Getty Tyson Chandler #6 of the New York Knicks and Carmelo Anthony #7 react after a play against the Indiana Pacers during Game Five of the Eastern Conference Semifinals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden.
The New York Knicks haven’t won the NBA Championship since 1973 and haven’t played in the NBA Finals since 1999, but according to Knicks legend Carmelo Anthony, that’s not as important as winning gold medals for his country.
“When we talk about global sport, for me a medal means something totally different than an NBA championship,” Anthony told Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews. “They both have their own separate meanings, but winning a gold medal, it’s the passion, it’s the pride that you have, not just for a city or a state, for a whole nation, for a whole country you’re winning for.”
Do you agree with Carmelo Anthony’s position? 🤔
“It’s a different level of, I would say, pride that you have to have when you’re wearing USA across your chest, or you’re wearing Lithuania across your chest,” he said. “It’s a totally different feeling than Knicks, New York across your chest.”
Simple Psychology Says We Remember Our Success More Fondly
It’s a lot easier to say that winning gold medals is more important when you don’t have the Larry O’Brien Trophy to stack it against. In fact, it’s human nature.
The Decision Lab calls it rosy retrospection “The brain does not always have an accurate depiction of how things were in the past. This view can become distorted by relying on how we felt during a given time period. Additionally, we also tend to retain positive autobiographical memories over time while negative ones fade. This disproporation in memory retention can create a rosy view of the past.”
In layman’s terms, Anthony is using his success on the Olympic stage — and dealing with his failure to win an NBA Championship — by attaching a higher value to his positive results.
Which Should Be More Important?
While everybody’s motives are different, I think there’s some important context here. Is a gold medal with the dominant USA club equal to a gold medal for a huge underdog that has never won one? In Anthony’s case, winning the gold was certainly an easier task, as he alluded to in his BasketNews interview.
“It was less pressure, with FIBA, because I could just play a role, and I didn’t have to try to do something that I didn’t need to try to do out there on the court, because everybody brought what they did best to the table,” Anthony said.
“So it was a lot easier for me to play in FIBA internationally, because I could play off of those guys, and just shoot the ball, and rebound, and just have fun and enjoy it, as opposed to, I have to try and do every single thing when I’m playing for my club team, every single night — night in and night out — for eight months in the year. That can be tough.”
Easier, sure. More fun, yeah, I’d think playing with an otherworldly All-Star team where you’ve got no weaknesses and can call yourself the best in the world would be fun. But more important than bringing a championship to the great city of New York? I think you’d have to experience that high to make that claim.
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Knicks Legend Claims Gold Medals More Important Than NBA Championships