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While the world has finally been spared from the incessant “Where’s Carmelo going” talk, one has to wonder where are all the Knicks jerseys featuring Anthony’s name and number? Currently, and granted, this will change drastically by tomorrow (or tonight, even), there’s absolutely nothing about the Carmelo Anthony trade anywhere on the official site for the Knicks, nor at their online store, either. The reason this is met with some surprise when you compare the NBA’s reaction time to the NFL’s — that is, an hour in relation to Brett Favre being traded to the New York Jets — the lack of Anthony jerseys is somewhat surprising.

Maybe the Knicks organization doesn’t want to believe the news is true.

One thing there isn’t a lack of, however, is an avalanche of analysis concerning the Carmelo-to-the-Knicks trade, something the Google News timeline demonstrates quite nicely:

More on Carmelo’s trade after the jump >>

In light of the Shaq-to-Cleveland-to-entice-LeBron-to-stay trade, here’s a little celebratory dance number, provided by King and the Big Aristotle himself. Is this the kind of pregame activities we can expect from Cleveland’s new duo? Better yet, will Shaq’s “I’m staying in the paint” mentality actually make it harder for LeBron to get to the rim, seeing how Shaq’s man will probably always be close, potentially clogging the lane?

That, my friends, is another question for another day. For now, lets just enjoy the two dancing machines in action.

Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy professional basketball without all that San Antonio boredom, guess what? The Spurs have heard your complaints and have responded with a hearty, “We don’t care. We are improving our team to make another title run (or two) and you just have to deal with our ‘boring’ style of play.” This particular announcement was made when the Spurs acquired Richard Jefferson from the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for every expiring contract they had, apparently. While the move does leave the San Antonio front line a little sparse, the move immediately improves the talent level of the starters.

A celebratory gif jump >>

After a nice bounce-back-from-Mike-Vick season, the Atlanta Falcons are not content to simply stay the course. Yes, Matt Ryan revitalized the team, and their offense was quite productive. Now, thanks to acquiring Tony Gonzalez (for a second-round pick in 2010) from the determined-to-rebuild Kansas City Chiefs, it could very well move from “productive” to “awfully explosive.” Anytime you add a tight end of Tony Gonzalez’ caliber, your good offense could easily move to the great category, especially if he has the type of season he had during his last year with the offensively-challenged Chiefs: 96 catches, 1058 yards, 10 touchdowns.

Keep in mind, Gonzalez’ Pro-Bowl level production was done on the 24th-ranked offense in the league. Can a player like Matt Ryan add a couple of seasons worth of life and production to Gonzalez’ career, one that will go down as one of the best careers by a tight end, perhaps ever? Gonzalez indicates that’s certainly a possibility, and if his production stays at the high level we’re used to seeing, it could/should be longer.

Conversely, will Gonzalez be enough for the Falcons to go from a “nice, up-and-coming” team into a Super Bowl contender? Considering the NFC, and the fact a team like the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals can make the Big Game, don’t be surprised if the Falcons are fighting for the same designation — that is, NFC Super Bowl representative — in December.

Needless to say, not all Kansas City Chiefs fans are not happy with the decision, although, the numbers are not quite as high as I would expect. Perhaps Chiefs fans have become more accepting of their rebuilding fate. On the other hand, the following tweet from a Chiefs fan I know says something different — well, the ending hash tag does, anyway:

“…and the chiefs trade tony gonzalez http://kl.am/3mc #asshats“

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got a new offensive solider today when they traded for Cleveland Browns tight end, Kellen Winslow, Jr. As compensation, the Browns receive some undisclosed draft picks, something Eric Mangini surely covets. Additional picks will certainly help him as he builds the team in his image — although, was trading a franchise-level tight end the way to go? As a reward for his time in Cleveland, Winslow, Jr. will now be catching passes from an inexperienced Luke McCown.

I’m left wondering how that little detail hit the Solider from the U? Is McCown somehow more accomplished than Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson?

Welcome to Motown, Allen. I’m not really sure where you fit with this team, but if the move was made strictly for salary cap issues, then it’s understandable. If not, who knows. If Joe Dumars and Michael Curry expect the shooting-guard-trapped-in-a-point-guard’s-body to run the team, maybe they haven’t been paying attention. Iverson will certainly shoot the ball, although I’m not sure if he’ll make Rip, Tayshaun, Rasheed and the others better players.

As for Denver, it’s just about a flip-flop: the move makes sense on the court, but it doesn’t when it comes to salary management. Having a true point guard like Chauncey Billups with scorers like Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith should make the offense run smoother, although, I’m not sure if Denver is going to stop any of their opponents from scoring.

More NBA stuff after the jump >>

The rudimentary image above me is harbinger of things to come — meaning, Brett Favre has been traded to the New York J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets. Considering where the story was initially headed (Tampa Bay), this is somewhat of a surprise. As of now, the compensation is expected to be a draft pick based on the performance of the Jets this upcoming season.

What does this do in the way of the AFC East? Can the newly Favre’d Jets knock off the Patriots? Do the Jets have the weapons to do so? Is this necessarily a better team than the Packers would’ve been with Brett? Hopefully, the trade will put Favre/Green Bay soap opera to bed.

Of course, we now have the impending New York media blitz to deal with, but at least it’s a new chapter. More tomorrow.

No, this little event is not exactly a “sports upset” per se, but the news Santana would be leaving the Twin Cities certainly was upsetting, especially for one particular blogger. Santana was traded to the New York Mets yesterday and pending the acceptance of a long-term contract, it looks like Johan has pitched his last game in Minnesota as the Twins fell victim to Major League Baseball’s business as usual method.

Because of some unfortunate labor agreements, smaller market teams like the Twins (who were once asked to be contracted, lest we forget) are having a hard time keeping their “home grown” stars when said star gets close to free agency. The idea, because these “lesser” franchises don’t have the disposable income the big market teams do, is to trade these stars before their free agent period in order to get some value in return.

And that’s exactly what happened with Santana and the Twins. However, did the Twins get anything in return for trading MLB’s best pitcher? No, not really. Over at Babes Love Baseball, Sooze has a great write-up on the prospects the Mets had to give up for Santana and to put it mildly, she doesn’t seem that impressed:

Wait… who? Exactly. Congratulations, Mets fans. Apparently, Bill Smith was bribed threatened convinced that those four — a motley crew, as Mel called them — added up to one Johan Santana. Let’s just say I hope there’s some cash thrown into the mix, and at least the Twins will only have to face him during Interleague Play.

As you can see, the excitement is overwhelming. At Twins Geek, there’s much more in this vein:

The package that the Twins got from the Mets illustrates this. Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber and Kevin Mulvey are duplicates of half of a dozen pitchers in the Twins organization. Deolis Guerra might be special, but hasn’t made it anywhere near the upper levels of the minors. And it isn’t clear that Carlos Gomez, who headlines the package, is a significantly better prospect than Jason Pridie. He’s certainly not someone that Twins can count on before 2009.

So what does this do for the Mets? Are they now the favorite to come out of the National League? Well, if they can avoid season-ending collapses… If you looking for reactions from Mets fans, check out the MetsBlog and the NY Post’s Mets blog.

As for me, this little episode personifies why I’m still at odds with MLB. Smaller franchises shouldn’t have to be punished just because a prospect came up from the organizational ranks and turned out to be a stud, only to ship him off the market with the most money.