nO what if’s
Melo won’t allow himself to think ‘what if’ on Chicago
MELO wOn’t DwELL On ChanCE tO bE buLL
Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, “It might have been.”
A wise poet once proclaimed those words, but undoubtedly the layman believes the saddest phrase for the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony these days sounds like, “I coulda been a Bull! What have I done?”
The story has been welldocumented. Anthony hit free agency last summer and was the object of affection for numerous teams, Chicago included. But he chose to remain a Knick for five years and $124 million. Chicago only could offer four years at about $74 million, though had Anthony been able to get Knicks president Phil Jackson to do a signandtrade, he could have gotten significantly more.
But the Bulls could also offer Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and virtual assurances of the playoffs. The Knicks could also offer … well, bags to carry the money home.
So ever think “What if ?” Anthony said he doesn’t.
“No, if I start doing that and saying, ‘ What if ?’ to myself, secondguessing and questioning myself, it won’t be right. For me, mentally, it won’t be right so I will not allow myself to sway towards asking myself ‘What if ?’ with this situation or that situation,” Anthony said Wednesday in Tarrytown after the 522 Knicks practiced for Thursday’s meeting with the 159 Bulls in Chicago.
Just repeating a few points there: 522 Knicks, 159 Bulls.
“What’s done is done. I kind of don’t look at it, I kind of don’t think about it anymore,” Anthony said. “That’s in the past for me. … As far as now and thinking about that situation, it doesn’t even come close to me thinking about that.”
With good reason. He’d probably bash his skull against a wall. Yes, the Knicks are in the East where the scrawniest hot streak can mean contention. But reality says the Knicks are only 1 ½ games ahead of the say aprayer for them Sixers. Think lottery, not postseason.
And it’s not even Christmas. So Anthony grasps at the notion of better days professed by some.
“Conversations that’s been had, advice that’s been given,” Anthony said. “I’ve been around this league a long time. I have seen when things are bad and I have seen when things are good. Not this bad, but eventually everything turns around.
“If I don’t stay the course now, if I don’t believe and have faith in what we are trying to create in this whole journey, then I am fooling myself.”
So amid the horror, Anthony survives and stays sane believing in improvement. Through the draft. Through agency.
“You think about that,” Anthony said of the not yetarrived help. “It’s only right that you think about that. I don’t try to put too much thought into what’s going to happen when we still have [55] games left this season. For me to start thinking ahead of what the possibility is this offseason or next season, I just can’t find myself thinking like that [now].
“You just got to believe. I have never been a quitter in my life or in my career. It is something that you got to believe in, that it will happen and have faith that it will happen and stay the course and just know that this is not the situation that I expected, that we expected. There’s nothing that we can do about it as far as what has happened already. We got to focus on tomorrow.”
Bulls fans assuredly will be vocal, probably more jiltedsuitor nasty than warm.
“I am on the opposing team so obviously they got to do what they got to do,” Anthony said.
Coach Derek Fisher said he doesn’t believe Anthony will be affected by the atmosphere.
“He’s mature enough and has been in enough situations,” Fisher said. “As a human being, you have thoughts about your life and whether things could have gone a certain way. But part of being successful in this business is being able to table that stuff once the game starts. So in whatever way he does that I think he’ll do it and he’ll be ready to help us win [Thursday].”