Carmelo Anthony went on a tour of sorts as a free agent this summer, and while he had said initially that winning was the priority, in the end he chose to take as much money as possible to remain with a Knicks team that finished outside of the playoff picture in the woeful Eastern Conference last season.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Players should make as much as they can in their relatively short careers, and Anthony in particular did what was expected, considering the way he forced his way to New York while still under contract in Denver back in 2011.
But if winning was the most important of his priorities, then New York wasn’t the best choice. Anthony preached patience, however, and knows that there’s virtually no chance that the Knicks are capable of winning the title in the upcoming season.
From Raul Alzaga of PrimeraHora.com:
Anytime you’re translating interviews from a foreign language it’s good to proceed with caution. But assuming what was printed was accurate, it speaks to Anthony’s bigger picture goals.
He’s always wanted to be the best player on a team in one of the biggest of the league’s markets, and in this current incarnation of the Knicks, he is exactly that. It’s not a bad thing, of course, because Anthony has provided plenty of exciting moments in his time with the team, and New York (like Los Angeles) is a market that needs a superstar player to perform on a nightly basis, even if the wins are slow to come.
But it’s fine to admit that market size and all that comes with it is the motivating factor, because winning -- albeit for far less money -- was much more readily guaranteed had Anthony chosen to bolt for Chicago.
