But he pinpoints exactly when the “Anthony is selfish” meme began.
“Let’s be frank about it,” he said. “When it comes to the Knicks, we’re talking about one particular point in time. We’re talking about the whole ‘Linsanity’ thing. That’s when it started. That’s when it started to escalate as far as people saying I was selfish.”
“Lin came and we started winning games and then we started losing games, and they could only point to one thing, which is me, the leader of the team,” Anthony said. “They’re not going to point to Amar’e. They’re not going to point to (guard) Iman Shumpert. They’re going to point to me. I accept that. It doesn’t bother me.”
via Carmelo Anthony shows a different side with Team USA – USATODAY.com.
OK, well, that’s nice that he’s got a persecution complex about Jeremy Lin, but that’s not entirely accurate. Anthony was described not as selfish but as having too high of a usage rate dating back for years. It was part of the complexion of the discussion surrounding his potential and eventual trade to the Knicks that he is a high-usage player with a limited capacity for playmaking outside of scoring who isn’t an elite defender and in short, loves the ball and shooting the ball and all the things with the ball.
This was not a new development, nor was it something that was born out of Jeremy Lin. Lin simply served as an example of what can happen when you don’t settle for an isolation-centric offense, which is what Anthony is most comfortable with. Anthony’s not selfish. He wants to win. But if you’re comfortable doing something, and you’re good at it, you’re going to think that’s the best way to succeed. But Lin showed that there’s another way, a way where more people are involved and Anthony doesn’t have the ball. But Anthony couldn’t find a way to mesh with that. Whether that had something to do with Lin being gone is irrelevant to this discussion, it’s just a fact. He’s not there anymore, and the Knicks will almost entirely be built around ISOMelo.
But let’s not pretend like the topic of whether Anthony’s game is too self-focused started in February. This has been going on for years.
(HT: IAmAGM.com)
