The “hits” just keep on coming for the Oklahoma City Thunder and their starting forward Carmelo Anthony.
Coming off a very disappointing showing during their first-round series with the Utah Jazz — highlighted by a woeful 11.8 points in 32.3 minutes on 37.5 and 21.4 percent shooting from the field and behind the arc – there was apparently more bad news behind the scenes.
According to ESPN's Royce Young, Melo showed up to Game 5 early… but left.
All things considered, you would expect Anthony to at least be a little humble and willing to try new things for the team moving forward since it is a virtual certainty that he would be opting into the final year of his $27.9-million contract. But the ten-time NBA All-Star quickly doused any suggestion of him coming off the bench, which complicates matters for the team that already has star forward Paul George's free agency high up on their to-do list.
Among the many issues they ended up with — fit, focus, consistency — some rested simply in hubris. They lived in denial all season, right up to the bitter end. After getting whacked in Game 4, it was explained away with their missing shots and the Jazz getting hot. Before Game 5, Anthony forgot what time the game started, showing up to the arena as if it tipped at 7 p.m. local time, rather than the scheduled 8:30 start. He walked down the hallway to the Thunder’s locker room, nonchalantly looking around and seeing no one, before realizing he was there way too early. He got in his car and left. They told themselves from Day 1 that they were a superteam, but they existed as such only on paper.