Carmelo Anthony Dispels Trade Rumors, but Cannot Hide his Disappointment in New York Knicks
Playing for the New York Knicks can’t be easy. The Knicks are one of the most valuable professional sports franchises in the world, play in the biggest market in the United States, and yet nothing seems to go their way. Free agents are really interested, the Draft Lottery isn’t rigged in your favor (at least not anymore), and your biggest star is starting to feel trapped in the City that Never Sleeps.
Even with rookie sensation Kristaps Porzingis on the court, the Knicks haven’t drastically improved in 2016. They’re much better than last season for sure, but they’re still, for all intents and purposes, out of the playoff contention, making 2015-2016 the third consecutive season without Knick playoff basketball.
That’s not settling well with superstar Carmelo Anthony, who made the playoffs every season for the first 10 years of his career.
“That doesn’t sit well with me,” said Carmelo during the All-Star Weekend in Toronto, Canada, when asked how he’s handling three straight years out of the postseason. “To reflect a little about that, it’s tough. To think about that, to know that it can be three years if we don’t pick it up right away. I try not to think about it right now. In actuality, you have to start thinking about that eventually.”
The same reporter questioned Carmelo’s loyalty to the Knicks. With three seasons out of the playoffs, will he be looking to leave during the summer?
“Not yet. Not yet. Not yet,” said Anthony. “I’m pretty sure I’ll have that conversation with myself, my family, my team. That’s not a conversation right now.”
But it’s hard to ignore the fact that five years after the Denver Nuggets traded their superstar to the Knicks, Anthony is beginning to be vocally angry with the direction of the team. Although you could argue the team is now slowly improving, Anthony is only getting more and more upset by the losses and constant changes around him.
“It’s been tough. It’s challenging.”
With countless players coming in and out, four coaches, three general managers, and one new team president in five years, it’s hard to blame Melo for his criticism.
“It’s challenging to kind of stay strong and positive through all this. You can’t control that. When you look at it…I mean, that’s a lot to go through…Regardless of the record, just losing, accepting that—it’s hard to accept that. You can’t be satisfied with losing basketball games.”
No one could blame the Boston Celtics for attempting to whisk him away at the trade deadline. Of course, that didn’t go over too well.
“No. Heck no,” said Carmelo, shooting down any rumors that he may have been on the move this season. Apparently the Knicks never even approached him to talk about waiving the no-trade clause in his contract, so the C’s weren’t nearly as close as they may want their fans to believe.
The bottom line is, although Melo may be unhappy right now, he does want to see it through.
“Doing it in New York is better than doing it any place in the world. One in New York is better than multiple somewhere else. That was the reason I wanted to come to New York. That’s the reason I’m in New York…I don’t want to run. I could have run somewhere when I was a free agent. I came back for a reason. I don’t feel like I got to keep expressing that part of why I came back to New York.”
Nice to see some loyalty. But at some point Carmelo will need to ask himself, are no championships in New York better than one elsewhere?