Dallas reporter calls out Mavericks fans for not welcoming Carmelo Anthony

New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony is making the rounds on free agency, having made stops in Chicago with the Bulls and visiting with the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. Fans and reporters have camped out of arenas to see Anthony walk into and out of a building, but in Dallas it is a different scene.

Mavericks fans aren’t camping outside of American Airlines Center awaiting Anthony’s arrival. Fort Worth Star-Telegram Mavericks beat writer Dwain Price doesn’t understand it and called out Mavericks fans on Twitter.

The scene Price is referring to is the watch party hosted by Major League Soccer team FC Dallas for the United States’ World Cup game against Belgium, which looked like this:

Of course there are multiple reasons besides the extreme heat in Dallas for Mavericks fans not to camp out, but let’s first start with the Jason Kidd comparison. Kidd did not sign with the Spurs so the parade didn’t work, and multiple Mavericks fans pointed this out on Twitter, including myself. In a direct message Price told me “He was coming. The wife he had at the time nixed that deal. She was a model and wanted to be in New York.”

Perhaps Price is unaware of Anthony’s famous wife who prefers to stay in New York City as well.

On to the reasons why Price’s questioning of Mavericks is way off base. For starters, at the time of his posts Anthony was still in Houston. Note the time of Price’s tweets and this post from Marc Stein at the end of the Rockets meeting.

It corresponds with Fox 26 in Houston’s Mark Berman’s Tweets about Dwight Howard’s post-meeting comments from Dwight Howard and Clyde Drexler.

Aside from that, the Mavericks are reportedly not even meeting with Anthony at the Americans Airlines Center, at least according to ESPN Dallas’ Tim MacMahon and the Dallas Morning News‘ Eddie Sefko.

So hear that Mavericks fans? Go stand outside the American Airlines Center in 91-degree heat for a meeting that isn’t even occurring there. [UPDATE:] It was suggested Price could be kidding, I asked and have had no response yet.