Ever wanted to play at Madison Square Garden for the New York Knicks?Carmelo Anthony is inviting you to try it out.The ornery New York Knicks star is telling fans to try his shoes on for size in response to questions about the direction of the franchise.Carmelo, who is likely tired of all the losing in the Big Apple, responded to fans wanting more losing with this biting quip.

Is he saying he wants no part in tanking, and if that's the direction the organization goes, he doesn't want to play?

Or, is implying that fans who have this opinion know nothing about or can't play basketball, so them playing for the Knicks would help them lose?

OK, maybe it's not worth exploring exactly what he means and we should just take it as a frustrated Melo.

Ian Begley of ESPN reported that, during the team's 109-95 win over the Detroit Pistons, fans were yelling about how the Knicks were actually hurting themselves by winning.

You could make the case the fan was right.

The Knicks will not be in the playoffs for the fourth straight year, and will be shut out of the postseason for the 12th time in 16 years.

Since the Knicks actually have their first-round pick this year (and every year going forward), there's some incentive to lose and fall down (up?) the draft order.

Knicks fans know all about the draft lottery process, as the infamous 1985 lottery netted the team Patrick Ewing out of Georgetown. It was the first lottery process tried by the league.

For now, at 28-46, New York is in the sixth position in the draft, but are only one game up on falling two spots to the fourth position, with Philadelphia and Orlando right in front of them, or in their rearview mirror, or something.

It's a race to the bottom and the Knicks aren't doing themselves any favors in that regard by playing well and winning.

Melo is averaging 22.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists playing under first-year coach Jeff Hornacek.

Latvian second-year player Kristaps Porzingis is having a strong campaign, scoring 18.1 points and grabbing 7.3 rebounds per game, and is showing that maybe he should be the focal point of the New York offense going forward.

Team President Phil Jackson has a lot of decisions on his hands going forward, but at least now he has some assets on his hands to work with.

But he also has a cranky veteran superstar who is growing impatient.