All Star forward willing to take a back seat in terms of scoring to get the team going and achieve success in the upcoming NBA season.
When Carmelo Anthony was brought to the New York Knicks in a trade with the Denver Nuggets, the Big Apple fans anticipated the dawn of a new era for the franchise. A front court combination of Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire seemed
too good to be true, and to stop. However nearly one and a half year on, the Knicks have not been able to make any worthy playoff run since Anthony and Stoudemire were paired together, disappointing many fans in the process.
The reason for their lack of success has been the inability of Anthony and Stoudemire to play off each other, play to each other’s strengths and develop the chemistry that would enable them to play together and dominate the offensive
end. We saw it last season, and the season before that as well. With the quality of players the Knicks have, they should have been a top four or five seed in the Eastern Conference, yet they finished 7th last season.
Carmelo is coming into this season a lot more mature after having played in the London Olympics in the summer. He is now looking forward to becoming more of a leader for his team and doing everything in his power to get the job
done for the team, even if it means scoring less and getting other players to play better.
“For me personally, I’m in my 10th year. Everyone pretty much knows I can score the basketball. But for me to challenge myself, instill the trust into my teammates to give them that confidence when they do shoot the ball, to have
that confidence that they can make it happen as well. I’m done trying to score 35, 40 points to win the basketball game. I don’t want that role anymore. In order for this team to be successful, for guys we have right now, we need a more well-rounded team,”
said Anthony as reported by the New York Post.
Anthony played in the Olympics this summer alongside LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, and witnessed firsthand how James and Bryant took the back seat in the team, particularly in terms of scoring and attempted to get
other players like Durant, Kevin Love and Anthony good looks so that they could play their best game possible. He has learnt a lot from that experience and now wants to become that leader for his team, so that the Knicks are finally able to achieve what they
are capable of.
It will be a tough transition for him to make, but at least he got the first step right by sorting out the reason why the Knicks have failed to deliver.
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