Carmelo Anthony: Knicks don’t have loser’s mentality, we’re just used to losing

Carmelo Athony disagrees with Phil Jackson’s assessment of the mental state of the New York Knicks. Or does he?

On Monday, Jackson said he believes the 4-18 Knicks have a loser’s mentality. Anthony doesn’t think that’s the case.

“When it comes to having a losing mentality, what I take is when you lose games consistently the same way, you get accustomed to, it’s easy to get accustomed to trying not to lose rather than trying to win games,” Anthony said Tuesday, via Marc Berman of the New York Post. “That’s where we are as a team — worrying about not losing basketball games rather than figuring out how to win basketball games.”

Is it just me, or did Anthony say the exact same thing as Jackson without actually saying it? If a team thinks about not losing more than it thinks about actually winning, wouldn’t that be precisely what a loser’s mentality is?

Head coach Derek Fisher tried to dance around Jackson’s assessment.

“We’re allowing ourselves to be boxed in to what the team used to be,” Fisher said. “This is a new beginning of something new. We’re establishing a completely new way of playing basketball and building a new team in terms of how we want to be the New York Knicks. In terms of loser’s mentality, [it’s] carrying the old into the new instead of completely embracing the new.”

The Knicks have lost a ton of close games, but it’s hard to convince people you don’t think like losers when you have only won four games. The Knicks have already become a punchline — even for the NBA commissioner. Jackson is obviously trying to challenge the team. Time will tell if it makes a difference.