I guess it is because his line of work is supposed to be about winning basketball games. It doesn't help that he has always maintained that he wants to win. This is probably his last contract as a franchise player leading his team. And to a lot of people, "business reasons" is just a lame excuse. Even if his business interest is in NY, in this day and age, and with the money he has, why does he have to be a NY player to tend to his business? Not to mention he will be away for about half of the time during the season anyway.
His line of work is to help whichever team he is playing for to win as many basketball games as it can. But he is not obligated to choose a team that will allow him to win the most games. Its like any other job, isn't it? We have responsibilities as part of that job, but there are a range of factors that go into which job we choose or where we want to work. Maximizing wins doesn't need to be the overriding criterion. That part is up to him. Once he picks his team, then he needs to train and play to win.
Your point is valid in general. But in Anthony's case, there is a context. First, in sports, especially in basketball, there is a different expectation for star players like Anthony than for other so-called role players. So the line of work for star players is a bit different from that for role players. When we talk about star players wanting to "win" it's not just to "win as many games as his team can" but to "lead his team to win BIG." (Usually, people admire star players who either stick with their teams through thick and thin or want to go to a contender to win. People despise stars who just play for the money.) Second, and more importantly for this context, is what happened three seasons ago. Anthony held his team hostage, demanding to be traded to the Knicks. His stated reason was that the Nuggets were going nowhere, presumably going nowhere in terms of being a title contender. Many other stars did the same thing, but they actually wanted to go to a good team. Anthony did not ask to be traded to a good team. The Knicks were in worse shape than the Nuggets even after they had acquired Stoudemire. Third, Anthony did not want to wait a few more months to become a free agent so that he could go to New York or any team he wanted. Signing with the Knicks would have preserved what talent they had to be in a better position to contend. But he chose the trade route because that would give him more money. So even if his responsibility as a player is just helping whichever team he plays for to win as many games as it can, demanding to be traded is indirectly making his team win fewer games than it otherwise could.
LOL Okay Carmelo! <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Carmelo Anthony: Re-signing with Knicks influenced LeBron's decision <a href="http://t.co/c8qyHb67U0">http://t.co/c8qyHb67U0</a></p>— SI NBA (@si_nba) <a href="https://twitter.com/si_nba/status/509374639793917953">September 9, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Lol Lebron and a bunch of YMCA guys could make the playoffs in the East while Melo sits at home once again.
As he should be, in my opinion. People seem to eviscerate athletes who treat the sport like a business, despite the fact that everyone else involved in the NBA ecosystem (i.e., the league, TV partners, apparel and drink companies, agents, and teams) does. These players have an astronomically small chance in life to earn generational wealth and if they can maximize their chance to do that by sacrificing their own personal chance at a championship, so be it. The league CBA is designed to incumbent teams a huge financial advantage in signing their own free agents, and it seems to be working as intended. I'm not mad at a guy trying to earn as much money as he can in his life and enjoy his lifestyle while doing so.
me either but when you complain constantly about only wanting to win at this point in your career hes gonna get criticized for it. and its going to happen again when the knicks continue to struggle
It may be these 'business opportunities' are somewhat contingent on him having New York emblazoned across his chest. Being the star player on the storied franchise that represents the largest city in the country gives him a little extra appeal from an exposure point of view. It doesn't matter where he's physically located so much as what he represents to people. I'm happy for him. He'd be the wrong guy to come to Houston, so I'm perfectly content to see him in NY, whether they're competitive or not.
I'm not sure it is "constantly" but I take your point. I think, though, the difference is between "winning it all" and just "winning more." The Knicks have been ineptly managed for so long (outside of a refreshing 2-3 year window where Donnie Walsh cleaned up the worst of Isiah Thomas's mess -- right up until the point where Dolan forced him to sign Amare Stoudemire's hollowed out knee caps to a max contract) that I cannot blame him putting some pressure on ownership to stop making terrible moves.
Well Lebron made his mind up by at the latest the 10th and more realistically a few days before that at the very latest (and more likely sometime before that), which would mean Carmelo is admitting to having made his decision prior to Lebron.
I don't think anyone has a problem with him wanting to earn as much money as possible.... as much as they have a problem with him publicly painting a different picture than to what's genuinely happening... I never understood why player's feel obligated to lie to the public as to what their priorities are between winning and money... when it's the easiest thing to detect for fans as true or false through the player's own actions... which are highly publicized... It just makes them come off as a shameless duplicitous self-seeker by bothering to feed the fans an obvious lie, and worse than that, doing it over and over again...
I think Carmelo was talking about when he was originally traded to New York moreso than resigning with New York... Regardless it's still ridiculous.
Melo himself doesn't care whether he wins or not, I thought it was obvious when he demanded a trade to NYC even if it meant gutting the entire team's roster of good players so he can get his max and the fact that he hasn't improved one facet of his game since his rookie year (except for the experience you get from being a 9 year vet). The only time he'll complain is when the NYC media tears into him for being an underperfoming bum, that's when he'll talk about not having any help and demand a trade somewhere else. Suffice to say I'm ridiculously glad he turned down the Rox...twice! Here's hoping Morey still doesn't go after him the 3rd time
There's nothing about tryng to earn as much money as possible, but the guy's words (or in this case press releases) and actions don't match up: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/source...--bulls--rockets-in-contention-161206919.html
I mean, that's fine... but why waste everyone's time and go on a free agent tour and insist it's all about winning if he didn't want to leave NY in the first place because of his business opportunities?
Most professional athletes are about money, there are very few athletes that are about winning championships! Atleast Carmelo is being honest about the money part of it. If we had that kind of opportunity to make millions of dollars to stay in NYC, 10 out of 10 fans would take it. People need to stop hating, its the free market, embrace it or move to Russia/China!
Can't blame him for taking the money, but I wish he's stop going around saying that winning is the most important thing to him.
