STAYING POISED: It is important for Carmelo Anthony to stay calm and avoid incidents like Sunday night’s shove of Spencer Hawes, or the “Honey Nut Cheerios” altercation with Kevin Garnett (above) or his Dec. 21 ejection vs. the Bulls in order for the Knicks to win, Steve Serby writes.
STAYING POISED: It is important for Carmelo Anthony to stay calm and avoid incidents like Sunday night’s shove of Spencer Hawes, or the “Honey Nut Cheerios” altercation with Kevin Garnett or his Dec. 21 ejection vs. the Bulls in order for the Knicks to win, Steve Serby writes. (Anthony J. Causi)
STAYING POISED: It is important for Carmelo Anthony to stay calm and avoid incidents like Sunday night’s shove of Spencer Hawes (top left), or the “Honey Nut Cheerios” altercation with Kevin Garnett (bottom right) or his Dec. 21 ejection vs. the Bulls (bottom left) in order for the Knicks to win, Steve Serby writes. (Anthony J. Causi (2))
The most significant chapter in the book on Carmelo Anthony, certain to be read verbatim by opponents from Miami to Brooklyn to Boston and all points west, is the one that describes the tactics and methods advised to psychologically impair him and thereby destroy the Knicks.
Kevin Garnett has already written the chapter on how the proper trash talk can turn Melo into a raging cereal stalker, and now Spencer Hawes will be writing the one on how a little excessive bodying and bullying and maybe an accidental elbow to the neck can get him off his game and open the door to a suspension from the league for, say, a retaliatory flagrant smack to the head.
It is no way to chase the franchise’s first championship in 40 years in the heated, high-stakes months to come, and it is why Mike Woodson is wisely throwing the book —let’s call it How To Jar Melo — back at his Knicks.
“That’s something I’m trying to talk to all the guys about, it’s just not Melo,” Woodson said. “We just got to leave the officials alone.
“When teams play physical, I want us to play physical and not back away. That’s what the good teams are supposed to do. The teams play us physical, it’s OK. You just got to return the favor and let the officials do their job and hopefully things work out for you. We’ve kind of been on the back side of that a little bit where we lost our composure a little bit and we just got to back away from it because you can’t win that battle.”
Tyson Chandler rushing to Melo’s defense is noble, and that kind of demonstrated unity is an important piece to any championship puzzle.
But poise — and especially poise from your best player — is a far more critical piece.
Anthony was not available to the media yesterday. Consider it progress that he wasn’t waiting by the Sixers bus for Hawes after Sunday night’s game. A league source said Anthony would not be suspended for the incident.
“I didn’t mean to hit him in the head,” Anthony said after the Knicks’ 99-93 victory Sunday night. “I was just reacting to the elbow I caught.”
Here’s a better idea: react with your play. Your MVP play from earlier in the season. Michael Jordan got mad, but mostly he got even. Kobe Bryant gets mad, but mostly he gets even. Amnesty THAT.
“You keep getting techs like that, guys are going to start missing games, we don’t need that,” J.R. Smith said. “We need everybody on our team, and everybody staying focused and locked in and not let anybody bait us, me especially.”
It is unlikely that a few selected words of wisdom from Kenyon Martin will help Woodson get his point across, so allow me to try: Woodson should pass out clips from the 1965 Sports Illustrated article in which Celtics legend Bill Russell describes How I Psych Them. And Anthony should receive them first.
Russell: “I try to never react to negative plays. Many times when a guy is missing his shots or getting them blocked, he starts showing signs of frustration, hanging his head, cussing, swiping a fist through the air. That always gives the defender a boost, and when the man I’m guarding starts acting out, that’s when I turn up the pressure to make him crack or give up.
“Conversely, I try (although I’m not always successful) to never look down or rattled no matter how many shots I’ve missed, or how ugly a turnover I just committed, or how violently my shot just got blocked. Otherwise, you’ve given your defender an edge.”
Anthony clearly would have been putty in Russell’s shot-blocking hands.
More Russell: “At McClymonds High School in Oakland, where I began playing the game, I got a quick cram course. It boils down to this: never allow yourself to get angry while playing. In those days we had an All-Negro starting five, and those were explosive days, racially.
“Our coach, George Powles, knew it and we knew it, and one day before a game, he called us together. ‘Fellas,’ said Powles, ‘I know most high school kids occasionally get mad during games. But remember the spot you’re in. If you get mad and start a fight, it isn’t just a fight. It’s a riot. And you’ll be the ones who are blamed. I’m not telling you not to get mad. But if you do get mad, use it to play better.’ It has stuck with me through the years ”
It better start sticking to Anthony. Before NBA commissioner David Stern sticks it to him, and the Knicks, at the worst possible time.