Keidel: Considering What Melo Is, Would Blake Be So Bad?
By Jason Keidel
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I love Knicks fans. You may think you're special, but in truth your favorite team has made you a mouth-breathing dolt. Maybe it's not your fault. Your expectations are so low that any spark in the cold black chasm of winter feels like a heat wave.
Case in point was the trip to Texas, during which the Knicks and their fans went 2-1. Not only should you have gone 3-0, but those two wins saved your season. "Turned the corner" is the phrase du jour. Which corner is that? Last we checked 33rd & 7th still smells like roasted peanuts and rancid basketball. But hey, you've won two of your last three.
With Tuesday night's win over Detroit, you're now 12-22.
Has any team in the history of any sport actually talked about titles at 12-22? You just need to win 10 straight to reach mediocrity, or to storm 30-19 through the rest of the season just to finish above .500.
I listened to the Knicks on the radio the other night, and to hear their local shills talk up Carmelo Anthony you would have thought he was challenging Oscar Robertson as the next player to average a triple-double for an entire season. He had shot 5-for-10 in the first half in Dallas. Chills.
Now the Knicks reportedly considered trading your beloved ball hog for another. Knicks fans were in full riot gear over the idea that Blake Griffin could replace Anthony as the face of the franchise.
No idea why. Their numbers are similar, and Griffin is considerably younger. But the generic Knicks fan is so attached to Anthony, so spellbound by something abstract and abject, that any trade short of LeBron James is treasonous.
If you're one of the poor frozen souls (like me) who works at night, you may twist your radio to Tony Paige, who holds court during the vampiric hours. It's quite something to hear the sleep-deprived masses muse over Melo.
Forget that he's had a decade to dominate the playoffs and has done nothing. If the Knicks just tweak the roster and get this guy they're all set. All Alpha males in NBA history are charged with carrying their teams except Anthony, whose conga line of apologists is still alarmingly abundant.
When Miami gags we kill King James. When the Thunder collapses we blame Kevin Durant. When the Lakers lose we dissect Kobe Bryant. When the Knicks lose we blame James Dolan or Mike Woodson or Tyson Chandler.
You'll notice players will play for pennies to ride on LeBron's cape, company men like Shane Battier and Ray Allen and even Greg Oden. Who runs to Melo? JR Smith and the artist formerly known as Artest.
I've given up on trying to convince the Carmelo Kool-Aid set that he's little more than Tracy McGrady. And perhaps I'm too hard on the hardcore Knicks devotee. You can't choose your team anymore than the woman you love.
Someone should just school me on the spell this career gunner has over Gotham. And why Griffin would have been so bad. It can't get much worse. Unless Isiah Thomas returns. Then we can blame James again.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
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