All eyes will be on Carmelo Anthony on Monday night and many ears will be listening to what he says pregame and to hear what kind of reaction he gets from the Prudential Center crowd.

Anthony never came out and said he didn’t want to play for the Nets, only the Knicks. But that seems to be the belief because of things that have been written and said throughout this long, drawn-out process that many think officially came to an end when Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov instructed management to back out of talks for Anthony.

Believe what you want about whether the Nets are in or out. My feeling is they’re out until Denver brings them back in – with Prokhorov’s approval, of course.

There remains the chance that Anthony will re-sign with the Nuggets. They have the sixth-best record in the West and 11th in the NBA and they haven’t been healthy all season.

Other than Anthony wanting to be in a bigger city, it’s hard to understand why he would leave Denver. But one thing everyone could agree upon is it’s doubtful he will not sign an extension and look for a new deal in free agency.

Anthony will get max money, but not the three years and $65 million that’s on the table from Denver and what the Nets were willing to give him. In the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, salaries, annual percentage increases and years of contracts are expected to go down. Anthony isn’t going to risk that. He’s going to sign an extension.

That brings us back to the Nets’ situation. This has been misplayed by many parties from the beginning, including Anthony.

He knows the situation the Nets have.

They have the richest owner, are moving to Brooklyn within two years and have a quality center in Brook Lopez. They also have flexibility, cap space and draft picks that could help them make other moves and improve the roster in a hurry.

But what Anthony wanted from the Nets was a sit down. He wanted to be treated like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and the rest of last summer’s free agents. He wanted the presentation, the wooing and the promises of the Nets’ universe revolving around him.

That meeting is part of the reason the Nets and Nuggets are where they are in this process – not talking as I write this, but that always could change. The trade deadline is still 25 days away.

The meeting was never firmly set.  That, and the way all of the negotiations played out in public, and Denver repeatedly asking the Nets to take more, led to Prokhorov saying enough is enough.

From the Nuggets’ standpoint, they are doing everything they can to make sure they’re making the right deal for their franchise player. You can’t fault them for that.

But they have pushed the envelope, seeing how much more they could squeeze out of the Nets because they knew how desperate they were to get a superstar and franchise player. They already proposed a huge, 14-to-16 player three-team deal, were willing to give up multiple draft picks, some good young players (Devin Harris, Anthony Morrow, Derrick Favors), expiring contracts and take back some multi-year deals. But the Nuggets kept asking for more.

The Nuggets may not find as good a deal and may dial Billy King’s number before the Feb. 24 trade deadline.

But all of this Melo-Drama has had residual effects.

The Nets were so convinced that something was going to get done that they told Troy Murphy to stay home to await their call. Murphy remains away from the Nets as they continue to try and find a landing spot for him. The Pistons de-activated Richard Hamilton, who would have come to the Nets for Murphy and Johan Petro, because they believed a deal was close.

It’s incredible that one man who has won just two playoff series in his seven-year career could cause all of this.

But the time finally has arrived for Anthony to step foot in the Prudential Center, the building the Nets wished he would call home until they moved to Brooklyn. This could be his only time in Newark or maybe not.

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Follow me on Twitter: @Al_Iannazzone

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Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)