Earlier this week, the NBA trade rumor mill exploded with the possibility of the Los Angeles Lakers acquiring Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Andrew Bynum.
Everyone has weighed in on that rumor since, including Kobe Bryant, but the one thing that hasn’t really been reported on is whether Anthony himself would sign an extension to stay with the Lakers.
Earlier today, though, ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that Anthony isn’t exactly in love with the possibility of moving to the West Coast because he grew up in Baltimore, MD, and still has most of his family on the East Coast.
Irrespective of how serious or not L.A. is about a potential Andrew Bynum-for-Melo swap — and despite Melo’s well-chronicled bond with Kobe Bryant — one source close to the process maintains that one reason Anthony is lukewarm about the prospect of going to Lakers is because he doesn’t want to move even farther away from his family on the East Coast than he is now.
It would seem that if the Lakers are to give up Bynum, they would probably be looking for Anthony to sign an extension to stay in Los Angeles. Only time will tell, though.