STEFAN FATSIS: Hey, Robert.
SIEGEL: And there've been lots of rumors and reports of a potential Carmelo Anthony trade from Denver to the New Jersey Nets. And this is not a simple one- man-for-one-man trade they're talking about.
FATSIS: No, as reported it would involve three teams: The Nuggets, the Nets and the Detroit Pistons, and as many as 17 players plus various draft choices. This would be the biggest trade in the history of the NBA. The biggest trade before this involved five teams and 13 players. And if it happens, and it is not all clear that it will, the biggest logistical hurdle might be making sure that the teams having enough players while the new guys get their physicals and travel from their old club to their new club.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
FATSIS: But the Nets and their new owner, the flashy Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, they're desperate to make this trade. They want to use Carmelo Anthony as the centerpiece for a planned move to a new arena in Brooklyn in 2012.
SIEGEL: Yeah, but explain this: Denver is a good team this year. They have a record that, as of now, would get them into the playoffs. Why would you trade away your best player, Carmelo Anthony?
FATSIS: But it's more complicated in basketball. For the Nets to make this deal, they've got to make sure that Anthony is willing sign a contract extension, so that he doesn't just become a free agent anyway at the end of the year. And that does not appear to have happened yet.
NBA: Trades in the NBA are often more about accounting than they are competition, and because of the scope of this proposed deal, this one's kind of an accounting nightmare.
SIEGEL: OK. Let's turn ever so briefly to the actual game of basketball. Last night Carmelo Anthony helped the Nuggets do something that few teams have done lately, which was beat the Miami Heat.
FATSIS: Everyone who has been rooting against LeBron suddenly has been disappointed.
SIEGEL: But then he gave them more to root against in a post-game interview.
FATSIS: Yeah. He said that the team - that they're calling themselves the Heatles now, the Heatles. Not the Beatles, the Heatles. And he took a lot of grief for being self-aggrandizing, and he didn't who was John and who was Paul... (Soundbite of laughter) FATSIS: ...but LeBron did have a smile on his face. He did have a smile on his face when he said it, and I thought it was a funny bit of playground wordplay.
FATSIS: And the reference here is to Cavaliers' owner Dan Gilbert, who, after LeBron decided to leave Cleveland as a free agent, wrote that he was taking bad karma with him. And in this instance, LeBron came off as petty and insensitive, especially to his ex-teammates who have lost 21 of their last 22 games.
SIEGEL: Have a good weekend, Stefan.
FATSIS: Thank you, Robert.
SIEGEL: Stefan Fatsis, who talks with us on Fridays about sports and the business of sports.