Keidel: Underrated? Get Real — Melo Is Most OVERRATED In NBA
By Jason Keidel
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Christmas came early this year.
Santa Anthony delivered some semantic goodies in the old, October stocking. The Knicks' resident gunner just popped off at Chris Broussard, boldly asserting that he is the most underrated player in the NBA.
Only in the NBA and NYC would a one-dimensional player on a perennial loser assert his place atop the totem pole of basketball stardom.
If you've ever parked by this slice of cyberspace you know yours truly drives the Anti-Melo Bus through the five boroughs and beyond.
Peter Vecsey and yours truly are about the only local media blowhards who barked from the beginning that the trade for Carmelo Anthony was a guaranteed bust. The rest of the media and masses were either too jumpy or jaded to see the eternal verities of Dr. Naismith's invention.
Ball hogs don't win NBA titles. They can at Syracuse, where the chasmal gaps in talent are so pronounced that one player can literally carry his team to a title. Danny Manning. Pervis Ellison. Add Melo to the meandering group of college stars whose stripes were exposed in The Association. (Yes, he's better than the former Kansas and Louisville stars, but the point still applies.)
How far back you wanna go? In 12 -- 12! -- years, Anthony has never carried his team to a title or a title round, and has reached just one conference finals.
According to basketball-reference.com, he has made approximately $135 million in salary alone. With about another $124 million in Jim Dolan checks due his way, he will bank about a quarter-billion bucks to do what he's always done. Lose. Lose quickly. Lose ugly. Lose often.
Here's where Melo went wrong. He's correct about the disparity between perception and performance. But he took the wrong turn at his conclusion. He's not the most underrated player in the league. He's the most overrated player in the sport. And it's not even close.
After he loses his nth first-round playoff series -- assuming he even reaches one -- the Carmelo Kool-Aid crowd will say it's unfair to compare him to the top-tier players. Well, he just did, and favorably so. And when you pay him like a top-three player, you have every right to use the best as backdrop. By definition, a "max player" means more than "max money" -- it assumes a commensurate performance and production in that old, win-loss thing.
Melo makes more than LeBron James, for @#$% sake! Technically, Kobe Bryant is the most overpaid player, but his is a de facto legacy deal, and his five rings are five more than Anthony will ever wear. A shame there isn't some algorithm that calculates the most millions wasted on one player who never played in an NBA Finals. You'd have to think Mr. Anthony would be the priciest player in history who never played a meaningful game in June.
We can talk about scoring titles and top-10 MVP finishes, but the NBA, more than any sport other than -- or perhaps including -- QB in the NFL, winning is the most singular metric by which we measure success. The reason is obvious, of course, as one player influences the five on the court way more than a pitcher or quarterback or goalie.
And by win-loss measuring stick, the Knicks have, at best, pushed, at worst, were swindled during the Denver deal that brought the young man who was branded a New Yorker despite being raised in Baltimore and was expected to bring New York a title despite his renowned inability to do so anywhere else.
The New York Post ran a thorough, thoughtful piece in February, dissecting the deal with Denver and, at the time, the Knicks were 123-102 overall. The Nuggets? They were a rather robust 137-83. And the Nuggets got nearly nothing in return other than draft picks. Of the NBA-ready players, they landed Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari and Timofey Mozgov. Hardly the 1984 Olympic team. Of course, toss in a host of high draft picks and it seems like the Knicks got gutted, not the Nuggets.
Of course, facts don't fly in the world of rabid and rampant idolatry. We say Melo will bring Gotham its first hardwood hardware in over 40 years because we want him to, not because there's a shred of evidence that he will, or that he can.
New Yorkers who have kept this Melo-as-Messiah afloat should be ashamed. A real, authentic, New York sports monolith taught us better. A shame we must still lean on and learn from Bill Parcells, who told us you are what your record says you are.
Carmelo Anthony has a record on the hardwood -- so bad it could be a criminal record. One of the sad verities and ironies of pro basketball in New York City -- on Broadway, no less -- where our leading man leads us nowhere.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
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