Carmelo Anthony is the Knicks GM according to Johnette Howard

Apparently you don’t even need to follow a basketball team to write about them consistently. This is what ESPN New York’s Johnette Howard proves basically with every article she writes. I’ve been wanting to tear apart some of her older stuff but this article, “Memo to Melo: You better win,” takes the cake for being the worst. Here we go.

For an NBA superstar in love with playing Hero Ball, Carmelo Anthony has a funny acquaintance with blame. Doesn't want it. Doesn't like it. He couldn't play nice with the Denver Nuggets and coach George Karl, and in New York his pattern's been the same with Mike D'Antoni, Amare Stoudemire and now with Jeremy Lin and that "ridiculous contract" -- Melo's words -- that the Houston Rockets used to lure Lin away from New York.

Right from the start we’re talking about media hubris and not actually what happened with the Knicks last year. What does she mean he couldn’t play nice with George Karl? When did Anthony ever bash George Karl or not “play nice” with him? What the hell are you talking about?

Also, did you not notice the entire team gave up on Mike D’Antoni last year? You know why? Because he’s a terrible freaking coach who’s mustache is too stubborn to change his coaching style to cater to the players in his system. He had Tyson Chandler doing pick and rolls, Amare Stoudemire standing on the wing, and Carmelo Anthony sitting in the corner or playing point guard. Does that sound like any of those veteran players strengths? He completely condoned a 23-year-old point guard to take the most shots on the floor. Part of being a coach is connecting with the players you have on your roster and that roster gave up on him.

Honestly, you really think Carmelo Anthony wanted Jeremy Lin gone because of one quote taken completely out of context? What is wrong with you? If you or anyone thinks, “Carmelo got what he wanted,” you’re insane.

Throw in the raft of players the Knicks traded away to get Anthony, and how shooting guard Landry Fields melted in his presence before drifting off to Toronto, and that's a lot of tombstones for Anthony to have on his resume.

The raft of players the Knicks traded for Anthony? You mean Raymond Felton (back on the roster), Timofey Mozcov (useless), Wilson Chandler (free agent anyway), and Danillo Gallinari? So honestly it was Gallinari and Mozcov for Carmelo Anthony in the end. You wouldn’t make that trade again? Why is it Anthony’s fault that Landry Fields suddenly couldn’t hit open jump shots? Are you going to tell me he got less of them with Anthony on the team?

What tombstones does Anthony have on his resume? What in the world does that even mean? Did he kill them too? 

The Knicks have never looked more like Anthony's team than they do right now. And now he better damn well make them winners.

Otherwise all the Knicks have done is say goodbye to Linsanity and hello to -- what? -- more Melo-ocrity?

Anthony better damn well win, all right.

Did you really need to space three times to say that? What do any of these words accomplish outside of being disrespectful to Carmelo Anthony? Anthony better win now that Lin’s gone? There wasn’t any pressure on him to win if Lin stayed?

He now has his coach of choice, Mike Woodson. And he now has an offense built entirely around him. He's capable of playing a more devastating and consistent all-around game. And that will always make the charge that he still doesn't get what it takes to be a winner fair until he proves otherwise.

I forgot that Carmelo Anthony is actually the GM of the Knicks. He actually anointed Woodson coach during his Jeremy Lin jersey burning ceremony last spring. He fired D’Antoni and hired Woodson apparently. Wow, just wow.

Oh, and what the hell does that last sentence even mean? I mean I’m not trying to say I don’t make mistakes when I write, but I’m sitting in bed with my shirt off eating an Italian Panini, you write for ESPN and have editors.

So somebody should tell Anthony to spare us the revisionist talk about how much he wanted Lin back, or his depiction of how lovely it was to be reunited a couple weeks ago with D'Antoni, now an assistant for the U.S. Olympic team. Anthony's description of that reunion sounded like a cheesy chick-movie trailer: "We talked. We laughed. We joked ... "

Okeydoke.

