Carmelo Anthony has maintained all season long that he enjoys playing in New York and wants to remain with the Knicks, and he is not changing that stance heading into the offseason. That is, of course, if the front office does everything it can to assemble a contender.
After he played 23 minutes in New York’s season-ending win over the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday night, Anthony told reporters he would “love” to return to the Knicks next season with one crucial caveat.
“If everybody’s committed to [winning], I’m committed to that too,” he said, via Ian Begley of ESPN.com. “I want to win, and hopefully everybody else has that same type of mindset.”
It appeared the Knicks were committed to winning last offseason when they added Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, but we all saw how those moves worked out. New York has now missed the playoffs in four straight seasons and all three since Phil Jackson took over the basketball operations department. While Anthony has said all the right things about wanting to remain with the Knicks, he knows he may have already played his final game with the franchise.
One reporter asked Anthony if he believes the Knicks will trade him this offseason.
“They might. They might,” he said. “To be honest with you, I don’t know. I’ll know more in the upcoming weeks or so. I’m pretty sure the organization has an idea, a thought of what they want to do, how they want to do it. But at this point, it’s all on me.”
Many believe the relationship between Anthony and Jackson is strained beyond repair, and Carmelo didn’t exactly say anything that would indicate otherwise.
“If somebody was talking bad about you indirectly at your job, what would you do? You would feel a certain way,” he said of being openly criticized by Jackson. “You would want that person to come straightforward with you. And I feel the same way. I’m always open. I’m a very honest person. I know the business and I know the game and I know how it works. So if it’s something that you want to get across, a message that you want to get across, I’ve always been open.”
Some news we heard on Thursday indicates Jackson is not going anywhere, which makes an Anthony trade seem even more likely. You have to admire Carmelo’s loyalty to New York, but he needs to head elsewhere if he wants to win a championship before his career is over.
