Carmelo Anthony of New York Knicks talks about the Olympics affect to his game – NBA Update
Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks have been having a ball so far this season.
This is the same side which by the end of last playoffs, was being branded as an overrated unit, unable to force its star players to play for the team. At the centre of all that criticism was none other than small forward Carmelo
Anthony.
All throughout his career, Anthony has been considered as someone, who wants to hog all the limelight, and does not want to work hard for it. He was always an underachiever at the Denver Nuggets and the story was the same in his
first two seasons with the Knicks.
However, over the course of summer, Anthony formed a part of a star studded U.S Olympic team, which comprised of likes of LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, players who not only know how to play ball, but also how to make
their teammates look better.
That stint went on to change a lot in Melo. Even the player admits it;
“If somebody tells you it didn’t, then they lied to you,” he said. “How can you be around the best players in the world and it don’t influence you in some way, shape or form? It definitely influenced me.”
Coming into this season, the Knicks were hampered by the injury to power forward Amare’ Stoudemire, but that didn’t stop Anthony from carrying the Knicks to the best record (13-4) in the Eastern Conference so far, 0.5 games above
the mighty Miami Heat, the team which they are supposed to face up next.
What’s different has been the intensity shown by Melo. He has always been a beast on the offence, there’s no doubting that, but the defensive side, which was always the weaker aspect of Carmelo’s game, has come up leaps and bounds
under Mike Woodson. Anthony has been putting in more effort on the D off late, and is no longer the player, who used to block offensive plays and make difficult low probability shots. He apparently trusts his team mates more, and that has been the main reason
why the Knicks have been unstoppable this season.
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