The Carmelo Anthony free agency sweepstakes have become so crazy that none other than Dwight Howard is now offering him advice.
Howard, who infamously left L.A. and Kobe Bryant for Houston last summer, left a much more glamorous market and another $30 million on the table for the chance to pursue rings and find contentment.
In just a few months Anthony, currently the league's second-leading scorer on one of its worst teams (21-36), will face a similar decision.
"I can't say what he'll do," Howard told USA Today Sports. "That's on him. He's got to decide. But he can't be what everybody else wants. In this situation, you've got to take your heart out of it...So I'd just say for him, take his heart out of it and think with his head and think about business."
Howard later added of Anthony "he has been in the league for a long time. He hasn't made it to the Finals and at this point in his career he wants to win. You can see it every night when he plays. I know he has to take a lot of shots and all that stuff, but he just wants to win. If you don't win, you're not going to get all the off-court stuff you want anyway. I saw that last year in Los Angeles. I was in the biggest market for the NBA, and we lost, so those companies aren't going to be coming to you for losing."
While having one of his best statistical seasons, the Knicks and Anthony are having a season no one foresaw for them, currently 15 games below .500 and out of the Eastern Conference playoff equation.
Anthony's wife, LaLa, recently went public with how bad she thinks her husband wants to stay in New York, but with things looking as if they might get worse before they get better for the Knicks how much of a choice will he really have?
"It's definitely testing me," Anthony told USA Today on Saturday after the Knicks blew a 17-point lead in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks. "The frustration has definitely sunk in, just from the simple fact we're losing games the same way over and over and we're just not learning from that."
Howard insists he knows the feeling. "I know he has just got to do what's best for him," he told the newspaper. "I've been through it. I've seen it. The same people that love you one day, if you don't do what they want you to do, then they're going to hate you. You've got to always remember that you've got to do what's best for you at the end of the day. If people don't like you, you can't stop that."
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