I know this post might be presumptuous. It will be a long time for the jury to deliberate on this, and we still don’t have all the evidence. However, watching last nights Knicks meltdown against the Celtics, I had the feeling of a man who went to the car dealership, traded his dependable car for a flashy new one, with all the bells and whistles, to only have the car make a strange noise when taken out on the highway for the first time. I guess the lesson learned…caveat emptor!
What concerned me last night, was not the Knicks blowing a 10 point 4th quarter lead (although that was bad); it was Carmelo leaving the game with two minutes trailing by four with a tiny cut above his eye, and not returning. By contrast, Ray Allen suffered a far worse cut over his eye, and put a bandage the size of Shaq’s head on and continued playing. When Carmelo collided with Rondo with two minutes left in the game, he laid at center court a la Vince Carter. Then, he grimaced in pain, holding his eye, as if he lost a leg in a war. It was truly a bitch move!
This incident in last night’s game comes right off Melo’s latest comments which already had me questioning his leadership. Melo recently said after a loss to the Bucks “it might take (until) next season.” What kind of bull shit statement is that?! Melo’ your team is the middle of playoff teams in the East, focus on this year! Comments like this made me realize there might be a good reason why this guy was never the leader of the Nuggets despite being by far the most talent player.
Also, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that opponents scoring per game against the Knicks have skyrocketed post the Melo deal. During the Knicks latest losing stretch, opponents were scoring 117 points. Amare’s matador, Dabney-like defense was bad enough, but Melo makes Amare look like Charles Oakley.
Maybe the problem is just learning how to gel with each other, but my big concern is that Amare and Melo’ are too similar. By similar, I not only mean two guys who can score at will and play no defense, but also two guys who score in similar ways. I really hope they can co-exist and bring winning back to NY, but so far, it doesn’t look good. Several weeks ago, prior to the weekend of the Melo deal being finalized I was discussing the move with MMG, Moon, Walt, and Daffy. MMG’s assessment regarding Melo coming to the Knicks was, “Ghetto guys don’t win championships.” I hope he’s not right.
What concerned me last night, was not the Knicks blowing a 10 point 4th quarter lead (although that was bad); it was Carmelo leaving the game with two minutes trailing by four with a tiny cut above his eye, and not returning. By contrast, Ray Allen suffered a far worse cut over his eye, and put a bandage the size of Shaq’s head on and continued playing. When Carmelo collided with Rondo with two minutes left in the game, he laid at center court a la Vince Carter. Then, he grimaced in pain, holding his eye, as if he lost a leg in a war. It was truly a bitch move!
This incident in last night’s game comes right off Melo’s latest comments which already had me questioning his leadership. Melo recently said after a loss to the Bucks “it might take (until) next season.” What kind of bull shit statement is that?! Melo’ your team is the middle of playoff teams in the East, focus on this year! Comments like this made me realize there might be a good reason why this guy was never the leader of the Nuggets despite being by far the most talent player.
Also, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that opponents scoring per game against the Knicks have skyrocketed post the Melo deal. During the Knicks latest losing stretch, opponents were scoring 117 points. Amare’s matador, Dabney-like defense was bad enough, but Melo makes Amare look like Charles Oakley.
Maybe the problem is just learning how to gel with each other, but my big concern is that Amare and Melo’ are too similar. By similar, I not only mean two guys who can score at will and play no defense, but also two guys who score in similar ways. I really hope they can co-exist and bring winning back to NY, but so far, it doesn’t look good. Several weeks ago, prior to the weekend of the Melo deal being finalized I was discussing the move with MMG, Moon, Walt, and Daffy. MMG’s assessment regarding Melo coming to the Knicks was, “Ghetto guys don’t win championships.” I hope he’s not right.
2 comments:
Basketball is a team game...
That is an interesting statement though - "Ghetto guys don't win championships" - I'd be interested to look at the important players on the past twenty or so years of champions and counting the ghetto guys.
Off the top of my head, the only ones I can think of are Rasheed Wallace (Detroit '04) and, if he counts as ghetto, Dennis Rodman several times.
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