The sad thing is, people pay to see the big named superstars play in modern times. It's not if Melo wins but more about how much he scores is what most people like to see. You can't put a pointguard such as Jeremy Lin on a team with a Shooting Guard that always has the ball(Melo) and expect a good outcome. D'Antoni saw that and thought it'd be best to leave. If it was me, i'm not sure i'd want to throw melo away either, he brings quite a bit of attention to MSG which obviously brings in more fans.