New York Knicks: Carmelo Anthony Has No One To Blame But Himself

What exactly did Carmelo Anthony expect the New York Knicks to do on NBA Draft night? We don’t know. Neither did he, obviously

What exactly did Carmelo Anthony expect to happen on draft night? I have absolutely no idea.

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And I’m not confident he even knew, either.

The New York Knicks are in a weird place where they’re trying to win now and rebuild at the same time. They re-signed Carmelo Anthony, 31, to a $124 million contract last offseason, with the belief that they wouldn’t be contending anytime soon.

And the fact that this team was gutted from talent — with the exception of Melo — during this past season only echoed that thought. Melo was there. He saw the trades that went down. He was watching when the Knicks were tanking game after game — losing more than they had ever lost in the history of their franchise. He had no problem with the fact that he was collecting big-time checks for playing less than half the season.

He had no problem with all that, apparently.

He does now though, after the New York Knicks rolled the dice with a player that has been classified by some as a “once in a lifetime” talent. I mean, what exactly did Carmelo Anthony expect on draft night?

Did he assume that one of the two can’t-miss prospects — Karl-Anthony Towns or D’Agnelo Russell — was going to fall to them at 4? Or perhaps that Jahlil Okafor’s representatives were going to able to talk their way away from Philadelphia right into Phil Jackson‘s lap in New York?

He couldn’t have. But somehow, in his mind, he was mislead and hoodwinked by Phil Jackson.

"[via ESPN New York]New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony expressed displeasure Thursday night with team president Phil Jackson’s decision to draft Kristaps Porzingis, league sources confirmed to ESPN.Anthony, in a phone conversation with former teammate Tim Hardaway Jr., who was traded to the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday, questioned Jackson’s decision to select the 19-year-old Porzingis due to the possibility that he may not be ready to contribute immediately, sources said.…SPN’s Stephen A. Smith said Friday that people around Anthony said he was “furious” with Jackson’s decision.“I [was] talking to my sources last night. All they said was, he’s furious, he’s livid. He feels completely hoodwinked and betrayed by Phil Jackson,” Smith said on SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio. “He feels like he was lied to, like he was sold a bill of goods. And he’s willing to concede that he wanted his money. But he didn’t know it was going to be like this. He didn’t know it was going to be this bad. And he can’t believe that his second season under the Phil Jackson regime, he has to look forward to it being worse than even last year was.”"

I’m not really exactly sure why Melo is so upset with the New York Knicks. After all, what exactly did he expect when he re-signed in New York last summer. He knew this was going to be a rebuilding process, or perhaps the $124 million figure on the contract he was signing was blinding him from reality.

Did he assume that as soon as he re-signed with the Knicks that they were simply going to grow actual talent in their backyard? It doesn’t work that way in the NBA.

Unless you’re Pat Riley, who simply gets ALL THE FREE AGENTS.

Still, Melo needs to look in the mirror and get over his own doing. He chose money over winning last summers — something that he has constantly done over the course of his career. This is nothing new — and the Knicks are OK with that. It was OK with Melo, too

Now things have changed, apparently. And it wasn’t the Knicks.

Next: Hornets chose Frank Kaminsky over mega-deal from Boston

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