After the Lin-Sanity Fades; Knicks Coach Mike D'Antoni Resigns

Let the blame game commence. Mike D'Antoni, the coach for the New York Knicks has resigned in a mutual agreement with the Knicks organization. The team is coming off a 2-8 stretch following the return of Carmelo Anthony after the All-Star break. That follows a striking run when Jeremy Lin ascended as an everyday starter in Anthony's absence.

The Knicks have not replied to requests for confirmation yet. The news comes just hours after D’Antoni spoke at the morning shoot around and said that he had spoken with frustrated star Carmelo Anthony before the workout.

Asked if he believed he had the support of the players, D’Antoni said he was confident.

“I am,” he said. “But you have to ask them that. I’m confident. I think they’re great and have been great and we’ll battle through this.

Anthony insisted that he was in the coach’s corner, contrary to whispers from the locker room.

“I support Mike 100 percent,” Anthony said. “Regardless of what is going on as far as us losing basketball games we all need each other right now and this is the best time to come together and stick with one another because There’s a lot of things being said out there about Mike, about myself and it’s just a bunch of nonsense right now. So we’ve got to stick together. We’re not going to do it without one another.

D'Antoni hasn't been able to get the team to play on the same page, and that has as much to do with the flawed nature of the team as it does his coaching abilities. Anthony can't seem to gel with Lin and the offense comes to a standstill when it flows through Anthony. That's the exact opposite of what was happening when Lin was directing traffic on the floor.

The assistant coach will take over in the interim. The team needs to do more than replace the coach; it needs to deal with the fact that the offense is a muddled mess when Anthony is on the floor.