NBA Summer League should be a time for teams to showcase their new acquisitions and try out some potential acquisitions. This year the New York Knicks have gotten as much coverage for a player who wasn’t in attendance as they have for the ones that were. 

So the big name player didn’t make an appearance at summer league. He is not contractually required to. So he apparently hasn’t been involved in negotiations to bring new players to the team. As far as I am aware he is not contractually required to do that either. So why so much fuss that he has done neither thing? 

I have no personal involvement in this situation. Maybe Carmelo Anthony is being petulant because he does not agree with decisions being made about the team, or because the management have not involved him in the decision making process.

Maybe he just took a step back, because his job is to play basketball not to coach, or make draft picks, or arrange new contracts.  Maybe he wanted to focus on building his brand. After all of the fuss around his, alleged, opinions on this year’s draft pick maybe he felt his absence, and therefore his lack of media interviews would be the best thing. 

I can’t help feeling that he would have been damned in the media regardless of whether or not he made an appearance at summer league. Articles I have read imply that his absence from summer league, and lack of involvement in free agency discussions, will have a negative impact on the team. Of course, mutilple articles in the news suggesting that the start player is unhappy will have that affect anyway, whether it is true or not.