I'm Just Happy It's Done

Everyone has a breaking point when it comes to hearing about the same thing over and over again. Of course, the first time you hear something new you are interested and want to learn more. But, I don't care how sympathetic you are to the person or their plight, there comes a time where you just can't listen to it anymore. Whether it's a person whining about their mean boss or bragging about how much money they made last year, at some point you just want them to either shut up or find a second topic. Now, the exact amount of time before someone snaps can vary from one individual to another but I think it averages out to around two months, depending on how much you talk to a particular person. Therefore, seeing as how the speculation about whether or not Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony would end up with the New York Knicks has been dragging on since August, it is no surprise that America had enough of this story weeks ago. Because of this, when news came down late last night a trade was finally done and Anthony was a Knick people weren't particularly happy, sad or excited. Instead, they seemed just be relieved that there was finally something else to talk about.

The main reason this story annoyed sports fans so much was that we always knew it would end this way. There are few things in life more annoying than knowing the ending to a story by page 100 yet having to read through another 600 pages to get there. Anthony said months ago his preference was to be traded to New York, hinting that he wouldn't sign an extension with anyone else and effectively killing any leverage the Nuggets had. No one would offer an acceptable package of players and draft picks knowing Anthony might just be a rental, so the Nuggets were going to have to take what the Knicks were offering or watch as Carmelo walked away this summer and they ended up with nothing. Sure, there were a couple of moments where it looked like the Nuggets were going to find a third team to get involved, but ultimately we all knew how this was going to turn out. To drag it out this long was just cruel and annoying. All that has happened with these prolonged talks was that people who weren't fans of either team have begun to hate the Nuggets for stalling, Carmelo for being passive-aggressive about privately demanding a trade while not being man enough to publicly come out and say 'I will only go to the Knicks' which would have ended all the speculation, his wife for allegedly being the driving force behind his desire to go to New York (she's a former MTV VJ and reality TV star) and the Knicks for not being willing to simply pay the going rate for a top-15 NBA player. Everybody went down a few notches when they didn't have to.

-Since we're here, I guess we should talk about whether or not this trade makes the Knicks any better. Eh, kinda. They now have two very-good-to-great players and in today's NBA that should easily get you into the playoffs, if not the second round, and that is better than people expected. However they also have no depth and a real size deficiency. They also play no defense and I'm not a huge fan of their coach's style of running-and-gunning. Basically they could pose a match-up problem against the right team (like the Celtics) but, much like Oklahoma City against the Lakers last year, they would only be annoying enough to extend a series to five or six game, not eliminate a good team. So, they're better, but not Championship-caliber. In the long term they could still improve, though I wonder if they will be able to afford anybody else. They pretty much mortgaged their future by trading any young, cheap players they had in this deal, so the only people they can get now are unproven guys or old, expensive veterans another team is looking to offload. Basically, if they can get a third star to team with Stoudemire and Anthony they could be good, but if they can't they may be in trouble. Anthony has already shown he couldn't even get to the Finals with a Denver team had a better supporting cast than he has now and I still wonder if the Knicks will regret giving Stoudemire a long-term deal considering his knees are questionable. I'm sure this trade will sell a lot of jerseys and fill a lot of seats, but I'm just not sure this moves makes the Knicks much better. One thing I do know? It certainly wasn't worth this much discussion.