Carmelo Anthony’s Ridiculous Statement Should Be Ignored By New York Knicks

By Gustavo Braga on October 2, 2014

A king that feels the need to let everyone know that he is in charge is no true king. On the same note, a player who needs to promote himself as superstar should not be taken seriously — even if he deserves it.

Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks stated in an interview that he is the most underrated superstar in the NBA, and I have a problem with that.

Yes, Anthony was the scoring champion in the 2012-13 season; he was the runner-up for the title last year behind Kevin Durant and no one in their right mind would ever doubt that he is one of the most talented and prolific scorers in the league, but to make a statement like that is just plain ridiculous.

Melo was drafted third overall in 2003 and so far has been a force to be reckoned with on the court. He’s been able to score from anywhere he wants to, taking the Denver Nuggets back to the playoffs regularly during the period he was over there, and since coming to New York he’s been the same if not better. But I stand by my point — to declare himself as a superstar is just wrong, specially when all that stardom and scoring ability did not take him anywhere in terms of title contention.

The Knicks hired 13-time champion Phil Jackson as team president in order to put the team back on the map, to change the culture in the Madison Square Garden, to give a sense of direction and long-term plan to the broken franchise. His first mission as a Knick is to adjust the roster to his liking, implementing a new basketball system and making everyone play in sync for one objective — the NBA championship.

Anthony’s statement goes against everything that Jackson has been trying to accomplish. The triangle offense — the system under which the Knicks will be playing — is all about team play, sharing the ball and choosing whomever has the best shot opportunity in any given play. One of the premises of Jackson’s system is that Anthony will not have the ball stop on his hands on every play and that no one is superior on the roster.

The players, who need to buy into the system in order to make it work, need to believe that in fact no one is more important than anyone else so the willingness to pass the ball can happen with no hesitation. If they start to doubt their best scorer and start to think that he feels like he is better than everyone, then the chemistry breakdowns start to happen — and we all know how that works out.

Anthony said he isn’t worried about being underrated, that his performance and effort on the court will be the judge, so if he is not worried he should not have said anything. Words can mean a lot to inexperienced ears.

More than ever, the Knicks need reassurance from the coaching staff and leadership from the front office, but most of all, they need to ignore Anthony’s statement completely if they want to even have a chance at building a truly united team to fight for championships in the short term.

Confidence is good. Arrogance is not.

Until he reaches the same level of accomplishments of Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, Anthony should not use the word superstar when referring to himself in public ever again.