You just hate this guy don’t you? Do you actually research articles before you write them? Where were you when Anthony suggested Lin play in the first place or the countless other times he supported him throughout the offseason, including how he said he wanted him back before he called his ballooning contract ridiculous? Maybe Anthony and D’Antoni don’t completely hate each other as people but just couldn’t work together. Please stop acting like speculation is fact, you’re a journalist!

There were reasonable arguments on both sides for why the Knicks should or shouldn't have kept Lin. The most curious, yet believeable one? Numerous news outlets reported that Knicks owner Jim Dolan drew the line at throwing more money into the furnace now -- now? -- in large part because Dolan's hair-trigger temper was tripped when Lin went back to the Rockets and squeezed more money and a restructured contract out of them, making it harder for the Knicks to match.

Lin quit the Knicks as much as the Knicks quit him.

Oh so you actually did read the real story of why Lin isn’t back with New York? Then why the hell are you blaming it on Carmelo Anthony? James Dolan being an idiot has nothing to do with Carmelo Anthony.

But make no mistake, Anthony showed Lin the door, too, in much the same way he shoved D'Antoni out by blatantly quitting on him on a mid-March Sunday against Philadelphia, and D'Antoni resigned two days later. Since when does a team's superstar -- knowing management and his head coach are on record saying they planned to match their starting point guard's contract offer -- go public and call it "ridiculous," as Anthony did when everything was still in play?

Sigh…this is just ridiculous. Maybe he shouldn’t have been honest saying that it’s a crazy contract. He’s not the brightest guy in the world, that’s why he plays basketball for a living. The media made this a big deal and if you honestly think Jeremy Lin’s offended by these statements, (I’m sure he wasn’t) or that the Knicks management held any weight to them at all, you’re a crazy person.  He didn’t fire D’Antoni and he didn’t not choose to match Lin’s offer, you know why? He doesn’t run the team!

It's a good question, all right. So is this: Since when does a superstar who claims he's all about winning admit he didn't put out as much effort as he could've for D'Antoni, and then show up for Olympic team workouts talking about how he lost nearly 20 pounds after the NBA season ended? Think that might've helped him in his primary job for the Knicks? Even Woodson has said as much.

Is that how the deserved cornerstone of a wannabe title team acts?

This is fair criticism. If you made this the thesis of your article it’d actually be worth reading instead of implying that Carmelo Anthony runs the Knicks. There are questions surrounding Carmelo Anthony being a team leader and being driven enough for an NBA title, but why did you have to make me read all that other junk before you got there?

Anthony backtracked the day after he saw his remark about Lin's four-year, $25.1 million offer sheet caused a stir.

No, he clarified what he said because people aren’t smart enough to react properly. Guess it didn’t help at all.

He usually does.

Name one other time. Seriously, do it.

But he can't moonwalk away from this now: He better damn well make the Knicks win.

I don’t think he’s moonwalking anywhere. Again, is he going to try to make them lose? What are you accomplishing by saying this?

Anthony is the only one being ridiculous if he really believes -- as he's argued -- that he shouldn't share some blame for D'Antonis' and Lin's decisions to walk. He's insisted he's not a coach-killer, and the day after disparaging Lin's offer sheet while he was with Team USA in Washington, Anthony had the temerity to speak for both himself and Dolan. He said both of them wanted Lin back, though Dolan still hasn't spoken publicly on the matter.

Anthony also sent a text to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports saying: "I'm tired of people trying to blame me for the fact that the Knicks might not match. I want everybody to get paid if they have the opportunity."

Who sounds more ridiculous, the journalist trying to insult Carmelo Anthony or Carmelo Anthony saying he doesn’t make the GM decisions? I bet that he is getting tired of people trying to blame stuff on him that he doesn’t control. I would be too.

Anthony went on to add this lukewarm personal scouting report on Lin: "He's a good young player that has a lot of potential and upside with time and experience."

What an asshole that Anthony is. How dare he moonwalk away, he should’ve cut the number 17 in half and then placed the 1 on his chest because that’s 1 person he cares about in the entire world. Screw Amare Stoudemire, this is Carmelo Anthony's team!

