It's All About Distribution...or NOT

Ah! Vacation….nothing’s better. All around me the sports world is falling apart. Lin will be gone. The Mets are reverting to form. The Yankees are killing everybody. All over baseball, the stars are getting hurt. Paterno was a bad guy. Jason Kidd is a drunk.

 But I don’t care.

Lin-sanity was cool. It was such a nice story. A Chinese kid comes out f nowhere to play with intelligence and passion and help lead the Knicks to the playoffs. But it was only for a few moments in time. Carmelo Anthony was out at the time. So was Amare but that’s really not relevant to this situation. What matters is what Carmelo thinks.

 When Carmelo returned, and Amare, and Coach D’Antoni was gone, the victim of an early Carmelo ax-job, Jeremy was less effective. He turned almost ordinary. Carmelo helped make him that way. Carmelo is all about Carmelo. And the Knicks are all about Carmelo.

 That Carmelo runs the show isn’t even that strange in today’s NBA. Doesn’t Deron Williams run the new Brooklyn Nets? Don’t Kobe and Lebron have an extraordinary influence on decisions in their cities? It’s only natural. There are only five guys on the team. And nobody calls fouls on them. Talk about the most interesting man in the world.

Even Jeremy Lin called the Houston offer sheet ridiculous, 25 million over three years for a guy who played 25 games. That it would wind up costing the Knicks considerably more than that is the Knicks fault. Lin won’t be nearly as costly for Houston. And there’s no hair on those guys managing things in Houston. So, in a way, blame the NBA, blame the union, blame Houston if you’re so inclined but don’t forget to blame Carmelo too.

 If Carmelo really cared about winning, the union of Carmelo and Jeremy would work. But Jeremy was all about distributing the ball. Carmelo doesn’t even like the feel of that word…distributing. That would imply other players getting the ball.

 That’s why he didn’t like D’Antoni and refused to play hard for him. That’s why he doesn’t like Jeremy Lin. That, combined with all the attention Lin received (and that adulation might be the primary factor), was impossible for Carmelo to take. The ridiculous financial factors just made it a no-brainer.

And isn’t it amazing that, throughout all the ins and outs of the endless discussion surrounding the Lin signing, the GM Glen Grunwald wasn’t mentioned once?
But I don’t really care that much.

The Knicks will be mediocre for as long as Carmelo is on the team. Basketball is a team game. It’s a concept unknown to Carmelo. He doesn’t care about winning. When you think about it, just who plays well with Carmelo? Certainly not Landry Fields, another guy jettisoned in the latest round of free-agent madness.

They’ll be pretty good though. Tyson Chandler is the biggest reason though, not Carmelo and not Stoudemire. If and when Carmelo ever really wants to win, that will determine how far the Knicks will ever go. What if the fans booed whenever Carmelo took a stupid shot, or passed up an opportunity to pass? What if the media just drilled him every time he did something ridiculously stupid?

 I’d love to see Carmelo change his mind set.

 That’s the only chance the Knicks have of being a champion. Besides, how cool would it be if Jeremy and Yao become the best thing in Houston since oil. And it’ll be just as interesting if they fall flat on their faces. It’s a no-loss scenario for me. But the Knicks’ll be boring, more of the same nonsense we’ve witnessed before.

 But I can just tune in to the Nets.

 The Brooklyn Nets are also largely ruled by their star, Deron Williams. But Deron is a point guard extraordinaire; he’s all about distribution. Of course he can score too but he’d just as soon get assists. And he’ll have targets too. With Joe Johnson on board to add to Gerald Wallace and Brook Lopez and with some tough guys to do the dirty work, the Nets actually look really good on paper.

 When was the last time anybody could say that? They’ll be athletic and versatile and fun to watch, the kind of team they had back when Jason Kidd ran things at the Meadowlands. It’s not so bad when your star player makes the decisions if he’s a really smart guy who wants to win. I think Deron’s doing really well so far with Billy King as his mouthpiece. And they’re over the cap and don’t care that much…..very nice.

 The Mets have been really disappointing lately. They’re playing as if they just really figured out how young they are. Even worse, their older guys, Johan Santana and R.A. Dickey, are beginning to very much look their age. Maybe the Mets will start to turn things around (once again) but I have a feeling they won’t, not this time.

 Meanwhile, my least favorite team has taken off and shows no signs of shutting down. They’re playing like all really good teams, always winning with somebody else, either Cano or Texeira or Swisher or Ibanez or Martin or Andruw Jones…it just never ends. Oh yeah, they’ve got some pitching too. And Jeter and Arod.

 But the Yanks might still be vulnerable. Facing good pitching, and a versatile team on the other side of the diamond, they can be beat. If they don’t hit all those homers, what then? Such thoughts give a Yankee-hater hope.

It is a shame though for the Reds to lose Joey Votto or the Jays to lose Jose Bautista. The races this year have really been exciting but the loss of these stars could very likely turn things around again.

 And Joe Paterno was apparently a very bad guy. Disillusion abounds. Jason Kidd drives after drinking and doesn’t always have a designated driver. I guess he’ll have to hire a limo for a while. What a shame!