Carmelo Anthony wants to have a say in who the next coach of the New York Knicks is.
Anthony, the Knicks’ star forward, said he hasn’t had any conversations with Phil Jackson or Knicks brass about a full-time coach, but he’d like to.
“I think you have to,” Anthony said Wednesday, via Ian Begley of ESPN. “I think you have to have some type of input, whether it’s input or dialogue, whatever word that you want to use. I think you have to have that. I think at this point it needs to be some type of connection, some type of communication. Especially if we want to right this ship, there definitely needs to be some type of communication.”
Anthony did say that he has a good relationship with current interim coach Kurt Rambis.
“I like Kurt,” Anthony said. “I thought he was kind of thrown into a tough situation with the firing of [Derek Fisher] and kind of gathering the troops, getting guys to play and finish the season up. As far as what’s going to happen this summer, this offseason and next year, who’s going to be in that spot, I have no idea. I haven’t had any conversations with anybody about that. I’m pretty sure they’ll address that when the offseason comes.
“I would love to have some type of input when it comes to that. But like I said, nobody has had a conversation about that yet.”
Anthony definitely sounds like he wants a say in the future of the Knicks. He’s ready to play free agent recruiter, and now he’d like a say in the next coach. The bad news for Anthony is that it sounds like Jackson already has his mind made up in that department.
