Carmelo Anthony reluctantly gives out hugs for America

We Knicks fans are very concerned about the state of Carmelo Anthony’s offseason hugging regimen. He’s older and surlier now, and the hugs just don’t come as freely as they once did, but New York is certainly going to need some hugs during the regular season. Is their star forward still up to the challenge?

Worry not, my friends, for Melo has been putting in work on his hug game during the Olympics, plowing through the tedium and his own fears of intimacy to cradle a despondent DeMarcus Cousins after the big man had fouled out of the game. Per Marc Stein:

"I'm not really a hugger," Melo confessed afterward.

But on this occasion?

"Sometimes you just gotta give [Cousins] a hug, man, and tell him everything's gonna be all right."

...

He's an uncertain hugger but definitely not a worrier.

Not wanting to lose his old man cred, Melo dropped a reference to the ‘90s sitcom “Martin” in a Snapchat diss of teammate Draymond Green:

Here’s Martin and Bruh Man preparing to sell t-shirts at a Whitney Houston concert.

You’re old, Melo. Crap, I’m old too!