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
Carmelo Anthony standing next to the only person he cares about in the world, himself. 

Now the 23-year-old Lin is gone. The Knicks' major offseason additions have been 39-year-old Jason Kidd, who just caught a DWI charge in the Hamptons, and three players they gave away before: 39-year-old Kurt Thomas, 38-year-old Marcus Camby and 28-year-old Raymond Felton, the heir to Lin's starting point guard position. Lin won't have to worry anymore about J.R. Smith's contention that his contract might've caused resentment among the other Knicks.

That's the supporting cast Melo now has. When it comes to his style of Hero Ball, the Knicks are all in.

So Anthony better get a little less squeamish about shouldering blame. And fast. Because he's out of options and excuses, and he can't moonwalk away from this: The Knicks are his team more than ever now. And he better damn well win.

So your thesis is that Carmelo Anthony drove Jeremy Lin out the door so he should try to win basketball games? What inspired you to write this article outside of your hatred and disrespect for Anthony? I completely understand this is a classless ripping apart of your work but smear pieces like this deserve to be disrespected, not the best player on the New York Knicks. This is sensationalized and biased media at its best people.

For more on stupid opinions people have surrounding athletes like Carmelo Anthony, I encourage you to read my post from earlier today. Here's the link if you're way too lazy to scroll down. 

5 Athletes you have the Completely Wrong Opinion about

We’re well into the age of Twitter and sensationalized media and it’s caused people to have absolutely horribly misinformed opinions about everything. It’s frustrating for myself because I end up having arguments with impassioned sports fans that just read a headline or a 160 character Tweet and have developed an extreme opinion. Here are five professional athletes who most sports fans have wrongly formulated opinions about.

1. Tim Tebow is a great quarterback – I never wanted to write anything about Tim Tebow because people are just totally insane about this guy. I recently watched Skip Bayless (who I’m pretty sure ESPN just pays to say inane things) say that he would rather have Tim Tebow for 1 game than reigning NFL MVP and former Super Bowl Champion Aaron Rodgers. This is just example of the total craziness that is surrounding this guy.

Apparently nobody actually watched the games Tim Tebow started this year and I’m pretty sure they didn’t considering Denver isn’t a major media market. What I saw was at times, the worst quarterback play I’ve ever seen. He didn’t complete half the passes he threw this year. That’s not just bad, it’s completely atrocious. Of the 13 games he started his team failed to score over 20 points 9 times while having one of the better running games in the NFL.

He had a 72.9 QB Rating, threw for 1,729 yards and for 12 touchdowns. Outside of the ridiculous luck he had towards the end of football games, he wasn’t even average. There’s a reason John Elway didn’t want this guy to be his quarterback and I’m pretty sure John Elway knows more about football than Skip Bayless.

I'm sorry Tim, Jesus' plan for you is not to be a great quarterback.

I know the Tebow crazies, and that’s what they are crazy, will say, “But he just wins football games!” They will point to his college success and will point to him throwing for 316 yards against the Steelers in the playoffs. He still didn’t complete 50% of his passes in that game and most people would agree if they played that game 5 times, the Steelers probably win 4 of them. He threw a slant for 80 yards and a hit a couple of big plays but didn’t do anything impressive as a quarterback. Yes, he was great in college but that means absolutely nothing in the NFL.

The biggest problem Tebow has right now is he can’t throw a football and he can’t read defenses. This all a quarterback does! The fact that he had to have a college offense installed for him is testament to the fact that he can’t play quarterback in this league. I understand that no matter how rational this argument is Tebow supporters will call me a hater and say he’s the “clutchest” human being on the planet. Until he leads two fourth quarter Super Bowl come backs and sets the NFL record for 4th quarter comebacks in a season, I’m sorry, that title belongs to Eli Manning.

