Carmelo Anthony deserved better from the New York Knicks

Carmelo Anthony deserved better from the New York Knicks

Carmelo Anthony deserved better from the New York Knicks
NBA

Carmelo Anthony deserved better from the New York Knicks

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He had his flaws, but the Knicks shoulder most of the blame for his six-year tenure not fulfilling its promise.

I remember exactly where I was the night Carmelo Anthony broke the record.

I was at a bar called Stillwater Tavern in Hampton, Va., where I did my undergrad years. While my friends were ordering drinks, I was watching Melo go to work against the Bobcats on a cold winter night in January. I was obsessed with the Knicks back then. I still am.

Eventually, everyone saw what I saw: Melo was absolutely unstoppable. All he needed was a hair of space to get his shot up, and God bless the defender who bit on his jab step. Anthony finished with 62 points, breaking Bernard King’s longstanding 61-point record and Kobe Bryant’s 60-point mark for the most points ever scored at Madison Square Garden.

For as long as I live, that’ll be part of Carmelo Anthony I remember.

Now, Anthony is no longer a Knick.

If you’re a New York fan, Melo’s exit is equal parts confusing and concerning.

Six years ago, the Knicks moved heaven and Earth to land a player then regarded as the NBA’s most feared inside-outside scorer. They sent Denver virtually an entire starting lineup — Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov and three draft picks — for Anthony, Chauncey Billups, and Anthony Carter. The deal produced New York’s only 50-win season this century, which temporarily brought the Knicks out of the doldrums that plagued them for nearly a decade.

Melo was supposed to retire a Knick. He was supposed to bring New York to the doorstep of its first championship since 1973. He was supposed to make being a Knick fun again. He was supposed to make being a Knicks fan fun again.

None of those things happened. Six years after that blockbuster deal, a lukewarm one ended the era — Anthony to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 second-round pick. He was pushed out the door by a franchise that used his prime to sell tickets, but never thought to strategically put the pieces around him to compete for a championship.

Like a parasite, New York sapped Melo of his best years, then kicked him to the curb, flipping him for the best possible offer. With two more years on his contract in the stacked Western Conference, odds are Anthony never wins the championship he desires.

Let’s get real for a second: Carmelo Anthony wasn’t without flaws.

I’d be remiss not to mention how often my blood boiled when he held onto the ball for eight seconds before jabbing, side-stepping, and shooting a flat mid-range J. The league outgrew that move and Melo couldn’t even hit it with the same regularity, but he kept trying. Miss or make, the Garden crowd held its breath when Anthony held the ball for longer than three seconds.

I’d be remiss not to mention how many defensive assignments Melo botched and how many game-winning or game-saving jump shots he missed in the second half of his Knicks career.

I’d be especially remiss not to mention how he couldn’t adjust his game to play alongside Amar’e Stoudemire. We’ll never know what that team could have been had those two meshed on the court.

In total, New York finished 207-269 in Melo’s full six seasons with the Knicks. They won only one of four playoff series and missed the postseason each of the past four years.

That’s all part of the Carmelo Anthony I, and most Knicks fans, will remember, too.

Offensively, Melo was — and still is — in a class of his own. His flaws were his flaws, but New York knew what those flaws were when they traded an arm and a leg for him. They got an all-world scorer who had only been to the conference finals once. He leaves New York an all-world scorer who has only been to the conference finals once.

But as much as you might want to blame Melo — his ball-stopping tendencies, lack of effort on defense, and an ostensibly nonchalant approach to winning basketball games — these last six years are (mostly) not his fault.

They’re the Knicks’ fault, first and foremostWhen New York’s 54-win team missed the playoffs the following season, the front office didn’t look for ways to get better. They brought Phil Jackson in to blow the team up. That should have been Melo’s cue to leave town and never look back.

Instead, Anthony signed on for five more years with a president who would sleep through a prospect’s pre-draft workouts. That president sold a false dream of a culture change in New York and gave his coaches little-to-no wiggle room to adjust his famed triangle offense to adapt with the changing times. He blanketed the Knicks with his read-and-react system no one but Sasha Vujacic wanted to play. He brought in three different coaches and bulldozed everything built around Anthony in his first three years in New York.

Jackson demolished the Knicks roster, built it back up, and demolished it again. Only an 11-time NBA champion would be allowed to do that three times before ownership had enough.

Shane Larkin, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, Alexey Shved, Samuel Dalembert, Travis Wear, Pablo Prigioni, Ricky Ledo, Cleanthony Early, Langston Galloway, Andrea Bargnani, Lou Amundson, Quincy Acy, Jason Smith, Lance Thomas, and — ah, how could I forget — Cole Aldrich, with a rookie head coach in Derek Fisher. Those were the players Knicks management surrounded Anthony and an aging, battered Stoudemire with when they posted a franchise-worst 17-65 record in 2014. It didn’t get much better from there.

In total, Melo had 72 different teammates during his time in New York. Seventy-two. Of those 72 players, only Tyson Chandler made an All-Star team during the same season as Anthony.

Give credit where credit is due: Anthony stayed professional until the end.

There were no media outbursts, no alternate social media accounts roasting his coaches or teammates. Even when Jackson publicly cast aspersions on the weaknesses in Melo’s game, the most he did in response was post a meme on Instagram.

That’s why Anthony’s tenure and subsequent exit is equal parts confusing and concerning. The Knicks couldn’t put the right pieces around Melo to turn a solid core into a legitimate contender. Now, they’re going to try their hand at putting the right pieces around Kristaps Porzingis, Frank Ntilikina, and Tim Hardaway Jr.

Don’t hold your breath.

On Dec. 16, Carmelo Anthony will return to Madison Square Garden as an opponent for the first time since 2011. I’ll expect nothing but a standing ovation from the MSG crowd. Because in spite of his visible weaknesses, he remained strong in one area: Melo only ever wanted to win in New York.

Somewhere along the line, New York stopped believing it could win with Melo.