Billups summarizes playing with Melo: “He was the most talented dude I ever played with…it was literally perfect. And he listened, Melo never missed a practice, he practiced hard, he came to work everyday. It was beautiful.”
how is this dude still not in prison?
This completely random reaction got me lmao
I mean it’s not random haha. It’s about the dude talking in the video.
By snitching on someone more important.
This clip is from September 2022
Lmao
Money
Helped him dodge the rape way been when too.
because he paid his bail and is waiting for his court date
I loved watching him at Detroit, one of my favorite PGs. None of the gambling bothers me, you should be allowed to lose your money. But I agree, why is he not in prison yet?
The allegations are he was used to bring in others to get scammed by the mob.
So he did a little trolling, what’s the big deal
It’s his hobby, I’m not gonna belittle it
“He even told me when he was and wasn’t going to play before the injury reports were released!”
PR matters a lot. Melo vs T Mac is a great example of that
Melo made it to the WCF and only lost to the bean. Flaws aside. Tmac has never done that.
T-Mac made it to the Finals, losing to peak Heatles. 😏
Eh? If anything Tmac’s reputation is inflated a lot for someone who never got past the first round in any meaningful way.
That’s my point. T Mac has very good PR, Melo has very bad PR.
Got you
TMac has a more family friendly personality. That matters on TV.
He had plenty of bad PR when he was playing though. He was called a choker and people thought he was faking his injuries.
If Melo didn’t have an insatiable need to be known as a superstar, he would have likely been referred to as one.
Nobody likes a guy who needs you to know his accomplishments.
It’s not that simple. Have you heard T Mac talk about himself?
Not really. But T Mac also retired before he declined so you get to fill in the blanks about what could have been.
He didn’t retire before he declined, did you see him on the Spurs?
We act like there’s some magical hypothetical world where t Mac is a winner and there just isn’t one
Or on the knicks for that matter
T-Mac’s peak is 20 years ago, what PR does he have?
Pers Round
team success is a team thing, T-mac is a better and more complete player, and easier to build around
I know there’s context to this, but it’s funny to make that argument considering he never got out of the first round as the guy on his team
His teams have comically bad all time injury luck.
That’s the case with Melo in NY, but people act like the Knicks trading Gallinari in 2011 is why Phil Jackson couldn’t put together a playoff team for 4 years.
Phil Jackson only joined the Knicks in 2014?
That’s exactly my point. Whenever its brought up that Melo didn’t have strong teams in NY, people will bring up the Knicks trading for him in 2011 and sending off Gallinari/Chandler/Felton/Mozgov as the reason he couldn’t have a strong team.
That’s not wrong though the team would’ve been better if Melo had waited for free agency in 2012. Their 2012 roster lacked depth definitely could’ve used those players coming off the bench especially Gallinari. They also traded a 2014 first and a 2016 pick swap that became Jamal Murray.
if you watch them both played it’s not funny at all
When it comes to absolute peak. Yeah i’d take tmac over melo. But availability is the best ability. Melo was pretty healthy for most of his career. But for tmac one of the main reasons he never won a single playoff round was because either he or yao ming or grant hill were injured. Tmac was mostly healthy from like 21 till 26. After that he was riddled with injuries.
Melo being a national champ and Olympic all timer also helps. T-Mac’s peak was unbelievable but his lack of playoff success really hurts him. Not like Melo was great in playoffs or anything but given that other stuff on top of still being a much better playoff performer than T Mac kinda makes it a no brainer imo
Melo at Syracuse was my favorite college hoops moment of my life
He got away with superstar calls in the final four
You need to go check tmacs playoff numbers. His game went up with the competition. His team was also never the favored to win a series.
Man, prime Melo was different. One of the smoothest scorers ever.
He had one clean jump shot. Whenever I think of him on the court, I always imagine him jabstepping near the elbow in a triple threat.
thanks magic
Chauncey also said Melo cared more about scoring 30 than winning
He got that from MJ. MJ told him to split his points up throughout the game. But if Melo didn’t score at a high clip, they wouldn’t win.
Multiple things can be true at the same time.
He showed up to every practice and always worked hard… to ensure he could drop his individual 30 in a game. 🤭
Hall of fame scorer hold themselves to high standards behind the scenes what a shocker. If it was about a well liked player being frustrated he didn’t play well despite winning it’d be spun as mamba mentality or having a killer instinct or some other positive trait.
Melo will be an underappreciated player from his era. One of my favorite players of all time to watch in his prime, he was so smooth and played harder than he ever got credit for.
He’s this eras Dominique Wilkins
Took the words outta my mouth
If I remember right, Melo’s teams never actually lost a series they were supposed to win. The only one I can think of was with the Nuggets I think they lost to you guys actually. Every other series it was Duncan’s Spurs, Kobe’s Lakers, Celtics Big three, Miami Big three, etc. Then the Pacers semi’s in 2013 he had a torn muscle in his shoulder and the Knicks had injuries and still went 6.
He was a guy that was going to get you to the playoffs every year and his team was the line of championship viability. If you were better than Melo’s teams than you were a championship contender, if not then you weren’t. Whether that’s a Melo thing or the teams he played for, that’s just how it was imo. All time great offensive player, above average rebounder for his position, capable defender when he was called on to defend, and was able to change his game late to fit into the new era off the bench after being blackballed so he was not as selfish as people like to portray.
Melo did a podcast with JJ Redick years ago and Jj highlighted the scenario of the situation. Can you imagine you are a superstar high player, then college player, then an nba player. You’ve been this way for basically 20 years then they ask you to be a role player. You have to mentally adjust and he wasn’t given time to adjust coupled with the fact that the game shifted away from iso ball to whatever it is now. You could tell JJ was relating it to his situation at Duke being the guy to a role player in the league.
Respectfully, I disagree. Melo was an outlier talent. Amazing skill at his size. Supremely talented scorer and solid rebounder as well. But… I think he gets plenty of love despite being a pretty selfish player. I remember when JR had some of his craziest highlight dunks and the nuggets bench went crazy but u look over and melo just has a straight face. When jeremy lin was doing his thing when melo was injured he seemed like the least supportive/enthusiastic teammate on the bench watching. I watched almost every knicks game during his first few seasons and watching that man, at least 5 times per game, jab step over and over while being doubled - all to eventually brick a shot instead of passing out of the double…. it was infuriating. It was very clear we would never win with him. He played with great players and solid teams and made the conference finals once. he wasn’t a winner but he was first ballot, ppl in nyc (i live here) still love him, etc. I think he is 1000% appreciated the amount he should be - if not more.
Melo played less hard than he gets credit for tbh
After the Lin Melo thing yesterday, the timing of this post is suspicious.
That Says a lot honestly when Billups is saying that
The guy who is in bed with the mafia to run an underground poker joint?
Adding the word literally to “perfect” chances nothing. People just say literally because they think everyone has to say it.
Finally. Reddit is showing Melo love. Can’t believe it
He is still around?!
The rest of his statement was that Melo would’ve rather scored 30 and lost than scored 20 and win and that was the issue.
If yall ass didn’t draft Darko maybe Melo had a ring now
Sure Chauncey, but we are not talking about the poker game.
Does this have literally anything to do with Billups’ playing career? Billups was an awesome player and was a leader on some of the best teams of his era, I would think that his opinion on his teammates should carry weight.
I’m not saying he’s a good person or that what he did as a coach wasn’t wrong, but I don’t understand how repeating the same half assed joke about poker and gambling is relevant at all to this topic.
think about the upvotes tho bro!!!!
You’re right, very important!
He also said scoring 30 meant too much to Melo