Former player Carmelo Anthony was on the “The Why with Dwyane Wade,” which is a co-production of iHeartPodcasts and Wade’s 59th & Prairie Entertainment, and talked about Phil Jackson and the falling out they had with the New York Knicks. While Anthony is a legend to the Knicks organization, the way the tenure ended was dodgy as he would finish his stint on the bench where the retired player would say that to this day, he does not “know what the explanation is.”
“It took me back to [being] a kid. It took me back to shit always being taken away from you,” Anthony said. “I did work this hard to get to this point and it’s just that easy you can just take it away from me with no explanation…to this day, I don’t know what the explanation is. I can laugh about it now but at that point in time, that shit was difficult to deal with because you [are] coming from All-Star…to, I can’t make a nine-man roster?”
How Jackson “pushed out” Anthony from Knicks
Wade would try to further understand the situation between Anthony and the New York Knicks organization, but the only information he would indulge since he questions it himself was that he was “pushed out” by Jackson which was a struggle. The legendary head coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers won 11 total NBA championships, but was with the Knicks as their President from 2014-2017.
“Bro, I don’t understand this s***, to this day I really don’t understand it,” Anthony said to Wade. “There’s no explanation. Listen, I’m gonna try to give you this in a quick summary. When I left New York, I didn’t leave New York. I got pushed out of New York, Phil [Jackson] pushed me out of New York. I struggled to leave New York.”
Anthony appreciated how Thunder treated him after
On September of 2017, Anthony would be traded from the Knicks to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott, and a 2018 second-round pick that would eventually be Mitchell Robinson. Anthony would tell Wade that he appreciated the way Oklahoma City treated him, especially general manager of the Thunder in Sam Presti.
“OKC, and I’ll support Sam Presti to this day in whatever he want to do. He came in the 25th hour, ‘Melo, we’re taking you, we believe in you, you are the piece that we need in OKC,” Anthony said. “I never thought we would be in this situation to be able to have somebody like you.’ …I’m like oh this is perfect…I could just play ball, I got Russ[ell Westbrook], I got PG [Paul George], I’m cool…It was slowly like pulling back on Melo…but then you ain’t incorporated into the offense, you ain’t part of the system, I’m asking what’s going on…At this point, I was willing to change my game, I knew PG, Russ, I’m going there to figure this out with all three of us.”
Anthony talked about the Knicks organization back in 2018
It was known at the time that the Knicks and Anthony had a rocky road finish, but it wasn't the only instance reportedly. Even Anthony himself said in 2018 via an ESPN interview with Ian Begley that it was “not basketball but the organization” that scared people away from the team getting big free agents at the time.
“I think just the business. Everything that was going on. The perception of New York Knicks … not basketball but the organization,” Anthony said. “I think it probably scared a lot of people away. Scared some people away. Not knowing the nuances and the ins and outs of kind of what was going on, who is in charge, who is not. So it was more than just basketball when it came to people making those decisions.”
Anthony would only be a part of the Thunder organization for one season and would bounce around to three other teams in the Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, and finally the Los Angeles Lakers. However, it would seem as if the fractured relationship between the former star player and the Knicks is repaired for the most part as he has been seen attending games at Madison Square Garden.
In his seven seasons with New York, Anthony averaged 24.7 points, seven rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. The Knicks also won one playoff series in that whole span, which could be seen as a disappointment.
Since then though, New York has been exceptional in the present time as this season, they are 33-22 which puts them fourth in the Eastern Conference. They are currently in the All-Star break as their next game will be next Thursday, Feb. 22 against the Philadelphia 76ers.
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