For the better part of five years, blame for the state of the New York Knicks could be doled out equally, and haphazardly, between Carmelo Anthony and the franchise itself.
Those days are now over—unequivocally and irreversibly.
Games that should mean something, like New York's Wednesday night matchup against the Chicago Bulls, mean nothing. The Knicks remain in lurch—bad enough to miss the playoffs, not young enough to truly start over.
And as they continue to slip further away from the ultimate goal of sustained NBA relevance, the ending to this marriage with Anthony, whatever it amounts to, is now entirely their load to bear.