Remember that time in the summer when Carmelo Anthony had the chance to join a team that was basically tailor-made for him? Hint: it’s not the floundering team he’s with right now.
The answer: it was the Chicago Bulls, and they wanted the small forward badly to potentially create one of the most devastating teams in the entire NBA.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t pay him the money necessary to bring him in (technically, no one could except you know who), and Anthony ultimately chose the New York Knicks.
Needless to say, it looks like a pretty bad decision in retrospect from a basketball standpoint. Anthony wants to win, and winning isn’t happening any time soon with the current roster in New York. In Chicago? They would undoubtedly be the best team in the East by now if he were there. So besides the money aspect, what kept him from a chance to truly alter his legacy? Ian Begley of ESPN NY has details from a recent documentary on MSG:
At one point over the summer, Carmelo Anthony says he decided to sign with the Chicago Bulls.
“It was one part of time where I was just like, ‘Yo, I’m going,'” Anthony said in a documentary detailing his free agency that aired Tuesday night on MSG Network.
In the documentary, titled “Carmelo: Made in New York,” Anthony talks in detail about how strongly he considered signing with the Bulls.
“It came down to Chicago and New York. Chicago was the one that, from day one, was something that I was very impressed with. They was looking for a person like me to come in and just take them to the next level,” Anthony said. “So it was perfect. It was a perfect setup, perfect fit for me in Chicago. But then also I had to think about just living in Chicago. Do I want to live in Chicago? Do I want to take everything that I created in New York and move all of that? It came down to that.”
“It was a great meeting. … You could tell the culture that they have over there. The seriousness that they have, what they’re about,” said Anthony, whose recruitment included pitches from Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. “It comes down to winning at the end of the day, and that’s what they’re about. So that’s what I like. For them to hit everything right on the nail, first time at bat, that’s hard to do. That was impressive.”
Regretful or not, Anthony chose his path and based on how the Knicks have looked in the early going, it’s going to be an ugly path for the foreseeable future.
Anthony also touched on why he stayed away from going Hollywood:
“It would have just been me and Kobe on that team, and then you would have had to throw in pieces in there until next year,” Anthony said. “So I figured why pick up and leave when New York is in the same situation? I’d have to really want to get out of New York and come to almost the same situation.”
Plus, there is no way you have enough shots to go around for both Kobe Bryant and Anthony on the same team. Not a chance.
Speaking of Bryant, the shooting guard has been going through similar struggles as Anthony this season in terms of being a star and dealing with a bad team after signing a big contract. Rather than being frustrated with the results of his team thus far, though, Bryant is more interested in being patient and simply appreciating the effort of not only his teammates, but of what he’s been able to do after suffering from devastating injuries over the past couple of years. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports has details:
“The idea of me having no patience is misunderstood,” Bryant told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday night. “I don’t have patience when we’re not putting the work in, if I see that we’re not doing our job as professionals. If that’s happening, I’ll let my team know about it. But this is not that kind of group. We work. These guys want to get better every day. They’re there early working, they’re there late working.
“This organization put forth a lot of effort to try and land some of these top free agents. They went for it. I respect that. I appreciate that.
“Now it’s time for me to go out there and do my job – not whine or complain about it.”
[…]
“A knee fracture, an Achilles’ injury and old age – nobody expected me to be moving the way that I am right now,” Bryant told Yahoo. “To an extent, I didn’t either. But I’ve done a lot of work. It’s a puzzle that there’s no example for. We’re trying to figure this thing out on the fly.
“It’s a lifestyle, an absolute around-the-clock lifestyle. There’s no getting away from it. I’ve always enjoyed that aspect of it, the process of it, the building of it. But there will come a point when I don’t anymore, and then it will be over for me.”
Many have expected the ultra-competitive guard to blow up on the organization with the way they have been playing and some even believe he will, at some point, ask for a trade out of town. Based on what he has been saying since the beginning of the year and again through Wojnarowski, it appears Bryant will play through the growing pains of dealing with a mediocre team and simply accept the fact that he’s going to be a Laker until he retires.
Bryant, by the way, will soon pass Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. Some simply say it’s an obvious accomplishment because Bryant has played longer, but that’s the aspect he is actually the most proud of, from Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report:
“Nineteen years is a long time to be playing, and I’ve had a different career path than Michael,” he said. “It has been a hell of a marathon. I’m really proudest of that.”
Unlike Jordan with his baseball break and premature pre-Washington Wizards retirement, Bryant has been a constant. The running at dawn, refining of footwork, punching the clock.
“I enjoy what I do so much,” he said. “I enjoy the preparation of it. I enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out a new puzzle. I take a lot of pride in that, in having the challenge to work through year after year after year with different teams and different teammates and different coaching staffs, trying to work through all that stuff. I feel very fortunate.”
