The Knicks are just playing awful right now and it is hard to watch. Hard for fans, players and especially coaches. Coach Woodson has enough to stress about, besides worrying about what his players are saying in public to the media. After some comments were made by players about how the Knicks lost to Portland earlier this week, coach gave his players one simple order. Hit the jump.
@IamJoeSports
Coach Woodson’s message was simple. “If you have a problem with anyone, say it to their face, not the media.”
That was clear before Tuesday’s practice on the UCLA campus when Woodson admonished his team for comments that appeared to blame Monday’s loss to Portland on Carmelo Anthony. In separate post-game interviews, both Shumpert and Stoudemire said the lack of ball movement is what hurt the Knicks. That is usually basketball code for “Melo won’t pass.” Woodson and Anthony seemed to take it that way, and the head coach wasn’t about to allow finger-pointing to invade his locker room. According to a source, Woodson actually played MSG Network’s tape of Shumpert’s and Stoudemire’s comments and told his team, “If you have a problem with anyone, say it to their face, not the media.” That’s leadership.
Anyone who knows the Knicks understands the main issue is the lack of ball movement, just like Shump and Amar’e said. The same people also realize that when comments are made like that it is a clear jab at Carmelo, even if it wasn’t meant to be. I applaud coach for stepping up and killing any internal beef that may come out of comments like this, but more importantly what will be done about that issue? Shump and Amar’e are 100% right, they just shouldn’t of necessarily said it to the media. The way the team is setup only a few players have the ability to create their own shot, with Melo being the main one. So can we blame him for taking the most shots and sometimes killing the movement of the ball? The offense pretty much lives and dies with him and that is not his problem. Melo did not build this team, the front office did. As a diehard Knick fan myself, I am aware there is still time to turn this season around, but things definitely look bad for now.
