Carmelo Anthony and New York Knicks Are Reportedly Infighting
Stuck in the throes of a franchise-worst start, the 4-19 New York Knicks aren't doling out smiles or hugs among one another.
Go figure.
Losing breeds infighting. The Knicks have done a lot of losing. Now, according to ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard, they've reached the point of turning on each other.
UPDATE: Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 7:10 p.m. ET
Carmelo Anthony denied rumors of discord ahead of the Knicks' matchup against the San Antonio Spurs, per ESPN New York's Ian Begley:
This is basically the equivalent of Anthony saying, "Move along, folks. There's nothing to see here."
Let's see if the basketball sphere at large is prepared to take his word.
---End of update---
Broussard expands on an incident from the Knicks' recent loss to the Brooklyn Nets in which Carmelo Anthony and Tim Hardaway Jr. butted heads over the former's rebounding lethargy.
Heated in-game confrontations are symptoms of the moment. Frustrations run high and get the best of certain players. Competitive environments create these types of situations.
This, though, apparently wasn't an isolated incident. A source tells Broussard that while "nobody's taken a swing at anybody," there has been "a lot of arguing and cursing each other out after games."
Multiple sources also tell Broussard that Anthony is rubbing more than just Hardaway Jr. the wrong way this season:
"Several Knicks, in addition to Hardaway, are at odds with Anthony and believe he's not playing team basketball. Sources said players voiced their displeasure with Anthony this past weekend, telling him he shoots too much, doesn't move or pass the ball, and only plays defense when he feels like it.
Sources said the most tension exists between Anthony and Hardaway as they haven't cared for one another almost since Hardaway joined the team last season, with each player believing the other shoots too much and doesn't care about defense. Sources said Hardaway was also bothered by the favorable treatment Anthony received under last year's coach, Mike Woodson.
"
True or not, this kind of dirty laundry gets aired more frequently when teams are losing. It wasn't long ago that LeBron James and Kyrie Irving reportedly had volatile words for one another. Now that the Cleveland Cavaliers are winning, no such hearsay is finding its way into the public scrum.
Still, this report is troubling. The Knicks have lost nine straight, are 2-18 over their last 20 games, rank 21st in offensive efficiency, rank 27th in defensive efficiency and have shown little progress in their attempt to master the famed triangle offense.
The offensive system itself has become a team-wide issue, per Broussard. Players are prepared to ditch the tactical blueprint head coach Derek Fisher and President Phil Jackson ardently believe in.
That assessment of the Knicks' season-long strife coincides with Jackson's recent comments on the team's lack of cohesion.
"I think guys understand what we're trying to do," he told reporters, per USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt. "Hopefully, they're getting to be more compliant. There's some resistance to discipline and order and culture change and things like that."
It's a difficult situation the Knicks find themselves in because their offense does look outdated. They're running at the fifth-slowest pace in franchise history and hoist a ton of mid-range jumpers, which are often recognized as the least efficient shot in basketball.
But the Knicks' issues go beyond systematic symptoms. Chemistry is clearly a concern—especially if this report is true—and the talent on the roster isn't conducive to what the Knicks are trying to accomplish.
Really, their problems can be boiled down to what The Wall Street Journal's Chris Herring says here:
Losing in excess only compounds these inherent flaws. If the culture is to truly change and the team's brass is hell-bent on seeing the triangle experiment through, Jackson will have to purge the roster of its most prominent problems. And that may not happen until this summer, when the Knicks are slated to have serious cap space, per ShamSports.
And if Anthony is, in fact, leading the charge against Fisher's "insistence" on running the triangle, the Knicks have a real, potentially unsolvable quandary on their hands.
Not to mention a weird one.
Anthony had the opportunity to leave as a free agent over the summer. If he wasn't prepared to slog through the extensive restructuring process—however flawed—Jackson cautioned against, he's in no position to shift gears 23 games into a five-year contract.
Whatever the issue(s), things needs to change in New York. The Knicks are a mess. They are a rebuilding team without a surplus of young talent to develop. They are a big-market giant playing themselves out of premier free-agent contention. And, most imminently, they are laboring through a harrowing December schedule that still includes tilts against the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls, among so many other tough opponents.
If things don't change soon—both on and off the court—infighting will be the least of their worries, and the Knicks will have another lost season to answer for.
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