mlby1215 wrote:I thought you were very loyal to Knicks?
Here's the baseline problem I see.
I don't have a problem with any NBA player working on self interest. Doing what's best for him, his career and his family.
The problem I have with Melo is that concept does not have to be mutually exclusive to also doing what's best for the team and the franchise as long as those goals are aligned. Playing defense and taking pride in it and putting in max effort on that side of the floor only enhances your value as a player. It enhances your ability to help your team win. If you win, and you are the "franchise player", you get a lions share of the credit. This is a case where working in your own self interest and working in the teams best interest are aligned.
Melo works to his self interest, but even to points where it no longer actually works to his actual best interests. Being a shotjacker means he gets his individual stats. But being a shotjacker also means his teams lose because of it means he's also going to take the lions share of the blame as well.
Guys like jrodmc and Hofstra like to push out logical fallacies, crappy logic, straw man arguments, ad hominem, basically any rationalization they can find and dig for to absolve Melo of any accountability for the problems the Knicks have.
Are the Knicks failures entirely Melo's fault? No. Not even close. There are things that happened on Dolans side and Jackson's side and even some of the coaches where it's not all Melo's fault for EVERY SINGLE KNICKS PROBLEM. Sadly, guys like jrodmc like to push that since you can't blame Melo for all of it, you shouldn't blame him for any of it. Of course this kind of faulty logic is the kind you'll see women use on men all the time. That's ok jrodmc, there's nothing wrong with you having a base disposition of something that bleeds 12 times a year but doesn't have the decency to die. ( That's from South Park, relax princess, calm your nerves, you've done worse on this forum to other people)
Two wrong don't make a right. Where the guys like Dolan and Jackson and Fisher have failed doesn't change Melo's obligation to be the best player he can be, be the best leader he can be, and be an example on the court on how to be a true professional and leader.
The other argument used is Melo never got any elite help on the roster. Again, two wrongs don't make a right. Maybe your franchise doesn't do every single thing it can or should to get you the best and most talented teammates possible. But you are still responsible on your own end on how you play the game.
Jrodmc and Hofstra will try to brow beat you into two wrongs make a right. Because the Knicks as a franchise failed at certain levels, to them, it absolves Melo of any responsibility for his behavior or inflicting more problems onto the roster. I've said it before, I'll say it again, anyone who thinks this way - I FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR KIDS. Because is that what people teach their kids? ( "Your Little League coach sucks, he clearly doesn't know everything he should be doing, so why try? Why try your best? Just do what you want to do, the rest of your team be damned, you have no responsibility for your own individual integrity!" ) Is this the kind of happy horse**** people want to teach their kids? Do people want to teach their kids that two wrongs make a right?
Pretty simple in pro sports, if you are the "franchise player", you get all of the credit when you win, you take all of the blame when you lose. That's how it works. That's how it always works. It's not even restricted to pro sports, its a LIFE CONCEPT. Winners have a thousand fathers, losers are always orphans.
If Melo gets blamed, that's the price of being the franchise player if the team keeps losing. That's not restricted to Melo, that's just the pro sports culture period. Jrodmc and Hofstra will try to make you believe that this is some random isolated case where it's only happening to poor victim Melo.
If you don't want to be criticized, be above reproach, and give your critics nothing to criticize you about. Would anyone blame Tim Duncan if he was drafted by another team and just never won? He would to some degree for being the franchise player, but people would have to dig deep. Duncan never left his effort or leadership into question.
Melo is RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS PART in the Knicks dysfunction. HIS PART.
That there are folks here who have no concept of two wrongs don't make a right, that's just plain f**king sad. When you see an adult out there who acts like a piece of trash, odds are they were raised ( or not raised) and just being that piece of trash in terms of character and values means nothing. Absolving Melo for HIS PART ( again he's not to blame for every single Knicks woe, but he is to blame for many serious things he failed to do for the greater good of winning , his team and his career) is a form of rationalization. It's that same kind of rationalization where people think it's OK to steal from each other, beat their kids, cheat on their wives, basically be crappy people in general. People will tell you their "value system" all the time if you listen closely.
Some people are cool with raising their kids to be total and complete trash as human beings. Of low character and low values and of no account to this world. And you know the worst sin you can commit when you are in a group, esp a group of men, with a common goal.
The worst sin is this - When your brothers need you the most, when your group/team needs you the most, you abandon them. Not because you can't but because you just won't.
For HIS PART, when the TEAM NEEDED MELO THE MOST, he simply did what he wanted to do, without regard for his team.
LOYALTY only exists when CHARACTER is there first. You can't draw blood from a stone. You can't have a crappy human being raise a child and expect that to have no consequences. How can Melo be loyal to a team, he's not even loyal to himself.
