So the Mets are going to the World Series, in a fascinating trip that has all of New York City talking – even Carmelo Anthony.
Carmelo happens to have a microphone almost everywhere he goes. So of course, he recently talked about how much inspiration he finds in the Mets’ World Series run, as well as the parallels between the Knicks and Mets’ standings.
“You could see some similarities.” We also do. Both teams wear orange and blue; both teams play in the Big Apple and both team names end in an “s.” But we can point to a few actual differences, too: the Knicks are one of the richest squads in their league, while the Mets are only a middle-of-the-pack team and are expected to do their best in the Yankees’ large shadow. Mets fans take every bit of postseason they can get. For the Knicks fan base, everything but the title is a failure. And that’s the way it should be.
After not having enough of comparing the incomparable, Carmelo went full Yogi Berra: “The way that they kind of broke everything down and started building piece-by-piece and all of that came together at the right time. I don’t want to say that we’re in a similar situation, but we are. We put pieces together and we’ve got to go out and build that [success].”
Wait! Did he say “similar situation?” He might be looking at things a little too brightly. Before this season, the Mets were a decent team that finished third in their division, playing insipid baseball. The Knicks – the WTF Knicks, rather – were a different story. They didn’t finish last in the league, thanks to the Minnesota Timberwolves. They did finish at the bottom of their conference, breaking every futility record available. The Knicks were so bad they didn’t even manage to tank their games properly to get a better draft position. So sorry Carmelo, it’s not a similar situation. No fucking way.
It’s OK to find the Mets postseason run “inspiring.” In fact, most people cling to that while facing another boring day at the office. Carmelo can also get inspired by the Mets; he’s totally free to do so.
What he can’t do is lie to the fans. And to himself. What he really needs is a Zen master, especially since he recently told Vice Sports “Fuck New York.” Oh wait, he has one: Phil Jackson.