Zydrunas Ilgauskas Wants to Make Carmelo Anthony His Tenant

"Oof! You like granite countertops, CP3?"

​Big Z demands that you pay him two months in advance if you want to come into his house. That's not some strangled And 1 axiom. Zydrunas Ilgauskas-- the 7-foot-3 totem pole at the end of the Miami Heat bench-- has a beautiful townhouse he wants to rent you, Carmelo Anthony, and here he comes, lumbering across the hardwood court like the Iron Giant to tell you about it.

On Sunday, the New York Knicks beat the Heat in Miami. Big Z spent that entire game sitting on the bench. But during halftime, he approached Carmelo, the Knick's recent superstar acquisition from the Denver Nuggets, and pitched him on renting the Lithuanian native's $6.95 Manhattan townhouse. The low, low, monthly price: $37,500. Carmelo agreed to tour the apartment.

Big Z reportedly told Carmelo: "It's awesome, with five bedrooms."

A Zydrunas Ilgauskas quote! That hasn't happened in a while.

Big Z bought the 5,000-square-foot apartment, which has giant-accomodating 15-foot ceilings, in 2006. Yahoo! has more photos of the handsome-looking, if a bit narrow, spread, but we like the flick on the right the best, mostly because we enjoy imagining Big Z climbing one of those ladders to pluck out a well-thumbed copy of Who's Who in Supernaturally Tall Eastern European Centers.

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