It's all your fault, Carmelo Anthony.

Since the trade in which the New York Knicks acquired Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks have won only seven of seventeen contests. Their loss last night at home to Orlando took them below .500 on the season (35-36) and for the first time since they were 8-9 on November 27th. The blogosphere is now asking if the trade was in error, especially given the price the Knicks paid - Wilson Chandler, Danilo Gallinari, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov, two second round picks and a first rounder.

Early in ESPN's telecast, broadcaster Mike Breen mentioned Nueva York's recent 1-7 record and was interrupted by his colour commentator, former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who blurted out "You can't put everything on one guy. Is it's Carmelo Anthony's fault that Chauncey Billups had eight turnovers? Is it Carmelo's fault that Toney Douglas shoots one for twelve"?

In short, Jeff, we can. It may not be entirely accurate, but it's possible.

'Melo decided that there was only one place he wanted to play, New York, to play with Amar'e Stoudemire and for his hometown team. Though popular opinion had the Nuggets preferring the New Jersey Nets trade offer, Anthony steadfastly refused to commit to extending his contract in Jersey and publicly nixed any other potential relocations by doing the same. A further complicating factor included Anthony wanting (needing?) to sign a new contract in-season (rather than after the season) because delaying until northern Summer would cost him somewhere in the region of $20 million. In that scenario it's eminently possible he would have signed for whoever threw him the most money and unlikely to be in Manhattan.

In almost the truest sense of the word, Carmelo Anthony wanted his cake and to eat it, too. The Knicks wanted him and were prepared to pay handsomely; Anthony wanted the Knicks and he wanted a maximum-dollar contract extension. The entire Melodrama (sorry) was engineered by Carmelo Anthony and his agent and it worked out well for the small forward - until the Knicks' form took a sudden turn for the worse. Mid-season trades usually mean one of two things for a team: a club could struggle to incorporate the player into their tactical schemes and form suffers; or the club is revitalised by the talent injection and start to win more games.

To go back to our initial question, can you blame all the Knicks' recent woes on Carmelo? Because Anthony orchestrated the entire scheme to play where and for the salary he wanted, he is indirectly responsible for the current New York Knicks playing roster. He forced Denver to deal him, and compelled New York to come and get him. The Nuggets then had the responsibility to get the best package possible, meaning rather than Danilo Gallinari or Wilson Chandler taking shots, it is Toney Douglas - an inferior outside shooter. Instead of Raymond Felton with the benefit of a training camp, it's Chauncey Billups charged with bringing the ball up the floor, a player trying to learn coach Mike D'Antoni's system on the fly.

In short, we can blame Carmelo Anthony for the Knicks' recent woes. It may not necessarily be entirely accurate, but the argument is there.

Prokhorov's Carmelo policy a lesson to egotists everywhere

After seemingly aeons of banter between the New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons and Carmelo Anthony, the Nets Russian owner Mikael Prokhorov has told Nets officialdom to break off negotiations with all parties. The Nets, apparently, are no longer interested in the 6'8 Baltimore-by-way-of-Syracuse product.

The Nuggets' wantaway forward has made no secret of his desire to depart Denver when his contract ends on June 30th and has been equally vociferous about his desire to return to his birthplace of New York and his "dream" of playing for the Knicks. The New Jersey Nets - in two years to be the Brooklyn Nets when the franchise moves - were the frontrunners acquire Melo before he becomes a free agent at season's end due to their ability to send Denver the most desirable trade package in return: point guard Devin Harris, rookie Derrick Favors, shooter Anthony Morrow and two high draft picks, one probably in the draft's top seven picks.

After weeks of being the top story every basketball site, Prokhorov walked away from any deal yesterday citing his frustration at the lack of progress and the public nature of the talks. Of course there are major mitigating factors - Anthony's preference to wear the Knicks' Blue and Orange, having to give away last year's AND this year's lottery pick - and last and most, Anthony's apparent disinclination to sign a contract extension in Jersey. It may be another gambit in the ongoing deal and talks may re-open but the inclination is to trust Prokhorov on this. All indications are he simply tired of Denver's mind games and Anthony's failure to "piss or get off the pot". As Brian Windhorst of ESPN's put it, The Russian simply followed the first rule of negotiation - not being afraid to walk away.

And it feels really good to see it. Franchises and their fans have been held hostage to the whims of players and their agents for too long, so for "Mutant Russian Mark Cuban" to refuse any further entreaties from Colorado is a potential home-run for owners, one that'll be followed by another body blow to agents/players with the impending lockout. The lockout, which will follow the failure of Players and Owners to agree on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, looks likely to cost Melo serious coin NBA salaries are sure to decrease.

Hopefully, but unrealistically, Prokhorov's posture will encourage other owners to demand professionalism from other alleged professional. In a game where awfully shrewd businessmen lose their business sense after purchasing a team, it seems he has kept his.

The second result of this stand is the Nets could improve markedly without Anthony. The promising Favors, who's played his entire pro career under trade clouds, is maturing and the team has salary cap flexibility to further add to their roster and Small Forward, Anthony's position, is where they're most interested in an upgrade.

It's debatable how much success Anthony would have brought to Jersey/Brooklyn because as a player, he is hard to mark. He's almost unequalled as a scorer and would turn a Nets weak spot into a strength. Since Julius Erving was sold to Philly in 1976 - yes, that long - the best Net SFs have been Albert King and Kendall Gill, a fact that as a casual fan (who loves Kendall Gill) makes me dry-retch. But Anthony's habitual defensive laxity and his problematic scoring efficiency - he makes a lot of shots by taking and missing a lot - makes his status top player in the league debatable and depending on the judge, he could rank as the 10th-best player to to the 40th-best.

Hopefully there will be no repeat of Cleveland and Toronto's 2010 offseason where LeBron James and Chris Bosh flaunted their free-agency like painted jezebels. They undoubtedly enjoyed the power they'd earned, but in doing so slapped their devoted organisations and fans in the face. Hard. By doing likewise in a situation where those paying him have learned from others' misfortunes, Anthony may have robbed himself of an estimated $20 -40 million dollars over the life of his new deal. If that's a sacrifice he's prepared to make, then bully for him. If not - as most think - then all his self-aggrandising posturing has been a publicity exercise that he oughtta hope is worth an extra $20 million. For so long hoping to both have and eat baked sweet goods, Carmelo Anthony may now be forced to choose. And Joe Public should feel wonderful.