holfresh wrote:^^^^So how do we explain Melo's brand seemingly enhanced by the way he has handled Phil's bumblings??..You can hear it from basketball analyst after basketball analyst..I'll even venture to say Melo will be thought for a management post down the road...
As the story goes, when David Stern heard about the Malice In The Palace, his legendary temper went through the roof, after he saw the ESPN analyst response to it, right after, apparently he went full blown livid. Here is was, former players, basically justifying the "code" by saying they understood where those players were coming from and "defending their family"
It was pathetic and completely out of touch. It made NBA players look like thugs and narcissists and divas and out of control. Not long after, Stern turned the screws on. Dress code, flagrant foul changes, more suspensions, more security, he did what "parents do", he treated children like children.
Lots of these analysts know if they say anything even remotely accountable level, that franchise, maybe the coach, maybe the players cut them off from interviews, giving info for the guys writing books, giving insider access, etc.
Of course many of them are going to kiss Melo's butt all the time. If you turned on an NBA game while STAT was at the end with the Knicks, you'd only hear positives about him.
Melo, along with STAT and Chris Paul, were socially obtuse enough to toast about a big three, in front of Paul's then franchise owner, at Paul's wedding, thinking Landry Fields could headline a package to get Paul into a close to capped out team.
Melo's an idiot. He has no charisma, he's an idiot. He says stupid thing after stupid thing in the press ( I hate Tom Brady, but I give him credit, he can handle the press well) and is only survived by having Leon Rose of CAA clean up after him. Melo has a "brand" not because of Melo, but because of David Stern and how Stern made NBA players so infinitely marketable in general.
People said great things about Zeke too, in public, to start, until the back end when he stopped playing and was in management, when it wouldn't cost them to criticize him, then it all came out how other player hated the dude.
Jackson is going after Melo where Melo can be hurt, in terms of public perception, because pathetically, this is something Melo cares more about than actually winning basketball games. Jackson is simply using what Bill Parcells has always used, the press as a weapon to push his players around.
It should say something that most NBA teams weren't lining up in droves to trade for Melo when it was clear the Knicks wanted to move him.
Jackson ruined Melo's trade value!
What would Melo's trade value be if Jackson said nothing at all? Still pretty horrible. And even with less leverage.
Yes, yes, let's pretend NBA players will turn down the most money and the most years from the Knicks, if the Knicks are their best playing time/winning time/money/years length option out there. Guys who can win and get paid aren't coming to the Knicks. They have better options. Some guys would rather take a little less to contend at the end of their careers. But are we going to pretend a guy who has no other FA options is going to turn down money and years from the Knicks because of something Jackson said in the press about Melo?
NEVER CARE ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE SAY, WATCH WHAT THEY DO
The guys at NBC talked up Tiki Barber, how he was such an amazing personality, how he'd succeed in TV as a broadcaster, how he'd be change how sports and mainstream TV could blend together, and on and on and on. But aside from the fluff, how did it break down? They give him the best talk show to run? His own movie? His own channel?
Bill Walton used to say how Shaq, at least 60 pounds overweight from Chalupas, was in such elite condition, even when Shaq would waddle up and down the court.
The NBA, like anything else, has a "marketplace" and that market does not care how you feel, or how I feel, or what Jackson says. Melo's trade value is rotten because of his age and how he plays and his clear self imposed limitations and that's it.
