http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2pj9BFSyok

You know what’s cooler than making a game-winning jumpshot? A billion dollars. But something else that’s almost as cool as that is telling your teammates that you’re going to make a game-winner before doing just that. From the AP:

“I knew it was in,” he added. “Some of them, I’m kind of skeptical about. As soon as I released it, you just get that feeling. I came to the bench and told Jared (Jeffries), ‘If we get a stop, we’re going to go home happy.”’

Because Carmelo doesn’t explain exactly when he said this, I guess you can read it as him telling Jared Jeffries that they needed to get a stop after he’d already made his jumper. But that’s a pretty no doy thing to say in that situation. Of course the Knicks would go home happy if they got a stop, considering they were already winning. That’d be like Carmelo Anthony telling Jared Jeffries at the beginning of the game that if the Knicks scored more points than the Pacers, they’d get a win.

That’s why I’m willing to bet that Carmelo told Jeffries this little nugget before the Pacers’ second-to-last offensive possession, when the Knicks did get a stop, giving Carmelo a chance to win the game for New York. It makes the most sense and why would Carmelo be bragging about offering the most self-evident piece of late-game strategy that could possible exist?

Plus, it’s a way better story that way. Telling your teammate you’re going to win a game, then going out and doing it is pretty cool. It’s no billion dollars, but still