It is Friday and Carmelo Anthony is still a free agent

I usually leave these little round-ups until the morning, but whatever, I'm not sleeping anytime soon anyway. It is now Friday EST. Nothing real has changed with the situation of Carmelo Anthony-- he remains a free agent, and no team pursuing him has gotten word of a decision.

This extended nothingness comes after Melo's "friend" told Frank Isola Melo was going to announce his return to the Knicks on Thursday, and it comes after Phil Jackson mentioned 5 different offers for Melo, teased him a bit, then reiterated that the Knicks are ready for any outcome from a straight walk-out to the full mega-max. (Jackson and Jose Calderon also carried on their quest to lure Pau Gasol.)

Meanwhile, Ken Berger and others backed up Stephen A. Smith's radio thing suggesting Melo was still considering-- or perhaps considering again-- a departure for Chicago.. That Berger report includes some speculation regarding hideously desperate trades of Amar'e Stoudemire or Andrea Bargnani to make the roster please Melo, but other than that, it's pretty much just "yeah, maybe Chicago could still be a thing, too." K.C. Johnson reports the Bulls may seek a third team to complete a sign-and-trade should Melo desire to join them on the greatest salary possible. I wouldn't hate a sign-and-trade with the Bulls if that's what Melo wants. Not one bit.

But I digress, because even the notion of a sign-and-trade would be something and we are still deep in a sea of nothing. Here's where I remind myself that Melo's decision is difficult and might indeed be subject to vacillation, but a lot of the twists and inconsitences we see are due to the variety of reporters soliciting a variety of sources with a variety of agendas. There are reasons we hear New York is definitely the spot, then suddenly Los Angeles, then suddenly the Bulls back from the dead, and so on. Somewhere in there is Melo's actual thought process, but it's wrapped in layers of bullshit. 'Tis the season for bullshit-wrapping.

So we keep waiting. They say LeBron James will make his decision before he flies down to the World Cup final, and his decision might start the cascade, but we've already busted through several reported deadlines. I believe nothing. I don't even know if I'm me anymore.

Summer league soon! Read stingy's thing. Don't worry about this silliness.