BASKETBALL

In the NBA, with Carmelo in New York, everyone was excited about his debut.  Madison Square Garden went dark as they announced the arrival of their hometown boy Carmelo Anthony. The crowd erupted.  This past summer, they wanted LeBron.  They didn’t get him, but did get Amar’e Stoudemire, a fantastic draft pick in Landry Fields, former All-Star Chauncey Billups, and now Carmelo.  So… would they win their debut?  Well, the Knicks didn’t exactly play perfect basketball, but they did come out fierce.  Carmelo had 27 points in his home court debut against the Bucks.  Amare put up 19 and Billups scored 21 of his own.  This new trio looks like they could be dangerous — and Fields is playing great to boot.  There’s word that the Knicks are now looking to pick up a center before the trade deadline.  NY Knicks 114, Milwaukee 108.

It looks like the Carmelo situation is going to work out in New York, but, in an incredible move, the New Jersey Nets stole the Thunder of the New York area debut.  In astonishing fashion, meaning absolutely nobody saw it coming (that includes no media links, no Twitter posts, etc…) the Nets pulled off their own blockbuster trade.  They acquired superstar point-guard Deron Williams from the Utah Jazz.  Most likely, Williams wanted out of Utah before the potential lock-out this coming year.  Plus, this puts him in a big market city and his presence could attract other top talent to the franchise.  Basically, the Nets had to make a move as they lost on every other big name free agent.  Still, this move comes as a huge surprise, and definitely marks the rebuilding of the Utah Jazz organization.

A few other trades:   The Atlanta Hawks felt they needed a change at point-guard.  They sent Mike Bibby, and a few other players to the Wizards for Kirk Heinrich (whom the Wizards acquired from Chicago when they were making room for LeBron).  The Golden State Warriors obtained Troy Murphy from the Nets (and his valuable expiring contract) and shipped off Brendan Wright (who was supposed to have massive potential coming out of the draft a few years ago.  And he still might).  Finally, the Sacramento Kings sent Carl Landry to the New Orleans Hornets in exchange for scoring point-guard Marcus Thornton.  Landry will help out the Hornets defensively if they make the playoffs, and Thornton gives the Kings another scorer.  And you can most likely expect some serious trades today.