Are the Knicks better off without Carmelo Anthony?

So now that push has come to shove, with Carmelo Anthony officially having opted out of the last year of his contract with the Knicks, the machinations, speculation, rumors and general hand-wringing already have spiraled to a fever pitch.

New Knicks president Phil Jackson already has met with Anthony, and has stated publicly he has asked Anthony to consider waiting a year to become a free agent, just to see how things go now that the Zen Master has taken the reigns of this once proud, now long misbegotten franchise.

Jackson has even pulled off a trade to clear room under the cap, shedding Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton for a package of serviceable players, including Jose Calderon and Samuel Dalembert. And with one of the draft picks the Knicks added in that trade, they selected the intriguing Cleanthony Early from Wichita State.

Still, Anthony has chosen to "test the waters," even though there is no other team that can offer the max contract of five years and $129 million that the Knicks can (whether they actually will offer that is another question). It is absolutely Anthony's right to do so; why not get as much as you can?

But the question needs to be asked: Is Carmelo worth the trouble?

True, opting out is now officially a thing in the NBA. The Big Three in Miami have all done it, so now at least Anthony can have something to chat with LeBron with over a magnum of Cristal.

Full disclosure: I am not a Carmelo fan. Yes, he is a nine-time All-Star, averaging 25.3 points in his career. He is undoubtedly the most talented player on the Knicks roster ... but I don't think he's the kind of player you kowtow to and build your team around. He's a terrific scorer, but I'm not so sure he's such a terrific leader.

He says he's all about winning, but to me, he comes across as selfish and the kind of guy who would jump somewhere else if he were offered one dollar more to go -- more about himself than the team.

I also think Jackson has gone as far as he is willing to convince Anthony to stay ... although you can make the case he really hasn't tried all that hard. Jackson said Anthony's decision "is out of our hands now," which gives you the sense he's at peace with it if Carmelo leaves.

And maybe that's not a bad thing. Think about it: There will be a honeymoon phase with a new team president, a new coach in Derek Fisher and a new infusion of players. Maybe they'd be better off sticking to Jackson's system -- with more room under the cap -- and bringing in young, hungry talent eager to learn and absorb all the wisdom (and required reading) Jackson will shower on them.

The won-loss record might not improve that much this season, but it's fair to give the new regime a chance to change the culture and rebuild for the future.

A future without Carmelo Anthony.

The Lakers' classless exit

We expected so much more, didn't we? Everything good comes to an end sometime, and when it became quite clear the expiration date had come and gone on the Los Angeles Lakers' latest dynasty, we surely thought a team and force led by the Zen Master, Phil Jackson, and his prized pupil, Kobe Bryant, would be dignified and humble when the buzzer finally sounded, in this case, on Jackson's Hall of Fame coaching career.

It was bad enough the Lakers were stomped on and swept away by the Dallas Mavericks, who finally have their chance to squint in the sunshine in a rare moment away from L.A.'s shadow. Consider that in Jackson's 20 seasons as an NBA coach, strewn with 11 championship rings through 63 postseason series, his teams had never been swept ... until now.

And as for the proud franchise itself, the Lakers had only been on the short end of a four-game sweep six times since moving to Los Angeles in 1961, and hadn't experienced this sort of defeat in 12 years, when they were zipped by the Spurs in the 1999 Western Conference semifinals.

The juxtaposition of a tight-smiling Jackson walking laboriously off the court for the final time, followed by the cameras and shaking hands with seemingly everyone within his huge wingspan seemed somewhat strange in the wake of ejections very much earned by Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum within 45 seconds of each other in the closing moments of the Lakers' 122-86 embarrassment; Odom with a hard foul to an unsuspecting Dirk Nowitzki, and Bynum with a senseless, deliberate, dangerous elbow to the ribs of an airborne J.J. Barea, who was driving down the lane at the time.

Bynum's foul, in particular, should translate to a heavy fine and a sizable suspension when next season begins. There is now a question what uniform Bynum will be wearing when that time comes.

"I don't know where we lost it, that certain drive, that bond that we've had in the past," said Bynum, who said he "was feeling salty" when he committed his unforgivable foul on Barea. "There was something missing for us."

How about class? The Lakers acted more like petulant children being told to go to bed than an accomplished group of athletes used to being at the top of their profession. And maybe that was the problem -- we often hear about also-ran teams needing to "learn how to win." These Lakers never learned how to lose.

