NBA Executives Rip 'Selfish' Carmelo Anthony, One Says He 'Can't Be Alpha Male

[Hoopz2332]

Here are a few keys excerpts:

One executive characterizes Melo as a "winner" but believes he developed too many bad habits early in his professional career.

I like Melo. I like that he competes. He obviously can score at a high level. People forget that when he got drafted by Denver, the Nuggets had won 17 games the year before. And he immediately turned them into a playoff team and took them to the playoffs every year he was there. He took a 17-win team and led them to 43 wins. So he can win and make a team better. I think his problem is that he went to Denver, which was a dysfunctional franchise at that time, so he picked up some bad habits and didn't learn what it takes to really win in this league. If he had gone to a better organization with a truly professional environment coming out of the gate, he would have learned and been more professional. He won big in college (leading Syracuse to the National Championship in 2003). He won big in high school at Oak Hill. He's been a winner all his life.

The other three executives were far less complimentary of Melo's ability to win in the NBA.

From Exec No. 2:

He's a great player, but he's also a selfish player. That's just how he is. I don't think he'll look at himself in the mirror and say, "What am I not doing? What am I doing that's keeping us from winning?"

From Exec No. 3:

I actually think that, for whatever reason, Melo's always gotten a pass. At the end of the day, he's been in the league long enough where, if he was really a winner and about winning, he'd have figured it out by now. He's had enough time to do that now.

From Exec No. 4:

I love him as a player. I just don't think he's your alpha male. He can't be your No. 1 guy. He's kind of like Clyde Drexler. As the alpha male in Portland, Clyde never got over the top. But when he went to Houston and was the No. 2 guy to Hakeem Olajuwon, he won. Melo's too much about himself to be the No. 1 guy.


And finally, here is perhaps the cruelest cut of all, courtesy of Exec No. 4: "He's kind of like the 2013 version of Stephon Marbury. He's not as bad as Stephon, but he's got Steph tendencies."

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...-be-alpha-male

[Budadiiii]

Water is wet and Derrick Rose is socially awkward.

[Nick Young]

Carmelo can win a title as a number one guy in the NBA, he has just always been surrounded by shit teams, especially now in New York.

[Haymaker]

I agree with the Drexler comparison. Melo's the kind of star that will always fall short of delivering because he lacks that extra "gene" that, for example, Hakeem had and Drexler lacked. Even so, at least Drexler took his team to the finals on two occasions, Melo can't seem to get past the 2nd round nowadays. You can't score your way through the playoffs, the game is about much more than that.

[bagelred]

An article ripping on Carmelo Anthony? Wow, now that's original. We've never heard that before.


But I will say Melo is back to his old self this season. He never passes the ball, always goes iso, and takes the worst contested shots, and just keeps shooting.

[tontoz]

Drexler is a bad comparison. Drexler was never a selfish chucker like Melo. The only thing that kept him from winning a title in Portland was MJ.

[Real Men Wear Green]

The last Piston champion really should have ended the myth that you can't win a championship with ____ as your best player. Because now we can always ask, "Which Piston was better?"

I don't like Anthony's current approach to the game because he seems to have stretches of the game where he gets the ball every possession and shoots it every time they give it to him. That kind of play does reduce the value of the players around him and if he's not hot it puts the Knicks into a hole. But I don't believe he's just a sociopathic ballplayer that can't change. His coaching staff just has to sell him on the value of ball movement. I don't recall him being this bad with the ballhogging in Denver. I do however recall Woodson's Hawks looking like 5 different guys playing 1-on-1. I believe he brought that same approach to offense to NY and when you tell a guy like Anthony to take an aggressive approach to attacking his man this is what you get.

They should at least run some plays to create mismatches for him. I haven't watched every Knick game but what I have seen is a lot of getting the ball to Melo as soon as possible and accepting whatever he produces. That will probably get them to the playoffs but it will not lead them past any good teams. As of right now I see NY as a first round exit.

[el gringos]

An article ripping on Carmelo Anthony? Wow, now that's original. We've never heard that before.


But I will say Melo is back to his old self this season. He never passes the ball, always goes iso, and takes the worst contested shots, and just keeps shooting.

Coming off the rockets game when he took 1 bad shot the entire game?

Playing w Felton, chandler, and shumpert forces him to iso from the perimeter is much different than how he played and will play with Bargnani and jr on the floor with him. Outside of Felton the rockets game was the best example of team offense the Knicks have put forth.

Of course it will take more than one game but you will notice a huge difference in Carmelo's game when he gets the ball at the elbow or baseline as opposed to him trying to create from behind the 3 point line.

[Nick Young]

I agree with the Drexler comparison. Melo's the kind of star that will always fall short of delivering because he lacks that extra "gene" that, for example, Hakeem had and Drexler lacked. Even so, at least Drexler took his team to the finals on two occasions, Melo can't seem to get past the 2nd round nowadays. You can't score your way through the playoffs, the game is about much more than that.

Did you forget his year in Syracuse when he lead them to the national title as the only good player on the team?

Melo has the winning gene. He has just never played with a winning NBA coach and been surrounded by winning teammates.

[To4]

Knicks Melo needs to go back to being the thin Denver Melo..

[niko]

This is unfair. Let's take your favorite player, go to exec's, say "why don't you think he's a winner" and then print the comments of the worst one's. Did they go to 30 exec's and everyone said this? And it's Broussard? Are these real people? I'm not even joking, are these real people?

Let's take a sample size, ask a negative question, then print the answer to bash Melo.

[nathanjizzle]

Water is wet and Derrick Rose is socially awkward.

[La Frescobaldi]

maybe i shoulda been a gm. From last season, but I've been saying it since he was in Denver: http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...=299859&page=2
Re: This board refuses to respect Carmelo Anthony

for my part, you are correct.
No respect for a player who deliberately tanked games to get rid of a rival for glory in Lin; who couldn't adjust to a coach in Denver and created animosity, then went to New York and created animosity to get rid of a coach he didn't like; no respect for a player who lives and dies for boring@ss destructive hero ball; who throws his team out of rhythm so bad that they just lurch painfully through games like a junior high marching band; who seldom plays defense.

Respect is reserved for guys like Havlicek or Erving or Bird, Tim Duncan or LaMarcus Aldridge or Paul George - players that bring it for their team, not just for their own glory.

Paul George is a better defender. But he does less for his team than Anthony does for his.

He is worth far more to the Pacers than Anthony is to the Knicks..... It's pretty simple.
PG plays both ends of the court and Anthony doesn't.
PG plays within the team offense; Anthony IS the offense.
PG defends the main scorers; Anthony defends the spot he is standing on.

how many times must I pay the troll toll? Anthony being the team offense vs PG playing within the offense means that Anthony does more. Anthony has held West to pretty bad totals this series, he is one of the main scorers, no?

you are far too selective for me.
Why do you ignore the Murder of Linsanity? Coaches with enormous problems because of Anthony? Lack of defensive effort?
It's been known world-wide since the mid-sixties that one player carrying his team offensively is a blind alley.

[La Frescobaldi]

Carmelo Anthony is the modern day Elvin Hayes. Unstoppable on offense, seldom bothers to play defense, and coaches despise him for his ballhoggery and lack of team play.

[HurricaneKid]

Did you forget his year in Syracuse when he lead them to the national title as the only good player on the team?

Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara would like to have a word with you.