After months of back-and-forth, rumors and demands, it all finally ended Monday night: Carmelo Anthony was traded from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks as part of a three-team, 12-player NBA blockbuster. Interestingly enough, the Boston Celtics, set to begin a four-game road trip Tuesday night, will play at Denver Thursday night.
The Knicks get Melo, Chauncey Billups, Renaldo Balkman, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter and Corey Brewer (via Minnesota Timberwolves).
The Nuggets get Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Timofey Mozgov and Raymond Felton, as well as the Knicks' 2014 first-round pick, two second-round picks and $3 million.
The Timberwolves get Anthony Randolph, Eddy Curry and $3 million.
So what did the Celtics get? Besides two of their final 28 games against a Knicks team that now features Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony (plus a potential playoff series).
The Celtics got their rivalry back with the Knicks, says ESPN Boston's Chris Forsberg.
So much was made in December about whether Celtics-Knicks was about to (finally) become a rivalry again. As Rivers is fond of noting, all it takes to reach that status is having two teams hellbent on winning the same prize and both having a realistic shot of achieving it. That's why the Celtics and Heat escalated to rivalry status in such a short time.
The same thing is about to happen with the Celtics and Knicks. So make room, Red Sox-Yankees and Patriots-Jets. The addition of Anthony just gave Boston and New York a new reason to hate each other.
Mar. 21 -- that's the next meeting between the Celtics and the new-look Knicks. In Madison Square Garden, of course.