Knicks Sell the Farm to Get Carmelo Anthony

Article first published as Knicks Sell the Farm to Get Carmelo Anthony on Blogcritics.


If you are a New York Knicks fan, you are probably smiling this morning. The Knicks finally made the big trade to get Carmelo Anthony, but to make the deal they had to give - and give a lot to be sure. I know, the sight of the Apostrophe Boys, 'Melo and Amar'e, together on the court at Madison Square Garden in their Knicks uniforms is enough to make our heads spin, but we should be a little worried about how Denver got a good deal more than anyone expected to give.

Consider if old McDonald wanted to get a certain famed milking cow to add to his herd, but in order to get it he had to give up all his chickens, pigs, and half his crops too. Would he give away most of his farm for that one cow? Well, the Knicks sent Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, and Timofey Mozgov to the Nuggets to get the Brooklyn-born Anthony. They also gave Denver $3 million in cash plus a 2014 first-round pick and two second-round picks. His homecoming is coming at a very high price, and you wonder if the Knicks are letting the future slip away (especially with rookie Mozgov) in order to secure something right now.

Knicks fans need only to look to the standings for a reality check. The 28-26 Knicks are twelve games behind the Boston Celtics. Even with Anthony, there is no conceivable way that they are going to catch Boston. Of course, fans will say that was not the purpose of this trade. The idea is to get through the last twenty-eight games better than the first fifty-four, secure a spot in the first round of the playoffs, and give Knicks fans more than they have had to hope for in quite a long time.

Okay, I am all for that, but I am worried that the Knicks as an organization were played. What does that say not just about this year but the future. And, if the reports of Isiah Thomas acting as an "advisor" to owner James Dolan throughout the negotiations are true, then the writing is on the wall: Donnie Walsh, head of operations and against giving up too much in this trade, may be gone and Thomas may be back. That is bad news for the team and for the fans as well.

Tomorrow night at the Garden a new page in Knicks history begins. Anyone who has been there and heard the crowd will get a lump in his or her throat when the Knicks take the court against Milwaukee. The place will be shaking to the rafters, and visions of Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, and Dick Barnett running across the court will be dancing in our heads. Yes, that team was pieced together too from trades that resulted in that big championship season, and we can dare to dream a little and that's fine.

Still, when all the cheering is done, Anthony and Stoudemire then have to walk the walk. They have to fill some pretty big shoes out there if history is going to repeat itself. Maybe this year, but maybe not. I keep hearing Mets announcer Ralph Kiner saying what I have heard him say over and over again through the years, "The best trades are the ones you don't make." Let's hope that's not the case with Carmelo Anthony, but we'll start finding out tomorrow night at the Garden.

A-Rod Hits 600: Put It in the Books with an Asterisk

Article first published as A-Rod Hits 600: Put It in the Books with an Asterisk on Blogcritics.

"Damaged goods." That is what my friend and Yankee fan Frank (he prefers for me not to use his last name) said when I asked him what he thought about Alex Rodriguez's 600th home run against the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium yesterday. I was glad that Frank qualified it this way. When pressed about the number 600, he said, "Put it in the books with an asterisk."

Rodriguez hit a ball to straight away center field, ending his pursuit with of number 600 against Toronto's Shaun Marcum. As A-Rod rounded the bases, getting cheered all the way, it was as if the fans and he believed that this moment was special. Later on he confessed to being glad it was all over, but for his team and their fans it is never over with A-Rod. Now he and they can set their sights on number 700, right?

Okay, I am a New York Mets fan, but I am also a fan of baseball. I had to check with Frank (with whom I have had lots of heated discussions in the past about our two teams) because he bleeds pinstripes as much as I bleed Mets orange and blue. I can appreciate great Yankees players like Derek Jeter, Thurman Munson, and Mickey Mantle for what they have meant to baseball. But the question invariably with A-Rod is what has he done to baseball?

I know there are those who don't care about steroids. They didn't care when Mark McGwire walked around like the Incredible Hulk and hit all those homeruns. Chalk that up for Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds too. They only cared about all the dingers and how it was good for baseball. Good for baseball? Saying these tainted players were or are good for baseball is like saying the Gulf oil spill was good for tourism. Give me a break.

The great sports columnist Mike Lupica, writing in today's issue of the New York Daily News, says that Bobby Bonds put a message to A-Rod on his website: "Welcome to the club." As Lupica notes, "Yeah. They're in the same club." As always Lupica hits the salient nail on the head: A-Rod is part of the Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa club, and not the Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Babe Ruth club. Pure and simple: A-Rod's accomplishment has the whiff of something foul to it.

Make no mistake, A-Rod is a great player. He has enormous natural talent, but the problem is that he sought to enhance that talent in ways that are not in keeping with the fundamental, natural beauty of the game. He is a bad influence on other players who see his success and think, "Why not me too?" Furthermore, he is a terrible role model for kids who aspire to be baseball players, who may think they need to do something even at a young age to enhance their natural abilities in order to perform better, to get noticed, and maybe make it to the big show.

So in the Bronx in New York City yesterday, A-Rod hit is 600th career home run. I kept thinking, "Thank God he is not a New York Met." I have always thought that was, as the legendary Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner used to say, "One of the best deals never made." I know a lot of Mets fans wanted A-Rod back then, but we can breathe easier because all his talent and all his problems are on the other side of town. Let Yankees fans try to sort out how they feel about his legacy and his place in Yankee history; we can be honest with ourselves that it's better this way.

What about A-Rod's legacy? As my friend Frank says, "Damaged goods." So let baseball put A-Rod and his 600 in the books with a big fat asterisk. Bonds said that A-Rod is part of the club now. I guess it depends on how you look at it, but I keep thinking about that great Groucho Marx line: "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Damaged goods, indeed!