The New Jersey Nets emerged from the weekend expecting to get a chance to pitch Carmelo Anthony on signing an extension with the team if they acquire him, but that meeting has not been set up Monday and might not happen, sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein.
A three-way trade between the Nets, Denver Nuggets and Detroit Pistons has been in the works for some time, but it hinges on Anthony agreeing to a three-year, $65 million extension with New Jersey. Not only has Anthony not indicated that he would be amenable to the extension, he also said on Sunday night that he has no knowledge of a proposed Tuesday or Wednesday meeting or any desire to have one.
"I don't want to talk to nobody," Anthony told reporters in San Antonio. "I let the front office handle that type of stuff. It ain't my job to be talking to New Jersey, New York, the Lakers, Dallas, no one. That's not my job to do."
ESPN.com reported Friday that the league office would have no issue with a sitdown, since it does not regard such contact to be tampering as long as the Nuggets have given the Nets clearance to speak directly to Anthony.
"The team owns [Anthony's] contract," one league source said of the Nuggets. "They can do what they want."
"That's news to me," Anthony said of speaking directly to New Jersey. "I can't talk to them people. The Denver Nuggets still pay me."
When informed by the assembled reporters that the league approves of such contact as long as the Nuggets grant permission, Anthony added: "Y'all have to ask [Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri] about that, because me personally, I don't think he gave anyone permission to talk to me about anything."
The Nuggets declined comment Sunday and Monday. Nets coach Avery Johnson, before Monday's game in Golden State, told reporters that he had not yet been informed by Nets general manager Billy King that a meeting had been scheduled and would expect to be notified when a meeting is arranged so he can attend.
"You guys always have something new every day," Johnson told reporters. "If there's such a meeting taking place, make sure you guys contact [Nets spokesman] Gary Sussman so I can make sure I make myself available."
The Nets have lost five straight and 10 of 11 coming into the game against the Warriors.
"What I want to do is try to get a win," Johnson said. "We're 0-3 on this trip and we've come close in a few of those games. Right now, my job is to coach. ... I'm trying to keep our players locked in."
Although two sources with knowledge of Denver's thinking stressed again Sunday and Monday that no trade is imminent, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov's anticipated sitdown with Anthony -- or Anthony's refusal to accept his invitation -- figures to bring a resolution to the Nets' interest in the star forward one way or the other. The Russian billionaire was scheduled to arrive in the States from Moscow before the Nets' game Wednesday against Utah, which is "Russian Culture Night" at the team's temporary home in Newark, N.J.
The reported deal would reunite former Piston Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton in New Jersey along with Anthony. New Jersey would send rookie power forward Derrick Favors, point guard Devin Harris and others to Denver in the deal that would get them Anthony, Billups, Hamilton, Shelden Williams and Terrico White, who is injured.
The Pistons would receive veteran Troy Murphy and center Johan Petro. Murphy has a nearly $12 million contract that will expire after this season.
Johnson said reports that the overhaul was imminent were inaccurate.
"You'll see the same team again on Wednesday," he said. "I guess we were supposed to have a new team on Wednesday but that didn't happen."
Marc Stein covers the NBA for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.