Bryant may be done competing in terms of anything related to the playoffs, but he at least still has other things to accomplish and cherish. The amount of appreciation he has for the process of making things happen is admirable, especially given that he feels the same way even in what is now a losing cause. Players and people in general grow in wisdom with age, and Bryant has certainly done that over the years. For people who still think the guard will eventually want out of his current situation, they clearly haven’t been paying attention.
OTHER NEWS AND ITEMS FROM AROUND THE LEAGUE:
The Chicago Bulls lost a game against the Dallas Mavericks in double overtime on Tuesday, but they would and should have won in regulation if not for a silly, silly foul committed by Kirk Hinrich with his team up by three points. See what Dirk Nowitzki had to say about Hinrch’s play, from Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas: “”In my 17 years, it was one of the dumber fouls I’ve ever seen,” Nowitzki said in a matter-of-fact tone. “You wait all the way until he dribbles to the 3-point line to grab him, so that’s obviously a tough one, tough play. I saw coach [Tom] Thibodeau was just shaking his head.”
- Hinrich pretty much agreed and took the blame for the loss: “I waited too long. I messed it up,” Hinrich said. “It was a bonehead play. I know better than that. This one’s on me because I felt like we played a good game to that point. To get back to the point we were in a position to win. For them to tie it up on a play like that, it was a bad decision.”… “I’ve been around 12 years; I know better than that,” Hinrich said. “It was one of those things where it was just a bad play. … I know better than that. It’s on me. [I’ll] learn from it and move on.”
Of course, coach Tom Thibodeau tried to take the blame as well: “That was my fault,” Thibodeau said. “We wanted to take the foul, and I was not clear enough about how and where. Obviously, we wanted to take it in the backcourt; they were out of timeouts. It gets tricky when they get in the scoring area, if a guy is facing you. That was my fault.”
- At the end of the day, though, Mr. Nice Guy Nowitzki felt bad about it all, from MacMahon: “I didn’t mean to put my man Kirk on the spot like that, because he’s a good dude,” Nowitzki said Wednesday night before the Mavs faced the Milwaukee Bucks, a game in which he didn’t play due to precautionary rest. “He’s a hard-nosed player. He made two 3s right before that actually to put them in position to win, so I have nothing but respect for Kirk Hinrich. I didn’t mean to really get it out like that.”… “I feel bad for saying it,” Nowitzki said. “I should have maybe phrased it different, maybe say it wasn’t the smartest play I’ve ever seen. I mean, he knows. Kirk’s been around for a long, long time and has been a great pro in this league. You think of a play like that, you think more of a younger guy fouling that late, but we’ll take it. We got very fortunate to come back and win.”
- Speaking of the Mavericks, they went down to the wire again on Wednesday againt the Milwaukee Bucks where Monta Ellis used to play for a brief stretch. Ellis came up clutch against the Bulls, and did so again to his former team, taking and hitting the game-winning shot at the buzzer:
- Nikola Mirotic has proved himself in recent weeks as more than just hype coming into the league. He has shown the potential and ability to be a very versatile player on both ends for the Chicago Bulls. That said, guarding speedy point guards with great handles is probably not his thing, as evidenced by this attempt at defending Kemba Walker from the perimeter. He also kind of got burned by Tom Thibodeau, who said the current bigs on the roster are way better than Mirotic is, from K.C. Johnson of Chicago Tribune: “Thibodeau said Gibson, Noah and Gasol are all starters who are “way better” than Mirotic. Translated: When Taj returns, Niko sits.”
- It was easy to assume that Kevin Love may want out of town after some of the early struggles to mesh with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. According to the power forward, though, it sounds like he is truly in this thing for the long haul, from Satchel Price of SB Nation: “If I could end all the speculation now, I would. But people are going to continue to talk no matter what. I just want to continue getting better with this team long term. I’m a Cleveland Cavalier.”
Check out this open letter from Kenny Smith to Charles Barkley about the situation in Ferguson, among some other things. It may give you some new perspective on how Smith’s mind works: “Dear Chuck, I hope this finds you in the way I always see you, in great spirits, with great joy and full of life. There are some things I want to openly say to you that sometimes in conversation get lost. Firstly I lied! You ARE the greatest Power Forward of all time. It’s not (Tim) Duncan or (Karl) Malone, they had size and height that you weren’t blessed with and you never had near the talent around you that they were blessed to have. Contrarily you took your teams to similar heights. Secondly, you are a champion in my book. Effort and determination is what makes a champion, not a ring… However, what I consistently find interesting is how writers and media members view your insights in politics, and now race relations, with the same reverence as your insights in sports.”
James Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.
Bottom line is that Melo really wasn’t all about winning, as he said.
He can’t complain at end of season, when he misses the playoffs, again, in the weak East.
I can’t see why a potential top free agent like Marc Gasol would want to play with this team.