Mike D'Antoni Resigns: Why Carmelo Anthony Forced Knicks Coach to Quit

There's been a great deal of chatter in New York today.

First, we heard that the Knicks players were apparently "tuning out" coach Mike D'Antoni.

There were also rumblings of Carmelo Anthony asking for a trade, which he then adamantly denied not long after.

All of this chatter has now culminated to Mike D'Antoni resigning as coach of the Knicks, and assistant coach Mike Woodson will now take over on an interim basis.

What do we make of all this? How do the Knicks go from "Linsanity" to now losing eight of 10 and sinking as quickly as any team in the league? And was D'Antoni essentially forced to quit because of his clashes with Carmelo Anthony?

These questions will be speculated a great deal, but no matter what, Anthony played a major role in what's resulted in D'Antoni's exit.

First of all, Anthony's on-court production has simply been inadequate. He can score, everybody knows that, but his horrendous shooting percentage (40 percent) takes away from other players and team chemistry in general. 

Secondly, he hasn't shown the ability to govern the team to consistent winning ways. This is largely because he's a lackluster defensive player. Anthony has simply put D'Antoni in a tough situation, because Melo's the cornerstone of their roster, but a cornerstone who doesn't play defense and shoots a dismal percentage is not an ideal player to build around.

Lastly, D'Antoni's job looked fine and dandy a month or so ago when Jeremy Lin carried the squad to seven straight victories. But then Carmelo Anthony came back and they started losing, which essentially forced New York management to analyze what to do next. One thing was clear: change was imminent.

The imminent change ended up being D'Antoni resigning, as both he and Knicks management apparently agreed this was the best decision.

But none of this would've had to happen if it weren't for Anthony. It's safe to say that Anthony's subpar performance, his inability to win and his clashes with D'Antoni basically forced D'Antoni to resign. 

Quite frankly, the Knicks should've thought this through a bit more. Perhaps the wiser decision would've been to keep D'Antoni and trade Carmelo Anthony, but that's now water under the bridge.