Journal Entry: Day 9

The past two days have been very busy for not just the major media sports outlets, but for an aspiring sports journalist such as myself. With the Carmelo Anthony trade, I spent hours yesterday morning and late into the night, as well as hours this morning, researching information on the deal and the players involved, as well as posting my own review of the deal. The end result was three posts having to do with the deal.

Now, it's official. Anthony is on his way to New York as we speak, according to multiple sources. While it's still unknown what uniform number he's going to wear (he wore no. 15 with Denver, but it's been retired twice by the Knicks) all indications are that Melo and Chauncey Billups will be available and in tomorrow night's starting lineup against the Milwaukee Bucks.

The past two days have been very big days for me as an aspiring writer. Mixing my own opinions with those of multiple media outlets has been a great learning experience. Emulating the styles of professional writers has opened my eyes. I love giving my own two cents on transactions, it's one of my favorite sports topics to handle. So while I wrote these past few posts due to the circumstances, expect to see a couple of Yankees posts in a few days, maybe as soon as next week. Obviously all the "Melo-drama" interfered with the progress of those articles, but I'm looking forward to them being up real soon.

What a day. Let's end it by passing around some quotes on the Melo deal.

Knicks' All-Star Amar'e Stoudemire:
- "Every team needs a 1, 1A punch, and so with the ways that we both can score .... we're very versatile, so it's hard to guard us."
- "It's what he wants. It's what I wanted, to come to New York and play on the big stage. He has the same type of swag. This is what he wants and he can handle it. We're going to do it together."

Nuggets' Head Coach George Karl:
- "I'm glad it's over. I'm glad it's an opportunity to reinvent. I think everybody handled it as classy as you could handle it. There's some sadness to it, there always will be."
- "I'm 100 percent behind the decision we made, even though it will be dangerous and there won't be the veteran point guard back there."
- "I think Chauncey will go down as one of the greatest winners. His record of seven or eight conference finals is, I mean, that's incredible. I think that's who he is, that's what he stands for. He brought one of them to us. Last year we had a miserable ending. I think there's many people, including myself, that will be sad for Chauncey. I know he loves Denver and we love him, but things happen. There's decisions that have to be made."
- "Felton, I thought was having a great season this year. But I think Ty [Lawson] and Felton are going to have a great challenge to live up to what Chauncey has given us in past years."
- "I can't deny that when the trade went down last night, I was kind of more sad than happy. I think most of that sadness was because of Chauncey -- and A.C. a little bit, too."

ESPN columnist Jemele Hill:
- "I'm not suggesting the Knicks don't need Anthony. Who can't use a 25-points-per-game scorer who can fill up the basket from any spot on the floor? But I question their strategy. I'm just not convinced this is the best way for the Knicks to make themselves championship contenders."

ESPN columnist Stephen A. Smith:
- "The Knicks are a better team today. A better attraction. They are officially on the basketball map again. No longer do they have to defer to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in Miami."
- "Despite higher taxes, cooler weather and no championship pedigree to speak of with roundball, Carmelo Anthony's arrival changes all of that."
- "It doesn't change it because it guarantees a title. It changes it because it puts the Knicks in the conversation of Eastern Conference contenders."
- "The Knicks are on the upswing. Madison Avenue will be calling once again. You can talk about crawling before walking, but this is a little bit more than that. It's officially the best chance the Knicks have had to compete for something significant since the days when Latrell Sprewell and crew went to the Finals in 1999, back in the Patrick Ewing era."

Knicks' President & GM Donnie Walsh:
- “At 26 years old, Carmelo is in the prime of his NBA career having already established himself as a one of the game’s elite players and the opportunity to add him to our roster was one we could not pass up."
- “I feel we now have a great frontcourt tandem in Amar’e and Carmelo and this is an exciting day for the New York Knicks and all our fans. It is extremely difficult to trade away players, but we feel like the team is in better position to win and we have excellent players to build around for years to come.”

Knicks' Head Coach Mike D'Antoni:
- “Carmelo is one of the top pure scorers in the league and like Amar’e, I believe he will really embrace the opportunity to play back home in New York and help us continue our goal of building towards a championship."
- “Chauncey is a winner and having a veteran point guard of his caliber will be extremely valuable in helping us win games, especially in the playoffs.”