The contact-less trip, and ensuing knee injury, Carmelo Anthony suffered in a win against Cleveland last week, is at the center of discussion for worrisome NBA fans.
Concern has brewed partly over the Knicks organization and their history for covering up the severity of player injury’s for PR purposes. The other contributing factor, less conspire-based of course, was Anthony’s underwhelming play in his first game back after three game days off.
Against the Warriors on Monday, Anthony struggled mightily, exhibiting no lift on his jumpshot as well as the incapability of guarding players unknown for bursts of speed (see: David Lee). At the end of the night, the stat-line adjacent to Anthony’s name read 14 points, on 4-15 shooting, and 10 rebounds in 33.5 minutes of play.
From the outside looking in, a spectator may attribute the performance to “rust”, which is the cliche diagnosis for post-injury underproduction, but with “fluid”, “stiffness” and “soreness” encompassed behind his left knee, we are forced to believe otherwise:
“There’s no pain at all. Just stiffness,” Anthony said at San Francisco’s Olympic Club. “Nobody really can give me an exact answer on it. Because there’s no pain or ligament damage. Just fluid in the back of the knee that’s prevented me from hyperextending my leg. Nothing of that nature. None of that. No surgery.
“Just a matter of getting tight in the back of the knee. Nothing in the front of the knee. No pain. No soreness. Just some irritation.”
The lack of an explanation behind the pooling of fluid in his knee is extremely troubling. And equally troubling is the Al Iannazzone Newsday article expressing the uncertainty “that Anthony has undergone more tests than the MRI he had [...] before the Cavaliers game”.
Anthony doesn’t know the severity of his injury, has had no MRI, yet knows the solution requires “no surgery” ? Something doesn’t add up.
More regarding the unorthodox injury situation via Y! Sports’ Dan Devine:
“Ditto for the news that, after consulting with the Knicks’ medical staff, Anthony decided against having the fluid drained out because “I’m not a big fan of getting needles.” (This has led to some head-scratching over how he’s endured this much tattoo work over the years.) And Anthony’s apparent self-assessment that “I don’t think I’ll ever be 100 percent” again this season. And Anthony’s tracing of the knee injury back to the hyperextension he suffered on Christmas Day, except that what’s hurt now is his right knee, while that injury was to his left.
The sum of these troubling, curious bits leaves Anthony in a precarious position — at this point, he told Howard Beck of the New York Times, the approach appears to be “just trying to get through it, just figure it out, kind of see what I can do, what I can’t do.”
The valiant effort from Carmelo is applauded but he, as well as the Knicks decision makers, will be subject to extensive ridicule and fan base backlash, if devastating news — that could have been avoided— emerges, shattering postseason aspirations.
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Posted in Sideline View. Tags Carmelo Anthony, Knicks
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