J-Speaks: Carmelo Anthony An All-Star Again

To say that New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony has had a lot to deal with this season is the understatement of the NBA season. He has had to deal with another season of the team not being in the playoffs. Phil Jackson has been on his case via the twitter verse and the media being on his case of being just a guy going for numbers and not being the kind of great player that lifts his team to great heights. Despite all that, he got some solid news earlier this week.

Anthony was named as a replacement on the East All-Star team as a reserve for the 66^th Annual NBA All-Star game that will take place this Sunday night at 8:30 p.m. on TNT from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver chose Anthony as a replacement for Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, who is on the shelf for six weeks following surgery on his knee.

It was some good news for Anthony, who will make his 10^th All-Star appearance and his seventh in succession.

Among active players who have more All-Star selections are LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who will be playing in his 13^th in succession on Sunday; Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, who also has 13 and Dwyane Wade of the Chicago Bulls, who was selected to 12 in 13 seasons with the Miami Heat.

“It means a lot. Don’t get me wrong. It’s still an honor to be kind of named to the All-Star team,” Anthony, who scored 30 points in the Knicks (23-34) 116-105 loss at the Oklahoma City Thunder (32-25) on Wednesday night.

“To go out there and represent despite of everything that’s been going on and surrounding us. Surrounding me and surrounding our organization and still go out there and represent not just the organization, but New York City as a whole. It’s still an honor for me to do that.”

If there is any player in the league that needs this weekend to be a part of greatness is Anthony.

There are a lot of players if they were in the shoes of Anthony’s situation, they would have waived their no-trade clause in an instant and said to Phil Jackson, get me out of New York as quickly as possible.

Every chance they got in front of a microphone, that player would have articulated their feelings and emotions about what they feel about the team both on the court and the organization in general.

All he has done is continue to play hard night in and night out and try to lead the Knicks to more victories.

They came up with their most impressive one of the season on Sunday afternoon in front of a national television audience when they defeated the mighty San Antonio Spurs (43-13) 94-90 on Sunday afternoon.

Anthony scored 25 points with seven boards in the victory and passed Hall of Famer and current NBA on TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley into 25^th on the all-time scoring list (23,805 points).

“A lot of times our offensive is gone one night. Our defense is gone another night. I think tonight we put it all together. Put a full game together and we pulled this out,” Anthony, who scored 25-plus points for the fourth game in succession said to ESPN/ABC’s Israel Gutierrez after the win.

To put Anthony’s career into perspective, since he was traded to the Knicks on Feb. 22, 2011, the Knicks are just 190-204.

In that same time span, Nowitzki has won a title; James has won three rings and made it to The Finals the last six seasons and Wade has won two rings.

Anthony also in his six and a half seasons in the “Big Apple” has had five different head coaches, Mike D’Antoni, Mike Woodson, Derek Fisher, Kurt Rambis and now Jeff Hornacek.

What will also make this All-Star appearance special for the guy that goes by the nickname “Melo,” is that he along with James will be the only two out of the 24 players in the All-Star Game on Sunday to have 10-plus appearances in the NBA’s mid-season classic.

It shows that playing in this exhibition is not always guaranteed especially when you get older and you are on the back nine of your career. You never know when the next appearance could be your last and you should cherish each one you are given the chance to be a part of. Especially when you are going to play in front of your family if there are there to see you in person. Your contemporaries that paved the way for you to dream about doing what they did like Julius “Dr. J.” Erving, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and many others.

It also gives a player the chance to spend some quality time with guys you compete against during the season and you get a chance to learn about them away from the game. Why they love the game so much and how they got to where they are today and how to maintain that edge of greatness.

Carmelo Anthony has had this experience many times and his 10^th one I am sure he will take in, especially with what he has had to deal with this season and what might be on the horizon before the end of February and this upcoming off-season, which Anthony says will not bother him when he is on the court.

“I have no burden. I’m going our here playing basketball. Trying to enjoy the game of basketball,” Anthony said to Gutierrez. “Whatever happens outside our organization or outside this basketball court is not a concern to me. I’m not letting it affect me. I’m not letting it effect my teammates. We play for each other and that’s what we got to play for.”  

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 2/13/17 3;30 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia Motors with Matt Winer and Steve Smith; 2/16/17 7 p.m. edition of TNT “NBA Tip-Off,” presented by Autotrader with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal; 2/16/17 12 a.m. edition of ESPN’s “Sportscenter” with Max Bretos and Jonathan Coachman; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeBron_James; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Nowitzki; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwyane_Wade and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Knicks#Head_coaches.