The sad legacy of Carmelo Anthony as a New York Knick
Carmelo Anthony is finally, mercifully – for all parties involved – gone. His New York Knicks legacy has as much to do with what he wasn’t as what he was
Game 6, 2013 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Indiana led New York three games to two. The Pacers, at one point up a dozen in the third, looked primed to blow the game open. Carmelo Anthony had other ideas.
The New York Knicks star, fresh off a season in which he trailed only LeBron James and Kevin Durant in MVP voting, kept New York in it. He hit five of six shots and all four of his free throws for 15 points in the penultimate quarter.
Before they knew it, the Pacers were staring at a Game 7 in MSG. With just over five minutes left, New York had come back to take a two-point lead. The momentum was theirs.
Anthony had a chance to make it a two possession game in the Knicks’ favor for the first time all night. The narrative that had been building for over two and a half years was about to reach its zenith.
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Melo’s new teammate Paul George, fresh off being named to the All-Defensive 2nd Team, was guarding him just inside the right corner. Just as Pablo Prigioni dumps the ball into Anthony, George half-lunges for the steal. He doesn’t get it, and Anthony turns to find a clear path to the rim awaiting him.
What happened next would not only be the defining on-court moment in his career as a Knick – a career that now comes to an end with a trade to the Oklahoma City Thunder – but will forever serve as a microcosm of his time in New York.
As Anthony drove baseline, Roy Hibbert – a monster all series – came over to challenge the shot. In the process he left his man wide open. That player was alley-oop maven and the season’s leader in true shooting percentage, Tyson Chandler.
Carmelo never looked his way.
As Melo approached the basket, every fan’s dream played out in front of them. Their guy – the one who wanted to come when no one else did – was going to throw it down. The Knicks would take care of business at home, and be back in the conference finals for the first time since Patrick Ewing wore orange and blue. You couldn’t have scripted a better moment.
Anthony rose, and with him, the hopes of every Knick fan reached heights they hadn’t seen this century. It wasn’t high enough.
Hibbert, of course, blocked the shot. Over the next four Knicks possessions, Anthony would miss once and turn the ball over three times. A two-point Indiana deficit turned into a seven-point lead. The game was effectively over.
Those wound up being be the last relevant on-court moments Carmelo Anthony would experience as a Knick. On paper, just like his New York career, he had an outstanding game: 39 points on 15-29 shooting.
Poetically, he was a -8 in a game the Knicks lost by 7.
Carmelo Anthony played for a total of six and a half seasons under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, the place he always dreamed of calling home as a kid.
He was an All-Star in every one of them. Anthony also lead the league in scoring once, and made multiple All-NBA teams. He helped the franchise to three playoff appearances, more than doubling their total for this millennium. By any metric, especially in comparison to the decade that preceded his arrival, his tenure was a successful one.
It will be remembered as a failure, if it is remembered at all.
For a while, they will remember the ugly end, which resembled everyone’s worst relationship – the one neither person wants to be in but lasts about twice as long as it should because, well…life happens.
By this season, most Knicks fans agreed that moving Anthony was in the best interest of the franchise. Yet, his resistance to any trade was never accompanied by the fans’ ire.
How could anyone blame someone for exercising a rite that was given to him free and clear?
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As much as Phil’s tomfoolery in trying to nudge him out of town made Knicks fans cringe, they knew deep down that he had a point. It wasn’t because Carmelo Anthony wasn’t a good basketball player. He was, at times, mesmerizing. Which was a wonderful bonus, as no one ever expected Melo to be LeBron James. They just wanted him to be the best version of himself.
That version – the one that moved the ball freely, was unselfish, and simply gave a consistent shit on defense – all of it was on display during the 2012-13 season. Maybe we’d all be less harsh if we hadn’t seen it for 94 games.
Casual onlookers will place the blame on Carmelo’s lack of a supporting cast during the other years he was here. They will look back on this era and point the finger at Jackson, and of course James Dolan. Such is to be expected when the circus is run by one of the clowns.
True fans know better. They will remember how so many games seemed to play out like they were scripted. No one passes, no one defends, Knicks go down big. Melo shoots them back into the game in the third. Melo shoots them out of it in the fourth. There is locker room talk of increasing the urgency and the effort. About committing to defense. Nothing changes. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It doesn’t all fall on Carmelo.
But in the NBA more than any other league, players follow the example of the best guy. It’s often said that the Spurs success was founded in Greg Popovich’s ability to rip into Tim Duncan for a missed assignment as if he were the 15th man on the roster.
Anthony is the anti-Duncan.
He is a star who knows he is a star and has always demanded the trappings that come with it.
Fans will remember Anthony’s refusal to move full time to the four even though everyone knew it was his best position. He played it during his one truly successful season in New York, saw how well it worked, and still complained every chance he got before moving back the following season and watched as the team suffered because of it.
In OKC, Melo will have no choice but to defer to the reigning league MVP
They will remember how he refused to share the ball – or the spotlight – with Jeremy Lin, despite the lightning in a bottle they had going.
Tyson Chandler never called out Anthony by name during the aftermath of Linsanity, but spoke up about everyone needing to sacrifice for the betterment of the team. It fell on deaf, stubborn ears. It was the first of several clashes between Anthony and a man who knew more about team and sacrifice than Carmelo ever could. Chandler was shipped out following one falling out too many.
Sandwiched between Lin and Chandler’s departures was that of Mike D’Antoni. D’Antoni won Coach of the Year awards before and after Melo but lasted exactly 69 games with him in New York before saying “thanks, but no thanks.”
In OKC, Melo will have no choice but to defer to the reigning league MVP. Anthony respects Russ and will be on his best behavior next year, similar to that 2012-13 season. That year, he had no less than Jason Kidd, Kurt Thomas, Marcus Camby, and Rasheed Wallace to keep him in line.
They made him take the job of being a professional basketball player seriously. It’s no coincidence that the team cratered from 54 to 37 wins after the departure of those four.
That, more than anything, is Carmelo Anthony’s legacy as a Knick.
Either by choice or inability, unlike every other nominal star in the league, Anthony never attempted to be the leader his team needed him to be. If you wanted to know how to build your brand and increase your exposure, Melo’s your guy. To his credit, when you google “Carmelo Anthony,” his website offering guidance on “life & style for today’s sophisticated urbanite” appears at the top.
That’s Melo in a nutshell. A guy who certainly enjoyed winning but more than anything just seemed happy to be there. Happy as long his image remained untarnished, that is.
That is why today, thanks to his throngs of defenders, Melo is a winner. There will be those who remember a man who got buckets, who would have succeeded if he had more help. A man who escaped the clown show. And that’s fine. They’re entitled to their opinion.
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But then there’s the rest of us. For the moment, the emotion we feel most is something straddling the fence between relief and indifference. This, over the departure of a man who will almost certainly be a first ballot Hall of Famer and who spent the entirety of his prime in a Knick uniform.
That we don’t mourn his departure in the least is as telling about his time here as anything.