A tale of two cities with two different stars with different expectations… as expected …
San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan has decided to exercise the final-year option on his contract worth $10.3 million, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Duncan will revisit his future with the Spurs next summer.
Duncan, 38, won his fifth championship with the Spurs this month, and once again played at a high level for the Spurs, averaging 15.1 points, 9.7 rebounds and three assists.
Duncan has had a decorated career in San Antonio: a 14-time All-Star, three-time NBA Finals MVP and two-time NBA MVP.
On the other side …also as expected …Carmelo Anthony has opted out of his final year of his contract with the New York Knicks.
”Carmelo loves being a Knick, he loves the city and the fans,” Leon Rose said. ”At this stage of his career he just wants to explore his options”.
Anthony has said his priority at this stage of his career is to contend for championships, and the Knicks are coming off a 37-45 season and have little ability to upgrade the roster this summer because of salary cap rules.
Teams such as Chicago, Houston, Dallas and Miami have all been mentioned as teams that could be interested in the All-Star forward, and all are playoff teams with established stars already on the roster.
”I’m not losing sleep over it, but I’m definitely concerned about the idea of a guy going into free agency. It only takes one bidder out there that has the ability and can ruin your hopes and your chances,” Jackson said recently.
”We will survive it. That’s what I’ve said and we’ll go forward. But this is a guy we recognize his talent and his skill is the kind of skill and talent that gets you through playoff games where things get sticky, grind out and basketball becomes a force game and suddenly you need to have a player who has the capabilities of scoring with someone hanging on them in a situation that’s critical. He’s one of those players, one of the few players who can do that.”
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