At least Jackson and Bryant took the opportunity to stand up for sensibility.

"I wasn't happy with the way our players exited the game on Lamar and Andrew's part," Jackson said. "It was unnecessary, but I know they were frustrated and Barea was one of the guys that really frustrated us today."

Bryant took his feeling a step further.

"You don't want to see that happen," he said solemnly in the postgame interview room. "You don't want any of their players getting hurt. They played better than we did, so to make the game ugly like that ... it's not something that you want to see happen in the game of basketball, ever."

Perhaps the strangest scene was Ron Artest, of all people, playing peacemaker and helping pull Bynum off the court and toward the general vicinity of the Lakers' lockerroom. Maybe it was simply that Artest is so familiar with such exits, he could easily show his teammate the way.

Now there's some playoff experience for you.

Seventh heaven ... or hell

There's a legend that somewhere underneath the floor of the old Boston Garden, there were "dead spots" under the parquet that only seemed to affect the opposing team, that invisible leprechauns cavorted and connived to make sure their Celtics would emerge victorious.

The old Gahden is gone, and the game that will decide the 2010 NBA championship will be played 3,000 miles away. But that doesn't stop the talk of tradition, legend and history, a chapter of which will be added to tonight when those two bitter and storied rivals, the Lakers and Celtics, meet in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

"Personally, I've never seen a leprechaun growing up in Little Rock or any of the years I've been here in L.A.," said the Lakers' Derek Fisher. "I've only seen them on T-shirts and commercials. I don't want to see one (tonight), that's for sure."

After all the ups and downs of the first six games, the season has come down to a final 48 minutes. The intensity will be palpable on both sides by tipoff, and the emotions were evident on both sides as the teams held off-day practices for the last time this season.

"I don't want to be sitting around in July having to ask myself, 'Did I do everything that I could have done? Have any regrets?' " said the Celtics' Ray Allen. "I don't want to be that person. I want to do everything I can to leave it all on the floor.

"When it comes to Game 7, it's like this is what we were born to do. It's like if we were born, our mothers said we would be in Game 7 of the NBA Finals someday and nobody would blink an eye because we would say that's where we're supposed to be."

Said the Lakers' Lamar Odom, "(It's) historic, when you're talking about these organizations and these teams, what they stand for, the pride. This is what you envisioned when you were a kid playing in your backyard. This was what it was all about."

Clearly, there are issues on both sides. Both starting centers are battling knee injuries; the Celtics' Kendrick Perkins is out for Game 7, with the Lakers' Andrew Bynum hobbled at best. Boston will turn to either Rasheed Wallace or Glen "Big Baby" Davis to start in Perkins' place -- look for the experienced and battle-tested Wallace to get the nod -- while the Lakers will look to build momentum after the stellar performance of their bench in Game 6, which outscored their Celtics counterparts 25-13 and 24-0 through the first three quarters.

Perkins' absence underscores one significant factor -- rebounding. Throughout this series (and most NBA games in general), the team with the edge on the boards has won the game. As Pat Riley used to say, "No rebounds, no rings."

L.A. will also look for another strong offensive effort from Ron Artest, who scored 15 points in Game 6 after averaging 7.8 points in Games 1 through 5.

But if we've learned anything from this series, you can't build on momentum. In reality, it all comes down to who brings the best effort, works the hardest, is more efficient -- plainly, just plays better -- in Game 7.

"It's basketball," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who has won a record 10 NBA titles as a coach, but who has never coached in Game 7 of the Finals. "You may be moving at a faster rate, you may be playing at a quicker elevation, spirit, but if you're not going to be able to do the most basic things, if you come out of your skin, if you're out of character, things are going to happen awry. So you have to stay in character."

Said Celtics coach Doc Rivers, "Before the year, I'm sure if you had asked the Lakers, 'Would they take a Game 7 at home?' They would have taken a Game 7 anywhere for the championship. And we would have said 'yeah,' as well. We would have obviously loved it at home more, but we're not there.

"So we're both probably in a game that we'd like to be in. If you told the teams that that's where you had to be, I think we'd both take it."

This will be the fifth time the Lakers and Celtics will meet in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Boston has won the previous four times (including once on L.A.'s home floor in 1969). In all four cases, the game's high scorer wore Lakers' purple and gold.

