Carmelo and the Knicks refuse to get swept.
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Carmelo and the Knicks refuse to get swept.
no caption necessary.
Carmelo Anthony, a moment of clarity.
Melo scored of 21 of his 33 points in tonight’s game against the Nets in the 1st quarter.
Stir the Echoes
Man the 90’s, right you guys: sky pagers, Girbaud jeans, Sam Elliott as a sex symbol; and Bulls v. Knicks. For anyone who followed basketball in the early 90’s, Bulls vs. Knicks was the defining rivalry in basketball and possibly the second most important one in NBA history. The best team and player in all of sports playing for the “Second City” against their bitter rivals in New York, a consummate team with a mean attitude that matched the pride of the city.
But rivalry only matters when the teams matter which is what made Easter Sunday at the Garden such a nostalgic aberration.
We know the Bulls matter. Best record in the NBA, an MVP, a coach of the year, and enough recent success to make long standing Bulls fans like me forget about the dismal eight years pre-Rose, post-Jordan (I go way back like Granville Waiters bald spot).
Of course a rough patch is not unexpected once a franchise loses the greatest player in league history and its most successful coach.
Then there are the Knicks, a franchise that has been clawing its way back to respectability these last two seasons, using every resource imaginable – house renovations, celebrity recruitment, and quite a lot of coin – anything to erase what came before, a decade of constant losing preceded by a decade of constant almost winning.
Now, despite their tumultuous season, the Knicks are within reach of a #7 or #8 seed, and might be the third or fourth best team in the conference.
Full disclosure, I love Knicks fans. Because they love basketball. It’s one of the most dedicated yet tortured fan bases in sports. And New York was always on the wrong end of razor thin margins against Chicago. Yes, they beat the Bulls, once. But they never beat THE Bulls, not even once.
By contrast, loyal Bulls fans went from ashy to classy so fast it’s like Brad Sellers got mind wiped out of existence. “Weren’t we just an #8 seed? And who is this Scottie Pippen fellow selling me subs?”
Great games, great moments, and great teams now forever encased in amber (YouTube). And be it a Knicks fan or Bulls fans, both sides can simultaneously point to them with either exaltation or regret, but not without a shared respect. I live in New York now. Went to my first Knicks game last month against Orlando where I gave Patrick Ewing a standing ovation (willingly); Carmelo Anthony yesterday afternoon, not so much.
BTW, New York at Chicago tomorrow night at 9:30pm. ESPN. See you there.
Travel Day with the New York Knicks
Courtesy of JR Smith & Iman Shumpert’s Instagram accounts
Carmelo Anthony
Landry Fields brings the Knicks smiles with his take on Bruno Mars
Landry Fields: Chemist, Secret, master of Amare Stoudemire impressions.
Two things: 1.) I’m convinced Landry Fields is actually Drake and 2.) Do the Knicks always coordinate their outfits like they’re in a Ciroc ad? They look like the nerdy version of A$AP Mob
‘Melo Got His Tonight
Carmelo dropped 37 on the Wizards tonight, including the game winner, a three, with 15 seconds left.
Because nobody everybody beats the Wiz.
(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Just a picture of Carmelo Anthony hyperextending his knee at practice.
![Melo: Excuse me, is this the scarf convention?
CP3: Scarf convention?
Carmelo: Yeah. The place where people who wear scarves… convene.
CP3: Oh. No.
[SlapClap]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvrhzemGct1qzb7vjo1_400.jpg)
Melo: Excuse me, is this the scarf convention?
CP3: Scarf convention?
Carmelo: Yeah. The place where people who wear scarves… convene.
CP3: Oh. No.
[SlapClap]
Pac Div “Still Flexin”
feat. Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Eric Gordon & Derrick Williams
Watch Carmelo Anthony ball up some hipsters, Dwyane Wade dunk on some degenerates and Chris Paul take on people his own size (tiny).
Jordan Brand and Nike have absolutely owned this lock out. between the viral ads, Nerf shoes and global park league games, they’ve kept basketball fans fed with, well, basketball. They even inspired this awesome t-shirt.
NEW YORK — NBA commissioner David Stern canceled the first two weeks of the season Monday after owners and players were unable to reach a new labor deal and end the lockout.
The summer of LeBron vs. Durant continues. This time in the Melo League.
Wish I was at this game that featured all sorts of NBA talent including Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul. I also wish I had more time to read & write about basketball (I’m getting married this weekend). I also wish there was an NBA season to read and write about, too.
But I’ll take what I can get and the NBA’s super stars have been giving us a ton of non-NBA material this summer. Especially LeBron and Durant. LeBron went off for 32 points in this game and his team, which also featured CP3 and Carmelo (the league is actually Melo’s Baltimore based Pro-Am league) beat out Durant’s Goodman team despite Kid Liquid’s 59 points. Durant’s team was heavy on the Pro side too, featuring players such as Jeff Green and Austin Daye.
Overall, I can live without the NBA, their red tape, insane pricing and David Stern’s politics if I could easily watch these Pro-Am games whenever they were on. Someone needs to hurry up and build a youtube or justin.tv type site simply for Pro-Am games.
In fact, that might be the best leverage the players have. Forget going to Europe and playing in an economy that’s worse than it is stateside, forget living in a foreign country where English is a rarity and forget playing for a FIBA team that might not always pay you. What the players need to do is unionize a little bit and get a big sponsor or two to pay for and broadcast a dozen or so Pro-Am leagues. That would put some fright in the Stern and the owners.
Again, this comes down to the players recognizing that the NBA isn’t the product that fans want to see. The players are the product. Hopefully the rest of the league will follow in the footsteps of LeBron and Durant and start playing in these now-popular park games. Then they can all collectively reach out to their sponsors and ask them to throw a few millions their way for advertisement and exclusive footage rights.
Or we can just hope the NBA unlocks itself on September 15th.
