Carmelo Anthony on tanking: ‘It’s a terrible way to think’
The New York Knicks are just four games out of the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and are looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since before Christmas, but there has been a lot of talk about whether or not they should tank the rest of the way.
Carmelo Anthony doesn’t want to hear it.
On Friday, Anthony told reporters that he could never think about losing games intentionally.
“It’s a terrible way to think,” he said, via Marc Berman of the New York Post. “No player in any sports should be thinking about that.
“As a player, you always disagree with that. We’re the ones out there playing, trying to win basketball games. From the fans’ perspective, just tank or lose games, I don’t know how you do that. We’re going to try to lose the game or [the last] 15, 20 games, we’re going to figure out ways to lose and tank the season and start thinking about draft pieces?”
Most fans feel that the Knicks are going nowhere, and they’re probably right. The more games the team loses, the better shot it has at a higher lottery pick. But Anthony, who is set to miss the postseason for a fourth straight year after reaching the playoffs in each of his first 10 seasons, is starting to miss the old days.
“It’s something that you sit back and think about, it’s something you miss,” Carmelo said of playoff basketball. “I miss it. It’s something I’ve gotten used to throughout my career. Just being there, getting a shot, what can happen in the playoffs. I miss it. I miss it a lot and something I think about.”
If the Knicks do decide to play their younger guys more, Anthony says that is a decision that would have to come from the higher-ups.
In reality, the Knicks are once again stuck in a horrible spot. They’d have to leap four teams to make the playoffs, so that probably isn’t happening. They also aren’t in a good position to earn a top-three pick in a draft loaded with guards. No wonder Carmelo said what he did recently about the direction of the team.