The Celtics, don't forget, are 11-0 all-time in the Finals when they hold a 3-2 series lead. But the all-important home court is pivotal: In NBA history, the home team is 13-3 in Game 7 of the Finals.

ALL-TIME LAKERS-CELTICS GAME 7s
Year / Result / Venue / High scorer
1962 / Celtics 110, Lakers 107 (OT) / Boston Garden / Elgin Baylor, 41 pts.
1966 / Celtics 95, Lakers 93 / Boston Garden / Jerry West, 36 pts.
1969 / Celtics 108, Lakers 106 / The Forum / Jerry West, 42 pts.
1984 / Celtics 111, Lakers 102 / Boston Garden / Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 29 pts.

In the end, you can analyze all you want, but the bottom line is quite simple.

"This is why the 82 games in the regular season matter," Fisher said. "Now it's just about going out and playing the game."

C's the moment

For some unique perspective on the NBA Finals, we go to Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who doesn't want to play the role of Debbie Downer with his team one win away from the 18th championship, but has a message worth considering.

The TD Garden was still shaking from the cheers following Boston's 92-86 triumph over the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday night, which gave the Celtics the upper hand in the series as it shifts back to the Staples Center in La-La Land for Games 6 and 7 (if needed). Granted, the Celtics are 11-0 all-time in this very scenario -- holding a 3-2 lead in the NBA Finals. And in the previous 25 instances when the NBA Finals were tied 2-2, the team that won Game 5 went on to capture the series 19 times.

It was the last time the Game 5 winner DIDN'T go on to take the title that gives Rivers and the Celtics pause. In the 1994 NBA Finals, the Knicks held a 3-2 lead over the Rockets in the Finals, but Houston won Games 6 and 7 to win the championship. Rivers was a member of that Knicks team, but did not play in the Finals due to a knee injury.

"I thought about that the other day when John Starks called me and reminded me of that," Rivers said in the interview room Sunday night. "You know, that's a bitter memory, obviously, for me. I was injured, sitting on the bench, so it just felt like you couldn't help individually.

"As a team, we had a lot of great opportunities in that series, in Game 6 (when Starks scored 32 points in an 86-84 defeat) and Game 7 (when Starks went 2-for-18 from the field, 0-for-11 from 3-point range in a 90-84 loss), but it just didn't happen.

"For me, obviously, a learning experience, but I can't use that experience for the players on this team. Hell, half of them are too young to remember, and half of them probably don't care."

Still, Rivers' remembrances are worth noting, because the rest of this series -- however long it lasts -- will be played on the Lakers' home turf.

"We lost our wiggle room by losing (Game 3)," Rivers said. "The Lakers played well enough to have home-court advantage all year, and so it's to their advantage."

Said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, "It's basically home court, home court. Now we're going back to home court to win it. That's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it? Unfortunately, we couldn't get this win here but we got the one we needed to bring us back home."

LA may be on its heels a bit, down in the series, with center Andrew Bynum clearly not himself because of a knee injury and with Lamar Odom and Ron Artest MIA on the offensive end. But if you're looking for a chink in the Lakers' armor, don't expect to find any dents on Kobe Bryant, who scored 38 points Sunday, a season-high for him.

When asked how confident he was that his team could win Games 6 and 7 on its home floor, Bryant, with a wry smile, responded, "I'm not very confident at all," and managed to laugh.

"Just man up and play," Bryant said. "What the hell is the big deal? I don't see it as a big deal. If I have to say something to (his teammates), then we don't deserve to be champions. We're down 3-2, go home, win one game, go into the next one. Simple as that."

Perhaps not quite so simple, given the fact the Lakers are not firing on all cylinders and are at a disadvantage in the battle of the boards, particularly with Bynum ailing. The team that wins in the rebounding category has taken every game in this series, and there's no reason to think that won't change in LA on Tuesday.

With his team on the cusp of beating the Lakers for the 10th time in 12 NBA Finals meetings in their storied rivalry, Rivers is doing his best to keep his team in the moment.

"I think it would be special in any situation," Rivers said when asked about the prospects of closing out the Lakers in enemy territory, but I'm not even going to go there right now.

"We got off of that early on, looking at the big picture and all that stuff. That makes it fuzzy for us. I think our team has a very good ability to just focus on the next game. Through the playoffs that's been very good for us, and that's the way we have to stay."