The New York Knicks' horror show of a season is finally over, and now they can finally turn the page, focus on the future and ... wait, what? There's more drama? Of course there is! We'll probably still be hearing tales about this dysfunctional locker room and front office 10 years from now. According to ESPN's Ian Begley, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek, star Carmelo Anthony and assistant coach Kurt Rambis all participated in an expletive-filled exchange at halftime of their 120-112 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on March 12, and it ended -- without a resolution -- when a player simply said it was time to go warm up. How very Knicks.
From ESPN:
Hornacek lit into the Knicks in the visitors locker room of the Barclays Center, and according to people familiar with the matter, Hornacek's diatribe was expletive-filled and delivered at a high decibel level.
It's not uncommon for a coach to go off on his players after a pathetic showing. But what happened next was a bit surprising.
Carmelo Anthony, whose default demeanor is relaxed and easy going, responded with anger and expletives of his own. For those accustomed to seeing Anthony live by his oft-used idiom, "Stay Melo," it was jarring.
Anthony's R-rated rant essentially questioned the direction of the entire organization, according to sources. Associate head coach Kurt Rambis fired back, calling out Anthony's effort on defense.
Anthony responded again, but before things could devolve further, one Knick suggested that the players head back to the court and start warming up.
So they did.
Arguments can be healthy, but it doesn't sound like this one was. They couldn't get the stops they needed at the end of that game, which happened to be the Nets' first home victory in two-and-a-half months. The most significant part of the story is not even the fact that there was a yelling match, but that Anthony reportedly brought up the direction of the franchise.
At that point, New York hadn't been officially eliminated from playoff contention, but everybody knew it wasn't going to make it. Anthony's name had been in trade talks a month earlier, but he hadn't been moved, hadn't been assured that the organization wanted him around and knew he was essentially just playing out the string. Since the lines of communication between management and Anthony were broken, it was awkward. Brandon Jennings recently said the situation was unfair to Anthony and took a toll on everybody else.
On teams with good chemistry, this kind of thing probably doesn't leak a month after the fact. The Knicks were never cohesive in any sense of the word, though, and their dismal season was a reflection of that. Team president Phil Jackson will meet the media on Friday for the first time since media day, and he'll surely try to keep the focus on what'e next rather than answering for everything that went wrong.
