Carmelo Anthony is never going to play a basketball game for the Atlanta Hawks. All signs point to Anthony suiting up for the Houston Rockets next season, and while the Hawks traded for Anthony last week, the plan is for the team to buy out the final year of his contract before he becomes a free agent.
There’s no word on how far into that process Anthony and the Hawks are right now — for all we know, it’s done (the trade became official on Wednesday) and Anthony is just taking his time before he makes his next move. But before that point, Anthony has his mind set on getting himself a jersey to commemorate his oh so brief time in Atlanta.
Veteran NBA reporter Chris Sheridan spoke to Anthony while the two were out at the USA Basketball minicamp in Las Vegas. Over the course of their conversation, Anthony revealed that he’d like to cop a Hawks jersey with his name across the back.
Just spoke briefly with 'Melo. He is trying to get his hands on a #Hawks jersey with his name on the back.
— Chris Sheridan (@sheridanhoops) July 27, 2018
The Hawks are no strangers to stars making pit stops in Atlanta before going elsewhere — Rasheed Wallace famously played exactly one game for the team in 2004 before getting traded to the Detroit Pistons. Still, at least Wallace suited up for Atlanta, something that everyone is 99.9999999999999999999999999 percent certain will never happen with Anthony.
Besides, according to reports, Anthony is getting his full $27.9 million bought out by the Hawks. My man is getting the full bag from the team! A quick Google search tells me an authentic, customized Atlanta jersey would run him like $250, and he can even get free shipping because of how much coin he’d drop. He can even have some fun and give himself a big number that doesn’t appear on basketball jerseys, like 91 or something dumb. Do that, Carmelo Anthony.
