Carmelo will utlimately go down in history as a great scorer that cared more about money than winning...because he will never win anything in NY, and his wife won't let him force his way to a contender unless it's LA...which won't happen during the rest of his playing time.
Carmelo had a chance this year to find a contender to play with...but he chose money instead. Players like Dirk, KG, Pierce, Ray Allen deserved one..and they got it. Other ex players who I wanted to get one: Mutombo, Mcgrady, R. Miller, AI, Nash, Barkley
It's not that he got paid a lot. It's that he chose money and being on a garbage team vs slightly less money on a championship team.
Im starting to realize how crappy he is and how superior Harden is to him. Harden can take a dwightless team to the playoffs but Melo can't even... I'm barely grasping that.
Lol that he said he didn't want to take all that he built in NYC...what did you build? You are captain of one of the worst teams in the NBA, congrats.
Melo would not have worked well here, he's a cancerous black hole to any offense and his defense is subpar as well. Knicks are actually playing better basketball right now with him sitting out. Melo staying in New York was the best thing for us, Knicks will be a bottom feeder for the remainder of his playing days there.
I see what you are saying cause I thought it was stupid of him to stay in NY. I understand where he is coming from, because I wouldn't want to leave my home neither even if the opportunity was better. I would want to stay where my kids, wife and myself were comfortable. And then once you add in the money, it is close to a no brainer.
Why is jumping/bandwagoning on a championship/stacked team considered a good thing these days? Kids man... Props for Carmelo for trying to get it done in New York.
That's how the NBA's competitive balance is designed to work. If there's not a correlation between quality of player and pay rate, the whole premise behind the CBA doesn't function. No one ever criticized past era stars for taking money instead of team-hopping to find the easiest way to win championships. It's weird that it's become the expectation by fans now.
I dont think anyone wants Melo to team hop. The Knicks organization is either too incompetent or they simply care about revenue over winning. Either way, nobody expects the Knicks to become significant anytime soon. Melo is only there to show up and collect a paycheck. He is fine with losing.
NY was bad last year and is bad this year as they are rebuilding with new management and coaching. But 2 years ago, they were the #2 seed in the East. If players leave after a bad season, that's pretty much the definition of team hopping. If no one stays on sucky teams, there's no way for them to improve. Again, the whole NBA's financial structure is designed so that home teams can offer more money than other teams - and for the players to take the most money - so that teams can retain talent. If they don't, the whole thing breaks down. Before Lebron's move to Miami, no one ever expected players to take less money to win somewhere else, and no one ever criticized players for staying on their mediocre teams for most of their careers.
This is probably Melo's last contract in his prime. LeBron got a lot of flak when he jumped ship at the beginning of his prime. People usually respect superstars to stick with his original team to carry them to the top. Kevin Garnett got a lot of flak when he signed a big contract, crippling the Wolves ability to build a good team around him. But he stuck with the team for the better part of his career. So when he went to Boston and won a chip, nobody gave him any grief like they did LeBron. Melo is totally different. This is the third significant contract of his career. First, He forced his way out of Denver (which was a very competitive team in the West) and said that he wanted to win. But he forced his way to the Knicks which was worse then the Nuggets. Second, he forced a SnT when he could have just signed with the Knicks, depleting the Knicks' assets to build a better team. Now, he again said that he wanted to win and then he signed with a much worse team. And the reason he gave for staying with New York was not loyalty or helping them win. It's some kind of "business" consideration. You see why people have no respect for his talk about winning? He is neither trying to go to a winning team nor try to help his original team.
