#Carmelo Anthony ‘up in the air’ about joining Trail Blazers for NBA restart

Not all NBA players are thrilled about the restart plan in Orlando. One of them, Carmelo Anthony, isn’t sure he will take part in it.

“As far as actually playing and going back down into Orlando, I’m still up in the air a little bit because I really don’t, we don’t have all the details,” Anthony told TNT’s Ernie Johnson on #NBATogether. “We don’t know a lot of information, so until we have that, it’s hard to just commit to that 100 percent.”

The league is targeting a July 30 return, according to ESPN — a day earlier than originally planned — with 22 teams each playing eight regular-season games to determine the 16 playoff teams. The Trail Blazers are in a three-way tie for ninth place in the Western Conference. If they finish within four games of the eighth seed, it would set up a play-in scenario.

At the outset, players wouldn’t have their families with them at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports until after the first round of the playoffs. The league is planning to send safety guidelines by the end of the week, according to ESPN. Teams are expected to make their way to Orlando by the middle of July for training camps.

Anthony, the 36-year-old former Knicks forward and Syracuse star, is the first player to publicly say he has hesitations about going down to Orlando. Others are likely to follow, especially with the known cases of coronavirus rising in Florida.

Anthony had a strong year for Portland after being out of the league for nearly a year, starting 50 games and averaging 15.3 points per game on 43 percent shooting.