Celtics Green: Carmelo Anthony Views Boston as Good Destination for Free Agents
New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony praises the city of Boston and the Celtics as a good destination for free agents.
After locking up Al Horford in the offseason and coming close to luring Kevin Durant into a Celtics uniform, the city of Boston is suddenly believed to be a free agent destination. What has changed? New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony doesn’t believe anything changed.
Before Horford, the Celtics have only signed aging superstars like Xavier McDaniel and Dominique Wilkens. There are some who believe that the cold weather among other factors have shied the top free agent stars away from Boston. Anthony is one who doesn’t share that opinion.
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"“I think it’s always been that,” Anthony said of the Celtics attraction via the Boston Herald. “I mean, when you think about basketball, Boston is one of the top places that you think of.“I think it’s always been that; it was just a matter of who was a free agent and if they had the money and the (cap) space here to pay them.”"
That appears to be true after Horford signed with the team. The All-Star forward cited the basketball passion of the fans and the intensity of the team as motivating factors for his decision.
With players like Blake Griffin and DeMarcus Cousins hitting free agency in the next two offseason, Danny Ainge and the Celtics hope more players see how great it is to play in Boston and become inspired by the path of the team.
Anthony certainly sees that Boston has rebuilt the right way and has a bright future ahead.
"“I think they’ve done a great job over the past three or four years of just . . . building,” he said. “They’ve really built this, starting from scratch when they traded (Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett). They rebuilt.“They got some draft picks and made some trades and got a great coach. I thought their front office did a hell of a job with just figuring that part of the game out. A lot of it comes from that.”"
Carmelo Anthony will become a free agent in 2018. It will be interesting to see if he is pursued by the Celtics. He will be considered an aging star by then, but if Boston is just a veteran scorer away, Melo may give playing in Bean Town a shot.
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