Garden chaos starts to weigh on Melo
If only the Knicks could move the ball like they pass off responsibility. An entertaining game of Connect the Deniability emerges when you parse through the actions and quotes of the organization’s top figures over the last month, a timeline of contradictions and backwards logic that only contributes to the atmosphere of dysfunction.
Last week serves as a good starting point when Phil Jackson was asked about trading Carmelo Anthony.
“That’s entirely up to Carmelo. He has it in his contract, it’s part of our agreement with him,” Jackson said. “It’s, if you want to leave, you have the decision to leave. We don’t have that. That’s the contract we negotiated with him. So it’s in his lap.”
Well, not really. The Knicks have to decide to trade him, then negotiate and agree to a trade before Anthony waives his no-trade clause. So, first and foremost, it’s in Jackson’s lap. If the president already made up his mind about dealing Anthony, then this is headed toward an awkward standoff between star, highly-paid executive and impulsive owner.
What can ease the tension? Winning, of course, which is elusive in the Garden. Another (and related) way to appease the masses, including Anthony, is to add some starpower to the roster via free agency.
“It’s in their court, the ball is in their court,” Anthony said. “They have an opportunity, we have an opportunity to do something this offseason. We gotta do something. It’s there.”
Well, sort of. First of all, it’s not entirely “there” in the sense that the Knicks can just throw more money at the problem. They’re not going to have enough cap space to sign a max free agent in the summer, not unless Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams both opt out of their contracts and Jackson gets creative with the rest of the roster. It’s not like New York is a desirable destination for anybody chasing stability or a title, which at least partly falls on Anthony’s failures as the franchise player.
Just don’t tell Anthony the product stinks like the heckler during a loss to the Trailblazers about two weeks ago.
“All I did was point at (James) Dolan and told (the heckler), ‘Look, the owner’s right there. Ask for your money back,’” Anthony said. “He’s calling me and telling me he’s never coming to another game and we suck. Just don’t want to hear that. I pointed to the owner and told him, ‘You deal with that with him. Maybe you can get your money back.’”
Not going to happen. No refunds. And if you do have problems with ownership, Dolan made it clear in an email to a fan last season that he’d rather you support the Nets. (He’s playing the terrible alternative card).
So what did Dolan do after Anthony passed the blame to him? He made Anthony apologize.
“It was Mr. Dolan’s decision,” Anthony said about the statement released under his name, adding, “I don’t think I did anything wrong.” See what I’m talking about? It’s a circle of people throwing their hands in the air, shouting, “Don’t look at me! ” Here are some quick hitters:
l Derek Fisher, who missed a practice after getting into an altercation with Matt Barnes over his girlfriend, blames the media for the aftermath: “Some people - pa r t icu la rly certain members of the media - decided to take advantage of what had happened in my personal life.” (He forgot to blame the opposing teams for taking advantage of his coaching).
l Jackson, who hired Fisher when nobody else wanted Fisher, fired Fisher less than two seasons into his contract: “I felt Derek never got to a solid rotation throughout the course of the season. He couldn’t find guys who could produce besides Lance (Thomas) and Langston (Galloway) who could produce off the bench. And I felt that kept an uneven feel about how the team went and directed.”
l Amar’e Stoudemire, who was injuryplagued and underwhelming throughout most of his five-year, $100 million contract, blames “players” (looking at you, Carmelo) for ruining the potential he created: “It’s hard for me to watch from the outside looking in because I was so involved with creating a positive atmosphere around the Knicks. Now it’s gone the opposite way.”
l The Knicks, who’ve established this pattern of passing off responsibility, blame hackers for compromising Kurt Rambis’ Twitter account.
Taking ownership of dysfunction stinks, we get it. But it’s a step in recovery — one that this organization is just not about. It’s always the next guy’s fault, or the previous guy’s, or a Twitter hacker, or the media’s, or Anucha Browne Sanders’. And in that environment, one that is established at the top, nothing ever changes.