2. Alex Rodriguez isn’t clutch – This is one of the most misinformed media stories in all of sports. A-Rod struggled in a couple of postseasons so he’s a choker. It’s just absolutely ridiculous because it’s a narrative that’s just completely untrue. I don’t know if anyone remembers 2009 (it was so long ago) but A-Rod absolutely demolished the baseball while leading the Yankees to a World Series Championship. He hit a bomb against Joe Nathan for the Twins to put the Yankees ahead in the Divisional Series, hit another clutch home run against the Angels closer Brian Feuentes, and had a huge double off Brad Lidge in the World Series. All these hits directly led the Yankee’s winning huge playoff games. To say this guy folds under pressure is just one of most ridiculous arguments you can make. In his career he’s had 9 walk-off hits, 8 of them were home runs.

A-Rod's as healthy as a horse in the clutch.

This is a totally media driven narrative. Look at his career numbers with runners in scoring position
- 297 AVG - .399 OBP - .537 SLG - .936 OPS. – This is not a guy who’s ever struggled to drive in runs. This can also be evidenced by the fact that he’s routinely had over 100 RBIs just about every year of his career. He also has the most grand slams in baseball history and is probably the best bases loaded hitter of all time period.

So again, how is a guy who led his team to a World Series with clutch hit after clutch hit, has numerous walk off hits, and is the best bases loaded hitter of all time, not clutch? People generally dislike A-Rod so his failures are more emphasized than his successes. How else could anyone ever call a guy with this resume not clutch?

3. Carmelo Anthony is a bad teammate – Despite Carmelo Anthony being a starter for Team USA and never having problems with any of his teammates, the media has written this narrative that Carmelo Anthony is a bad teammate. Yes, he shoots a lot but he’s also a supremely talented offensive player. Remember the same narrative happened surrounding Kobe Bryant and now it’s happening surrounding Carmelo Anthony. It has never stopped anyone from wanting to be his teammate and I doubt Team USA would want a guy who can’t get along with his teammates to compete for a gold medal.

The story we have currently regarding Carmelo Anthony is that he for some reason hates Jeremy Lin. It was widely reported that Anthony was an initial Lin supporter and encouraged D’Antoni to play Lin in the first place, but that story is widely ignored. The current story is that Carmelo Anthony said that the offer the Rockets made for Jeremy Lin is “ridiculous.”

This of course because of Twitter’s character limits and the need to grab headlines. After saying that he would love to have Jeremy Lin back he said, "It's up to the organization to say they want to match that ridiculous contract that's out there,'' This of course, was in reference to the fact that it goes from 5 million to 14.8 million in the final year, however this apparently meant that Anthony hates Jeremy Lin. Just look at the reaction on Twitter.

Now let’s look at the ESPN interview with Anthony and Tyson Chandler after the same game. (Video for the “ridiculous” quote can’t be found) Anthony pretty much says it’s not in his control and that’s what free agency means. Tyson Chandler after the same game called Lin’s contract “surprising.” Can’t interpret Chandlers comments in same way Carmelo’s comments were received say that, “Tyson Chandler is “surprised” Jeremy Lin received such an offer so he clearly doesn’t respect him.” This whole ridiculous thing with Carmelo Anthony is just that, ridiculous.

When you’re in the business of taking quotes out of context this kind of stuff happens. Anthony has done nothing but be supportive of his teammates his entire career and of Jeremy Lin, yet public perception is that he clearly hates him and is a bad teammate.

I’ve watched a ton of Carmelo Anthony’s career, from his college career at Syracuse, through his days in Denver, and now with the Knicks. He’s not the most intelligent or articulate guy, which is well known. Despite this though, he’s never been an outcast or a guy who doesn’t get along with his teammates. He’s never been on a losing team in his entire career and won a National Championship in college when he was 18. These stories are complete media hubris and it’s sad how many people who don’t watch the games fall for it.

4. Lebron James is a bad person for “The Decision” – Yes, it wasn’t the best “decision” to make in the world but Lebron James in no way deserved the criticism he took from deciding to play in Miami. I’ve never seen this country united behind something so uniformly like they’ve been against James, probably since 9/11. It’s been that bad. You would’ve thought he personally took a dump on the doorstep of every person living in Cleveland.

