Carmelo Anthony has 3 options for dealing with the Knicks

On Friday, Knicks president Phil Jackson bluntly expressed that he feels Carmelo Anthony should play somewhere else next season. After a season’s worth of battles in the media (social and otherwise), Jackson jabbed at Melo by saying the team hasn’t won with him (which isn’t entirely true) and that the team would attempt to trade the star this summer.

Jackson’s problem, of course, is that Carmelo has a no-trade clause.

How did Carmelo Anthony get a no-trade clause?

Phil Jackson gave it to him in contract negotiations in 2014. Whoops!

So while Jackson blusters about what needs to happen, we all know Anthony is the one with the power here. He controls his own future, and by extension, that of Jackson’s Knicks. Melo is under contract for the next two years, though he can opt out in the 2018 offseason and become a free agent.

Jackson and the Knicks recently mutually agreed to pick up options to keep the president under contract until 2019. Melo and Jackson’s contracts expire the same summer. They are in this together, unless one bends.

Should Melo bend? What should he do?

Here are his options.

Melo could realize that his career is too short to risk wasting another year fighting with a 71-year-old man and waive his no-trade clause outright. That would allow the Knicks to move Anthony to whichever team offers the best package.

Melo would spend the 2017-18 season rehabilitating his image as a player — ramping up the defensive intensity, accepting whatever offensive role he’s given, sharing the ball — while planning to opt out in 2018 and become a free agent. This time, he signs where he can win.

The problem with this option is that Melo loves New York and really shouldn’t be expected to waive his no-trade clause just because his team president is being aggressively ornery. It’s unreasonable to suggest Melo should do this. It can only happen if he decides it’s best for his career.

Again, Melo could realize that his career is too short to risk wasting another year fighting with a 71-year-old man and agree to provide a list of teams for which he would waive his no-trade clause. One presumes that the Cavaliers, Clippers (assuming Chris Paul re-signs there), and Bulls (assuming Dwyane Wade sticks around) would be on that list. Perhaps Melo has other potential landing spots in mind as well.

This would spark Melodrama II as the selected franchises weigh flipping assets for a 33-year-old Anthony or wait for him to opt out in 2018. The wrinkle for the Banana Boat teams — especially Cleveland and L.A. — is that the incumbent superstars could put pressure on their front offices to make the deal. CP3 could make it clear in June he will explore the market in July unless the Clippers try to trade for Melo. LeBron has obvious power in Cleveland and a potential Melo-for-Kevin Love swap is still sitting right there.

Let’s not sleep on the potential for LeBron to declare that he wants the team to get CP3 in a sign-and-trade for Kyrie Irving, trade Love for Melo and sign Wade, who can opt out from his Bulls contract. That would be an insane decision for everyone involved, but this is the NBA, where amazing happens.

This iconic Captain America moment is relevant here:

“Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world —

— ‘No, you move.’”

This might seem a bit melodramatic given we’re talking about a man making $26 million a year to play basketball and a man making $12 million a year to run a basketball team. But ... we’re also talking about a comic book panel. We’re allowed to apply it to situations that fall short of life and death.

What Carmelo Anthony could do — what Carmelo Anthony should do, in my opinion — is plant himself like a tree beside the river of truth (the Hudson, I suppose?) and tell the whole world, “No, I’m not waiving my no-trade clause. You move.”

We have seen the New York Knicks succeed with Carmelo. The Knicks made the playoffs in three of the four seasons Anthony was on the team before Jackson took over. The Knicks are 0-for-3 since Jackson arrived.

This isn’t to say the Knicks are better off with Melo than without: He’s 11 years older than Kristaps Porzingis and whoever New York is likely to pick in the lottery this June. But Jackson gave Carmelo the no-trade clause in 2014. You can’t reasonably expect Anthony to tear it up now.

That no-trade clause is power. He earned it. It is his to tear up or to use. He would be well within his rights to use it and to tell Jackson and the Knicks and the whole world that he’s not going anywhere until his contract ends.

Is it worth it to Melo to make this stand? Is it worth risking another wasted season in the wasteland of Knicksdom? Only he knows. But on the principle alone, he’d be well within reason to refuse to bend to Jackson’s desires.