How much was Anthony to blame for trouble with the New York Knicks?
It would be an unfair assessment to say that Carmelo Anthony failed to achieve some of what he set out to do when he strong-armed his way to New York in February 2011, 6½ seasons ago. First, he established a much-desired, big-city brand, a level of celebrity Denver could not provide. Better than that, he joined, even led, a generation of NBA stars willing to share a social-conscience response to these tumultuous American times by rejecting the play-it-safe ethos embraced a quarter-century ago by Michael Jordan for the benefit of selling basketball shoes.
Long before Colin Kaepernick took a knee, Anthony was standing up, marching against police and gun violence in April 2015 in Baltimore, his troubled hometown. As my New York Times colleague Michael Powell wrote months later: “Carmelo Anthony carries an often unfair reputation as the jejune hoop star, the man with a smile almost too soft and a manner too easy. Yeah, well, let’s give him credit where due.”
Duly noted as New York bids adieu to Anthony, another in a conga line of supposed Knicks saviors, now on his way to
Oklahoma City to join Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Better very late than never that Anthony has come to the realization that star partnership has become the NBA rage, the sharing of the spotlight with a collective security blanket.
His staunchest defenders say it’s not Anthony’s fault that the Knicks were, for almost all of his time in New York, subverted by the ownership dysfunction overseen by James L. Dolan. That the Knicks could never empower him with the co-star or stars he needed to legitimately compete in the Eastern Conference against, above all, LeBron James.
Well, let’s give discredit where due as well. Back when Anthony was using the Nets’ lust for him to leverage the Knicks — specifically Dolan — into surrendering a mountain of assets to land him, Anthony completely missed the memo that said procuring the elusive, best-case location for your talents required patience, sacrifice and the understanding that players of his caliber will always get theirs.
James and Chris Bosh had largely set that new standard the previous summer, joining Dwyane Wade in Miami and microwaving a title contender and eventual two-time champion. Rather than use unrestricted free agency to join the Knicks and allow them to retain those precious assets that might later have been used to bring him a James Harden, or a Chris Paul, as a teammate, Anthony worried about the fallout of a coming player lockout.
He forced the trade to the Knicks and got his long-term deal, in what Howard Beck of Bleacher Report called the “Original Sin.” So yes, Anthony got paid, but the manipulation of the process cost him dearly when Amar’e Stoudemire, who had preceded Anthony in New York, broke down physically. With the exception of the later, and brief, Jeremy Lin phenomenon, which Anthony rebelled against, he was left as the Knicks’ lone star and miscast leader.
It is difficult to pinpoint the qualities, those special talents of body and mind, that allow the most prolific franchise players to straddle the very fine line between being the obvious alpha dog and also being one of five in dedicated team concert.
“There’s no question that he wants to win, and his IQ for the game is actually very good,” George Karl told me in a conversation about Anthony during the 2013-14 season, when the Knicks faltered and missed the playoffs, leading to the hiring of Phil Jackson as team president. “He always wants to think like a coach, but he always doesn’t want to sign the contract with the coach.”
Asked what he meant by that, Karl, who coached Anthony in Denver, said: “I don’t think Melo understands that coming to work with the best attitude every single day is a precious commodity when you’re the best player. That’s not the same thing as playing hard. That’s bringing the total package, 100 percent focused on all the little things. Those are rare breeds.”
For all the talk of how professional he was during Jackson’s psychological warfare to pressure him into waiving the notrade clause (and erase Jackson’s negotiating error), Anthony has, season after season, seemed to revel in attention related to his possible departures and potential destinations.
He was a willing and selfmade distraction, if not an actual prima donna.
Though he will face enhanced competition in the Western Conference, including the mighty Golden State Warriors, Anthony appears to have landed in an enviable spot with the Thunder, who are powered by Westbrook and enhanced by George, a pair of two-way talents who are backed up on the interior by the rugged center, Steven Adams.
His ego having submitted to age, injury and insult, Anthony, 33, can simply focus on scoring the ball, what he was born and nurtured to do.
The Knicks, again dealing without leverage, as was the case in 2011, will add Turkish center Enes Kanter, an offensively adept big man with poor defensive habits who is best known for a frightening falling out with his country’s government; the jumpshooting Doug McDermott; and a second-round draft pick.
For every argument to trade Anthony, there was a logical one to keep him. But after struggling to quit New York for so long, he was ready to move on, and the Knicks’ new management tandem of team president Steve Mills and general manager Scott Perry was dying to declare the dawning of a new day.
Thus a marriage born of a money grab and a meddlesome owner died of battle fatigue. RIP, Carmelo Anthony era.