The problem with this perspective that Lebron James is the devil is that by all accounts he’s an extremely likable guy. Hell, I always liked Lebron and I had no reason to cheer for him at all outside of his tremendous talent. We’re really going to blame a guy in his mid-20s for wanting to go live in Miami instead of Cleveland? New Yorkers seem to think Lebron too stabbed them in the back, even though I have no idea who thinks playing for James Dolan is a good idea.

Too often we blame players for things and forget that they have agents and people who manage their careers. I highly doubt Lebron said to his friends, “Hey guys, let’s throw a huge party on national television and shit all over Cleveland’s hopes and dreams.” This was a problem with Lebron’s management for letting this kind of thing go on and telling him this wasn’t going to create a huge backlash. Yeah, Lebron could’ve had better foresight but he’s probably had someone managing his career since he was 14 years old.

The worst part about this situation is that Lebron clearly feels terrible about it. Early last year the criticism clearly affected him on the court and he just didn’t look like the same fun loving basketball player we saw in Cleveland. He’s even tried to show up to Ohio State games and has publicly said how much love he has for the Cleveland and Akron area. I know some people will never forgive him but coming from a cold town with nothing to do as well, I understand Lebron leaving.

Sports do something to people and make them take situations like this too personally. My mom even is disgusted with Lebron saying, “I could never cheer for him or forgive him for what he’s done,” but she seems to have no problem with me leaving my hometown and moving to New York City. Sports fans are just that, fanatics, and our perception of Lebron James proves this more than anything. You don’t know Lebron James, so try to empathize with him a little bit before you assert he’s an awful human being.

5. Dwight Howard has held the Orlando Magic hostage – Now this one is definitely subject to some controversy because much like Lebron, we’ve declared Dwight Howard as a malignant being. Again, much like Lebron this whole situation with Howard comes straight down to the people managing him. Who in the world let Dwight Howard sign that option to keep him in Orlando another year?

All Dwight Howard is guilty of is not wanting to play for the Magic organization anymore and being wishy-washy with this decision. It wasn’t an easy decision, he clearly likes Orlando, the weather is nice, the taxes are low, and this is the organization that drafted him. Howard’s problem is probably that he is too nice of a guy and didn’t stomp on everyone’s throats saying he wanted to leave like Carmelo Anthony did. He kind of backed off this decision and tried to be a good teammate and it has only brought him negative press.

Who can blame him for wanting to leave this organization though? Yes, they made the NBA Finals and lost to the Lakers one year but they were never going to beat that Lakers team. In my opinion, they were extremely fortunate to beat Cleveland that year. The best player he’s ever had on his team alongside him is debatably Hedo Turkalou, that one year that Hedo suddenly became awesome. This is a franchise that traded for Gilbert Arenas only to amnesty his stupidly huge contract and traded Brandon Bass for Glen “Big Baby” Davis. Why should Howard want to stay with this organization that just made stupid move after stupid move while building around the best center in basketball?

I know who's really to blame Dwight, don't worry.

I really think it’s more like the Orlando Magic held Dwight Howard hostage. They put themselves in this situation and to say anything less is simply ridiculous. You think if they could’ve brought in better players than Jameer Nelson, Jason Richardson, and Rashard Lewis he would’ve wanted to leave? I don’t think so. Now the Magic are clearly a team that would have to rebuild around Howard, again. Do you really think the best center in the NBA wants to be part of another rebuilding effort?

I understand Howard hasn’t made the best decisions throughout this whole process but he is absolutely not holding this franchise hostage. The Magic have the best center in basketball and have had a year to trade him and haven’t sealed the deal. I get that they wanted to keep him but that ship probably passed the minute they traded for Gilbert Arenas. How hard is it to trade the best center in basketball, obtain some assets, and move on? The Orlando Magic are the ones who’ve dropped and are still dropping the ball here no matter how much the media wants to blame Dwight Howard.

*Pictures provided via Google Images.