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ESPN NBA analyst and former New York Knick Mark Jackson had nothing but praise for Carmelo Anthony after his departure from the franchise.
The 14-year veteran spent six-and-a-half seasons with the team before choosing to part ways, first opening up a trade possibility to his desired destination, the Houston Rockets, and ultimately to additional teams, eventually landing with the Oklahoma City Thunder two days before the start of Media Day.
“Well, they're going to miss Carmelo Anthony,” Jackson said on a conference call, according to ESPN's Ian Begley. “It reminds me to a lesser degree obviously, in my opinion the greatest Knick of all-time was Patrick Ewing. You appreciated him more as a fan and a New Yorker after he left.”
“Certainly they understood his greatness and they appreciated him, but not the same way until he was no longer in a Knick uniform, and I think the way that Carmelo Anthony has handled himself last year and during his stint with the New York Knicks, he's been the ultimate pro through adversity, he continued to show up and do what he does best, which is score the basketball and try to put that team in position to win. So they're going to miss him.”
Jackson noted the franchise also had its reasons for making this transition and will now have to tread through the season without a perennial 20-plus-point scorer in their everyday lineup.
“That being said, like (fellow ESPN NBA analyst) Jeff (Van Gundy) said, they've declared their stance. They are in a rebuilding mode,” said Jackson. “I think what you look at as a fan or somebody within the organization or around the league is to what level do they compete. We understand that they're going to be outmatched at times, but you can win games in this league by playing hard, by defending and competing, and that will be the thing that I'll be looking at to see just how good they can potentially be.”
The Knicks will need a lot of fight and guts to even match last season's win total. Head coach Jeff Hornacek has yet to figure out the rotation at the point guard position or a starting center for the team, with four candidates competing for the spot coming into the regular season.
