AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman
Carmelo Anthony and New York Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis aren’t best friends.
Yet.
Rumors bandied about the NBA following the Knicks’ decision to select Kristaps Porzingis—hereto forth known as Krispy Pringles—with the No. 4 pick in this year’s draft. Anthony apparently wasn’t happy. The word betrayed was tossed around casually.
Put simply: He was pissed.
How could Phil Jackson draft a years-long project? When there were more NBA-ready players still on the board? When he promised Melo, now 31, an opportunity to compete in New York sometime soon?
What gives?
In the time since, the chatter has cooled. Slightly. Melo has taken to Instagram to wax poetic about Pringles’ arrival, and he even called the 19-year-old himself to offer support.
From ESPN New York’s Ian Begley:
Carmelo Anthony reached out to Kristaps Porzingis, the New York Knicks’ first-round draft pick, on Saturday after reports surfaced that the Knicks star was unhappy with the organization’s decision to select the 19-year-old Latvian.
“Carmelo reached out to Kris after all of that. It was beautiful that a player of that profile can do something like that. It’s great,” Porzingis’ older brother, Janis, said Monday during an appearance on ESPN 98.7 FM’s “The Hahn and Humpty Show.”
On Friday night, Anthony wrote on Instagram that Porzingis was “a steal” and that he “can’t wait” to see him play.
However, shortly after the draft Thursday night, Anthony expressed displeasure about Phil Jackson’s decision to draft Porzingis in a phone conversation with ex-Knick Tim Hardaway Jr., sources confirmed to ESPN.
There’s a chance Melo is trying to make nice after realizing his initial reaction wouldn’t receive any support from the general public. Or he could really, truly, wholly believe that Pringles is the next megastar.
Or, more likely, he could be OK with Pringles and not have strong feelings one way or the other.
Perhaps he’s intrigued. Perhaps he’s disappointed. Maybe he’s both. But there was no immediate superstar available in the draft, so it would have been senseless for him to feel incredibly slighted by the Knicks’ actions.
Their ability to wedge his title window back open, while now loosely linked to Pringles’ development, is still tightly tethered to signing free agents.
Melo should be, and probably is, more focused on recruiting and landing players he knows will help the Knicks compete now. That’s what free agency for.
The draft? That’s for taking risks like Pringles.
