,083 sq ft with 8 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms; and like most superstar’s homes, nothing is lacking here.  The entry way has a grand foyer with large marble columns, there is also 8 fireplaces, a 5,000 bottle wine cellar, a mahogany paneled library, a recording studio, a private theater, gym, swimming pool with a large pool house, hot tub, wet bar, 7 car garage, 11,000 sq ft / 3 stall barn with a pasture, a private guest house, and a pond.

Melo originally bought this Mega Mansion in 2007 from Stephen Jacobsen, the former Executive Vice President of Qwest.  He paid $12M plus he also gave Stephen his old home in Lakewood as part of the deal.

Click here for more photos and details about the home. Images courtesy of Trulia.

For more information about Seattle real estate, Sports Relocation, & other Athlete Homes, visit my website: www.aaronjrosen.com