Carmelo Wants to Know If He's Being Traded

Carmelo Anthony has heard all the rumors. As interested observers always hoping to see the Earth shake, we love seeing them. As someone whose life might be uprooted at any moment, 'Melo wishes it would all go away. As such, ESPN's Chris Broussard reports Anthony has demanded a meeting with Nuggets brass to assert what, if anything, is going on here. Broussard writes:

[Anthony's] desire is to stay in Denver and he wants assurances from the Nuggets that they will not trade him. Anthony's party expects to get those assurances on Monday, according to the sources. If the Nuggets don't commit to building around Anthony -- and instead demonstrate a willingness to trade him -- he will ask to be moved.

So basically, some crackpot ideas out of New Jersey and a reported offer of Chauncey Billups and Tayshaun Prince from Detroit has knocked 'Melo into this period of personal despair? Broussard reports the Nugs have not been offering 'Melo up in any way.

Pardon the nostalgia, but this reminds me of the time Ron Artest heard a rumor the Pacers wanted to trade him, and then demanded a trade. There was no smoke in Indiana before Artest's wacky demand, and there really doesn't look to be any smoke in Denver now -- especially taking Broussard's account into account, as it's the most assertive dispatch on Detroit's designs on 'Melo to this point.

If all this faux-desperation from Anthony's camp isn't (in part) the result of some madness concerning his unstable representation situation, I'll eat Von Wafer's hat.