Carmelo Anthony, according to an anonymous source within the New York Knicks, is not sitting on New York’s bench because he fears a collision with an active player could reinjure the knee that ended his season in February. You can laugh at this if you want to, chiding the prissy superstar, but Carmelo Anthony’s not wrong in this instance.

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Anthony underwent surgery just after the NBA All-Star break, working through a debridement procedure to help cure the pain in a left knee that had been bugging him for the duration of the 2014-15 season. The surgery knocked him out of the Knick lineup for good, with a tidy seven month window between late February and training camp in place to make the boo-boo go away.

According to Marc Berman’s report at the New York Post, Anthony doesn’t want anyone near his boo-boo:

Carmelo Anthony has shown up at the Garden for the last three weeks to rehab before games in the trainer’s room. He goes on the court briefly for light stretching and to talk to teammates before retiring to the locker room to mingle some more. But he still hasn’t sat on the Knicks bench as rehabbing Kobe Bryant has for Lakers games.

Coach Derek Fisher said he wasn’t sure of the reasons, but a Knicks official later said it was due to the fear of a hustling player crashing into the bench where Anthony might be sitting. Anthony’s surgery took place six weeks ago. It’s unclear if he will be on the bench by the time the season ends April 15.

[…]

Asked whether Anthony chooses not to sit on the bench for safety issues, Fisher said he didn’t know. “You can ask him that if you ever get a chance to talk to him or the medical staff,’’ Fisher said. “There’s been no discussion whether Carmelo would be sitting on the bench when he’s recovering from a major knee surgery.’’

The Knicks weren’t great with Anthony in the lineup, working up a 10-21 record as he mostly limped through his season, but they’ve gone an astounding 4-40 without him in the lineup. His absence is the biggest reason New York has the worst record in the NBA, and why the team has come through with the worst record in New York Knick history.

Carmelo Anthony is in the first year of a massive five-year, $124 million contract, and he turns 31 in May. If the knee issues persist, that contract could turn out to be a millstone for its entire duration, in spite of the typical Knickerbocker largesse and even with the massive salary cap uptick expected for 2016. Shouldn’t he, at the very least, bother to stay at the end of the Knick bench as the team works toward the end of a miserable season, in front of fans that paid quite a bit to watch their team lose?

Nah. Come on, man.

I mean:

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It’s hard to recall an off-court, bench collision that resulted in even a minor NBA injury, but the fears are real, and there’s no point to putting a surgically-repaired $124 million knee in harm’s potential way. We’re not saying Kevin Durant exacerbated his foot fracture injury even more by sticking to the Oklahoma City Thunder bench even when he was inactive, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t grimacing every time we saw him bound up off the bench to cheer his teammates on.

The reigning MVP from Oklahoma City’s career has been put on hold due to a tiny fracture in a foot that supports a nearly 7-foot frame, a frame that asks him to do guard’s work with the body of a power forward. Anthony’s problem areas are just as tiny, and just as prone. One bad twist in the face of an opponent or teammate spiraling out of bounds can end anyone’s career, so there’s no real point for Anthony to stick around the bench if he isn’t needed for active duty.

According to the Post, Anthony is still showing up to Madison Square Garden, he’s still talking with his teammates (Fisher described it as “continuing to encourage guys”) prior to games, and he’s still following through on his rehabilitation duties. Those teammates, by and large, won’t be around when or if the Knicks finally turn the corner with Anthony as the star again: New York is basically holding a season-long training camp in his absence, so it isn’t as if a bit of spring of 2015 rah-rah from Anthony is going to make any difference in 2017.

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