The forbidden T-word: Breaking down Carmelo Anthony's "controversial" statement

Admit it, you sick bastards: somewhere deep down, you expect your favorite team to at least try their best to win a title, even if your team happens to be the Knicks.

As it turns out, you are no different from Carmelo Anthony. That should be a good thing, right? Oh, if only life were that simple. Melo stirred up a hornet's nest on Wednesday with some insane, monstrous comments about the future, where he actually mentioned the word "title." Looks like we're going to have to break down his statement to find out where he went horribly wrong:

"S---"

That's a compelling opening statement, reminiscent of the inspiring State of the Union speech from President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho:

Let's see if he can build off that strong opening.

"...we're competing."

Simple, elegant, yet bold words. We are competing. It's refreshing to hear a man who works in competitive sports remind us that he and his teammates are competing at any given time. That's what it's all about, right?

But here's where things start to go off the rails...

"People might not believe that, but we're definitely competing for that." [Emphasis mine]

The first "that" is perfectly fine -- accusing people of not believing in your team is a time-honored athletic tradition. It's that second "that" which really gets Melo in trouble, for that "that" is in reference to the NBA championship.

"That's always going to be the goal."

Um, maybe that was the goal back when you played in Denver. It certainly would have been the goal if you had signed with Chicago. But you chose the Knicks, my friend, thereby forever branding yourself as a greedy scumbag who doesn't value winning. Real Knicks are not even allowed to pretend their goal is a championship. Remember how much grief Phil Jackson got last year for even implying that he thought the Knicks could make the playoffs? He was castigated for breaking the sacred logic of New York sports: If you say something could happen, and it doesn't happen, you are worse than Hitler.

"Whether we get there or not depends on us and what we're doing. That's always our big-picture goal."

"Us" means the Knicks, and what the Knicks will be doing is not winning a title, so they won't get there. And the only possible big-picture goal for someone associated with this club is to die alone, miserable and unfulfilled.

So there you have it -- Melo expects his team to do all they can to win a championship. He believes that is the goal of every NBA player. Are these statements truly so controversial and damning? Maybe not in Oklahoma City or Milwaukee, pal, but this is MSG. Those words will haunt Melo for the rest of his career...mostly because we will never, ever stop throwing them back in his face.