Mike Vaccaro
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So Carmelo Anthony doesn’t care for Mike D’Antoni’s system, isn’t a fan of interim GM Glen Grunwald’s people skills, isn’t terribly fond of his New York experience as a whole.
Have we left anything out? Is he
unhappy with Mike Nichols’ presentation of “Death of a Salesman”? Angry about Sue Simmons being out at Channel 4? Less than thrilled with the way the plot points have gotten sillier and sillier on “Smash”?
There already is that segment of the Knicks fan base that wants to blame Anthony for everything short of the John Liu scandal, that is fed up by what it has seen across the last six games as the Knicks have regressed from self-proclaimed contenders to ninth-place frauds. And the hard truth is, little in those six games has presented a compelling rebuttal argument.
Now we discover Melo is so fed up by this frustrating season that he wants out, that he reportedly told a confidant he wants the Knicks to exile him because he isn’t happy with D’Antoni’s pinball offense, with Jeremy Lin’s rock-star status, with just about anything else regarding his 13-month tour of basketball New York.
All of this, conveniently, on the eve of the trading deadline.
So, yes, there already would have been 19,763 people perfectly willing to alert Anthony that as disappointing as this marriage may seem to him, it’s nothing compared with the last 12 years of raw sewage they have been exposed to, a cataclysm Anthony’s arrival was supposed to help cleanse, not clutter. The Trail Blazers are the visiting team tonight, but they are not the only enemy.
This is a time when it would behoove James Dolan to make the kind of definitive statement he made last year on the night Anthony was introduced to New York, when he insisted he had nothing to do with the transaction despite reams of evidence to the contrary.
This is no longer a player problem, a coaching problem, a GM problem. These are James Dolan’s Knicks. This is a Knicks problem. And the owner must make a fundamental choice right now: Whom is he going to stand behind?
The player?
Or the coach?
Clearly, this isn’t working. We can agree on that, right? Look, it kills me to say it because I’ve seen Melo at his best, the way he can work and play with teammates when he wants to. Saw it at Syracuse. Saw it in Beijing. Expected him to be willing to do his part in the emergence of Lin and the new Knicks.
Hasn’t happened. Won’t happen. Melo tried to shoulder a little last week in Dallas and San Antonio, said he was slow to adjusting, but the last two scowl-filled losses to Philadelphia and Chicago indicate he sees himself less villain than victim of a world whose plates shifted permanently while he was tending to a groin injury.
Do you trade him? At this point, that’s ridiculous on two fronts: You are suddenly facing a trade deadline with zero leverage, and swapping him for 40 cents on the dollar is lunacy.
The fact is Anthony’s body of work still trends toward him being a top-10 player. And top-10 players don’t show up on your roster every day.
No. Unless Dolan plays the unlikely diplomat and arranges an air-cleaning sit-down, it’s D’Antoni who will have to be sacrificed, and the first instinct for many — even the swollen number of D’Antoni critics — will be outrage. A player big-footing his boss? Who can tolerate that? Look at what the Jazz did to Deron Williams.
Well, the Lakers managed when Magic Johnson booted Paul Westhead. You hardly ever see that on Magic’s permanent record, because he won four titles after he sold out his coach. You can survive.
But it means dealing with an ugly backlash, and hoping Anthony has the stomach for being reviled until he proves himself worthy of a second chance. Neither choice is terribly appetizing, but neither is the product the Knicks present now.
Tough times. Tough choice. Dolan wanted a star-studded team to be able to fill the Garden’s seats and its coffers. He’s gotten that.
Anthony was the star he wanted. Stars can be divas. Divas can be difficult. And sometimes, they need to be indulged.
It isn’t a pretty decision, but then big decisions never were meant to be.
michael.vaccaro@nypost.com
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