Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov said today his team is no longer interested in pursuing Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony.
"There comes a time when the price is simply too expensive," he said during a news conference in New Jersey this afternoon. "I'm instructing our team to walk away from the deal."
Prokhorov said his meeting with Anthony, which was tentatively set for Thursday, is canceled.
"It's been too long and too expensive," he said of the trade talks which have dragged on for months.
When asked if that was a final decision, he responded, "for sure."
"It's my own decision," Prokhorov said. "(The Nuggets) had a very good proposal. They probably did their best to protect their interests."
Asked if the fact that Anthony would not commit to signing a contract extension to join the Nets was a deciding factor in walking away from the deal, Prokhorov said, "I never met with Carmelo and I never spoke with him. Maybe he sent me an email, but I didn't see it. Or maybe the carrier pigeon got lost."
He added: "I never received any negative information. But there was no direct information. It's my feeling of strategy."
Prokhorov spoke at a news conference after arriving on his private jet from Russia.
When asked if he'd spoken with the Nuggets to tell them the deal was dead, he said: "No. You're the first to know."
Asked if the deal would remain undone, even if the Nuggets returned with a counter-offer and Anthony said he would sign long-term with the Nuggets, Prokhorov said:
"I was absolutely clear on this matter."
Nets general manager Billy King said of the Nets' decision: "We discussed it and this is what (Prokhorov) he came up with. It was his idea."
King said he sent a message to the Nuggets while Prokhorov was speaking to the media: "I haven't got a text back."
Asked what was most frustrating about the trade process with the Nuggets, King said: "Everything."
"It was just, the process was different," King said. "(The Nuggets) had an ownership takeover, new managment. It was the perfect storm for something to go wrong. ... This time, it took a life of its own."
King said he wasn't "startled" by Prokhorov's deicision. "There were times in my mind that I thought 'enough was enough,' " King said.
King added: "There were a lot of names thrown out there, every player on our roster except Brooks (Lopez). ... Hearing your name bantered around every day, whether it's true or not, is not a good part of the business."
Anthony never talked with the Nets, King said.
"We never talked to him. We got permission, but never did."
Read more: Carmelo Anthony trade to New Jersey is dead, Nets owner says - The Denver Post
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Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Wednesday, January 19th 2011 at 7:18PM
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