Carmelo Anthony is finally a former New York Knick, traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder Monday for center Enes Kanter, forward Doug McDermott and the Chicago Bulls’ 2018 second-round draft pick. It was a prudent deal for Anthony, the Knicks and the Thunder, helping all three parties move forward toward their stated objectives.
For Anthony, he gets the opportunity to play for a contender, a team that should be one of the five best in the NBA the upcoming season. The Thunder acquired a proven scorer who adds offensive versatility to a team endeavoring to close the gap between themselves and the stacked league champion Golden State Warriors. The Knicks move on from a player who had become a source of controversy and discontent, and they can now focus on developing their young core.
Anthony unfairly and unjustifiably became a scapegoat for the Knicks’ hardships on the court over the past four seasons, all seasons in which they missed the playoffs and finished no higher than ninth in the Eastern Conference, or won more than 37 games. Anthony was the franchise’s star player and did what he does best—score the ball at will. Yet he was perpetually and unreasonably compared with his close friend LeBron James, who has played in seven straight NBA Finals.
Using that measure, he was viewed as a flawed superstar who didn’t possess the all-around skills to elevate the franchise. The truth is Anthony was a very good player who was never surrounded with the necessary talent to push the Knicks into a conference Finals. His desire to transform the Knicks into a contender was stronger than the tools with which he had to work. He expressed love for New York and Knicks fans after the trade.
“New York equipped me to make it in any other place in the world,” the Brooklyn-born Anthony wrote on his website. “It taught me how to Be Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable. Saying Goodbye is the hardest thing to do. I never thought I would, especially to you. No one will ever take your place.”
Now the focus of the rebuilding process will be Kristaps Porzingis. But Anthony is a cautionary tale that no single player, with the exception of James, can raise a franchise to champion status.
“I’m excited about the opportunity to be the leader of the team,’’ Porzingis said at the Knicks’ annual Media Day event Monday. “But, again, there’s going to be 15 guys on the roster, and everyone is going to have to contribute. Everybody is going to do that. It’s not just about one guy and it’s his team. It’s a team. It’s not just one guy.”
A lesson well learned from Anthony.