Many hats rest on the head of retired NBA player and Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Carmelo Anthony. Anthony is a studio analyst on the rebooted NBA on NBC’s broadcast team and also the host of his own podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony.
In an episode of Anthony’s podcast released on May 27, 2026, Anthony briefly explained why he chose not to join the Chicago Bulls, presumably during the Bulls' famous 2014 NBA free agency campaign to sign Anthony as an unrestricted free agent. Clip disclaimer - NSFW language.
Perhaps out of a diplomatic motivation to not name names, Anthony framed his reasoning for not signing with the Bulls, as an unrestricted free agent, as a matter of acting on justified advice to avoid a deteriorating Bulls franchise situation. Even before the summer of 2014 arrived, the Bulls had already unceremoniously traded a cornerstone of their 2011 Eastern Conference Finals team in two-time NBA All-Star wing Luol Deng.
Subsequently, rumors would become public about a rift between then-Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau and the Bulls' front office, helmed at the time by John Paxson as vice president of basketball operations and Gar Forman as general manager. Oh, and Melo’s vision ties all together when we remember how Carlos Boozer finished his Bulls tenure.
The Bulls' two-season soap opera from 2013 to 2015
In a move fitting for a Chicago January in 2014, the Bulls traded Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a return of draft picks and a salary dump of center Andrew Bynum’s contract, with prompt reporting that the Bulls and Deng were unable to agree to terms on a contract extension beyond the final year of his second Bulls contract that paid Deng $71M over six years.
Ripple-effect reports of a deteriorating relationship between Thibodeau and the Bulls’ front office emerged in the aftermath of trading Deng, which would color a Bulls cold war that ultimately resolved in the Bulls' firing Thibodeau at the conclusion of the following 2014-15 NBA season.
The prospective optics of Carlos Boozer suffering the fate of the fabled NBA amnesty clause of the 2010’s likely didn’t influence Anthony to ignore advice to avoid joining the Bulls. On Jul 15, 2014, the Bulls waived Boozer using the amnesty provision of that era’s NBA-NBPA collective bargaining agreement, which removed the final year of Boozer’s salary from the Bulls' salary cap.
A history lesson for Bryson Graham
The Bulls’ head coach and front office conflict between 2013 and 2015 cost the Bulls a prime free agent win in signing Carmelo Anthony and likely has sullied the franchise’s ability to win any top-billing prime free agent since that saga concluded. The Bulls' current front office principal, Bryson Graham, is right to run a wide-ranging head coach search because he can’t afford to hire a coach that isn’t aligned with his long-term vision for rebuilding the Bulls franchise.
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