Carmelo Anthony spoke about his decision to return to the Knicks

For the first real time-- like not just answering off-hand questions while preparing to play soccer-- Carmelo Anthony gave an interview regarding his decision to stay with the Knicks on a 5-year, $124 million deal. The whole ESPN article is here. A few selections:

"I want to win. I don't care about the money," Anthony told ESPN.com. "I believe Phil will do what he has to do to take care of that.

"I don't think we're that far away," he added. "People use 'rebuilding' too loosely."

"I was flip-flopping," he admitted. "It was hard. It was Chicago, but then after I met with L.A., it was L.A. But it came back to Chicago -- and was pretty much always Chicago or New York. That's a situation where I could have walked in now to an opportunity to compete for the next however many years."

That was actually a bit illuminating. For one, Melo confirmed that the back-and-forth rumors throughout the last couple weeks were not the product of competing leaks and questionable sources but genuine indecision on his part. For two, Melo doesn't seem to mind that saying he would take less money "without a doubt," then signing a contract a trifle below the mega-max, then proclaiming "I don't care about the money" looks kinda silly.

He's a Knick now, his contract is what is contract is, and I've moved on from all the doubt, but...there you go. There's what Melo has to say about his decision. Sounds like he went through some doubt of his own.